tc 30 with broken clutch housing and block

[greystone]

2nd post same subject

 

[greystone]

ok heres the last page. as you can see its done and back together

I want to thank my friends John and Logan for helping me last weekend
I also want to thank Max at blue mountian steel for the welding
I also want to thank the guys at Rener Equiptment for parts and support
I also want to thank dave and all the folks on this forum for support, encouragment, and advise.
I also want to say some discourageing words to new holland but for now this will have to do thanks for nothing

This project was not as bad a it could have been. I spent 1300$ for this project, and yes some of that was beer.
John offered the use of his shop otherwise I would have been in the dirt doing this. We figured that it was about 30 hours and 8 gallons of hyd fluid.
one tube of silicon and one tube of lock tight.

I did find that there are more bolts holding the steps on the tractor than actually hold the block to the clutch housing.:confused2:

once again thanks all and if you have any questions or suggestions i look forward to hearing all

Thanks mike

 

[dqdave1]

I am glad to see you were able to get it apart and back together with your friends help. By chance, when you had it apart and during reassembly, did you see any way to beef up the setup?

I am curious also in the welding of the block. I never had any luck with welding cast iron.

Thanks for the pictures and progress reports.

 

[Eagleview]

The pieces that have broken off are totally unsupported , not even a gusset cast to support the flange . The stress put on the edges where the flange changes direction would be enormous . That flat section of flange would flex in and out until it failed and cast iron does no like to flex .

 

[dave1949]

Thanks for the pics Greystone. Put on Emilou Harris singing 'Together Again' and have a cold one

I thought I read of a newish John Deere model that uses a frame (instead of using the engine&powertrain for a frame). I can't seem to locate the model. The claim was you can replace the clutch without splitting the tractor. Anybody familiar with this Deere?
Dave.

 

[dqdave1]

Does anyone here know where OP can send the old bellhousing to be anilized as to if it is properly made to handle loads being put on it; thus some data from an independent source that CNH may have to deal with.

 

[greystone]

Interesting thoughts.....yea that clutch housing is thin i havent measured it yet but its about 5/16 thick. and i was thinking about sending it out for anyalisis. we are also looking at engineering a better way for the sub frame to transfer stress. an external brace on the left side would work but the right side has the hydrolics on it and so not much room

great posts guys. mike

 

[sweep]

Mike
Glad you have your tractor back together.

Try not to take this wrong. I have a hard time with words sometimes. I have several suggestions regarding the welded repair on the block that may help other people with the same problem.

It appears the old paint was not removed around the cracked area before welding. This can lead to contamination and therefore a possible weak weld joint. A clean surface is very important for a proper weld on any metal but especially critical with cast iron due to the porosity of the metal.

Also the crack should have been beveled or opened up slightly to obtain proper weld penetration. If not beveled the weld strength will only go approx 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the block.

If both of these things were done then I apologize in advance as it sometimes hard to tell by the photos.

 

[greystone]

ok so im not a photog. yes we did bevel the crack on both sides and were supprised when the welding went so smothly especially on cast. the weld on the inside actually came out smother. we tried not to over heat the area because on the end of the block where the crank comes out is large rubber seal we did not want to relplace if we could help it. at best guess the thickness of the metal in that area on the flat spots is mabey 3/8.
for now i just taking it easy and watching everything.
i had one person suggest that after we fixed it i might want to sell it and get a new one so that i wouldnt be worried about breaking it all the time. he might be right.
mike

 

[sweep]

Mike
A car friend of mine works for a HPerf engine rebuilding company and I described the location of the crack to him. They repair lot's of cracks in engines due to freezing or even replace a section of a block if a rod goes out the side of an rare engine but the crack in your block was due to stress which is a different animal altogether.

He thinks the weld joint is eventually going to fail if you use the loader again on normal situations because the rewelded cast iron weld joint , unlike a welded steel joint, never has the same strength properties as original.

He recomends getting some small square cast iron "gussets" to weld overtop the joint to help hold both sides together and reinforce the repair if you decide to keep the tractor.

Another idea is to keep your loader and sell the tractor to someone who just wants a utility tractor to bruch hog etc and buy another TC30??