Cracked housing

Whatswrong · Oct 2, 2014

I need some guidance please .My son has a Oliver 550 utility tractor .The housing cracked where the pinion shaft goes through the bearing to transmission .It broke out two small wedges where the bolt galley /bearing housing cover attaches to the main housing .
This will be a difficult position to get at ,I can use an old Lincoln buzzbox or a pto driven dc welder .My only experience would be with 7018 and low heat ,I hate both ,any suggestions will be appreciated .
We contemplated using longer bolts and JB weld as a choice .
Thanks for now.

Soundguy · Oct 2, 2014

jb weld? seriously?

find a rod suitable for cast iron and use whatever it wants ( ac/dc ).

you will have a problem with oil contaminated metal.. some clean then torch it.

you may have a problem with cooling and cracking.

all depends onthe metal makup, skill nad luck, plus how bad the damage is.

Stimw · Oct 2, 2014

Need to figure out if it is cast iron or cast steel.

ThomasH · Oct 2, 2014

Whatswrong said:
I need some guidance please .My son has a Oliver 550 utility tractor .The housing cracked where the pinion shaft goes through the bearing to transmission .It broke out two small wedges where the bolt galley /bearing housing cover attaches to the main housing .
This will be a difficult position to get at ,I can use an old Lincoln buzzbox or a pto driven dc welder .My only experience would be with 7018 and low heat ,I hate both ,any suggestions will be appreciated .
We contemplated using longer bolts and JB weld as a choice .
Thanks for now.

I would be thinking along the lines of brazing the repair. It will mean removing any seals or bearings in the immediate area, cleaning it as best as you can, plenty of heat to cook out soaked in oil contaminates, sanding the area and peices lightly to get to clean metal as much as you can, fluxing, holding the pieces in place, brazing them, and *slowly* letting it cool.

It may be best, if you aren't familiar with this kind of repair, to take the tractor to a repair shop that does cast iron repair.

Soundguy · Oct 2, 2014

Stimw said:
Need to figure out if it is cast iron or cast steel.

Bet on a diffy bearing carrier area in the center housing being ci.

There are plenty of old tractor parts that are indeed vs, but that's an unlikely candidate.

Arc weld · Oct 2, 2014

Brazing is a good choice BUT you'd pretty much have to take it completely apart because you'd need to heat it to about 1200 deg's. Eutectic and I'm sure others have rods for cast iron that use what they call a cold welding process where you weld just a bit at a time, peen a little and then weld a bit more after it cools. That said, I don't think it's a repair for a beginner and is worth having someone with cast iron experience repair. The last thing you want is to have break it again even worse and be a bigger job to fix the second time.

yomax4 · Oct 3, 2014

Harris Welco used to have a rod called 14FC. It was a Nickel,Silver,Bronze. This stuff flowed like honey and you could braze cast iron overhead. very cool stuff. For what you are doing there is no combustion pressure or extreme heat so regular low fuming bronze ( brazing Rod ) would be inexpensive. There are other things out there like Crack Sealer. It's a crayon looking thing that was designed to seal cracks in cast after they were welded. Heat a little, rub it into the crack and it seals. Not sure what the vibration would to it.. If torch work is ok, I would spray powder it. Or Kastweld 111 with flux. Lastly, there are a bunch of products that are a step or 2 up from JB Weld. Still epoxy based but newer technology. 3M has several advanced ones. Good Luck..

Soundguy · Oct 3, 2014

i'd never trust it in a million years glued together...

Sodo · Oct 3, 2014

JBweld could hold oil in, but if its force that broke it, and that same force will occur again, then it's is going to break the JBweld. What do you think caused the crack?

A pic would help.

Whatswrong · Oct 4, 2014

Sodo said:
JBweld could hold oil in, but if its force that broke it, and that same force will occur again, then it's is going to break the JBweld. What do you think caused the crack?

A pic would help.

Hard to get a picture that will show much .
I BELIEVE he was stuck in a snow bank with a rotary plow for weight on the back ,tire chains for more traction and about 300lbs of shot on the front for weight so in the process of rocking to get unstuck he exceeded some torque limits.