Welding a cracked cast housing

[Soundguy]

Welding cast steel is no big deal.. cast iron is the bugger.

On our old ford N's there is alot of both... and the cast iron usually gets brazed.. while the steel is getting welded with good results even on high stress items.. like the upper 3pt lift arms... Brass is devcently strong. the steering shaft on my tractor broke, and when I tore the steering box down, I found that the shaft had been broked years ( decades? ) before and the steel pipe was brazed together.. and held for years... no 'v' cut or anything.. pipe to pipe, and lotsa brass..

Soundguy

 

[JimR]

I welded the rear housing on my old Ford 8N that I used to own. The housing cracked right across the middle of the bottom where the backhoe plate was connected. Here is what I did to fix it. I took a die grinder and "V" eed out both sides of the crack after removing the axles housings and guts of the rear end. I made a setup to hold my cutting torch to heat up the housing. I used my mig welder and nickel rod to weld up the crack on both sides. After the crack was welded. I welded up the belly section on the inside with another 5 pounds of nickel rod to add strength to the cracked area. I gradually turned down the heat on my torch and filed the rear end with fine sand. As it got cooler I put a large old blanket into the rear end and under it to keep the heat in. I put the backoe back on and used that machine for another ten years around the house before I sold it. It never leaked or cracked again.

 

[SPIKER]

Jim said it right pre-heating cast IRON and letting it cool SLOWLY is the key to gettin gi welded or brazed so it holds, if it had ton;s of bright sparks then it probably aws closer to cast steel and much more weldable. use NI rid and AC or DC NEG on the electrode. pre heat the part for a while not just the weld but around it. and procede as jim stated..

adding a strap with bolt hole above the cracked area and bolting through strap and onto the GB is good idea too.
Mark m

Mark M

 

[stephan]

Thanks guys I will have a go at welding it. When you say heat it how much heat? Would a butane flame be enough?

 

[JimR]

I heated the housing till it was a mild red then welded it. Yours should be much easier to weld than mine was. I would look into borrwing or renting a set of torches. A plumbers torch may do the trick for you also. They put out quite a bit of heat.

 

[SPIKER]

we use one of the propane torches, (not a plumbers soldering type but the big brush burning type with a BLAST handle) these are run from a 20 lb gas grill type tank. Harbor freight has them as does TSC and Lowes just about every where has them... cherry red is not needed. about 400~500 is plenty anymore and you will risk doing too much damage to internal parts. (but in reality it should be dissassembled for welding and cleaning but this is rarely the case..)

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bgott]

Try this, less of a chance of a mess up.

http://www.locknstitch.com/