I am in the middle of tearing apart the rear axle on my 1914 T. The right side backing plate has about a 1/4" missing from the very bottom. It looks as if maybe the rear wheel broke off at some point in it's history and the car came to a grinding halt on the backing plate, removing the 1/4" of metal. When I bought the car, it came with an extra right housing half which seems to be very solid - apparently the former owner had planned on replacing the damaged housing. I'm probably right in assuming that it wouldn't be good to run the car on such a damaged housing - I'm thinking it would allow dirt/water/debris inside the wheel area. The original housing, although damaged and full of brazing around the rivets, is still pretty solid and I hate throwing anything out - is it worth salvaging to someone?
Yes. If only 1/4" is missing, it could be fixed. I think a 1914 housing would be scarce enough to merit the effort.
I've seen a number of axle housings ground off that way. I figured it was a perceived fix allowing grease to escape from the brake drum area.
Considering the amount of gap between the brake drum and backing plate on many T's I don't think I would worry about a little extra drainage at the bottom.
Hmmmmmm, maybe I'll grind off the brazing/rivet heads on this one and reuse it and sell the other one. I already ground the brazing/rivet heads off the left half and am going to send it to the sandman for blasting. This was I'll still be using the original housings. I was just concerned about the damaged backing plate letting it too much dirt/water but if it's no big deal, I think I'll work on it a bit and use it.
A little build-up with a wire welder and a bit of grinding and you'd never know it had been worn down. 1/4 inch buildup would only take a few minutes. JMHO. Dave
Being that brake backing plates in general are neither water nor dust tight, I guess they mostly serve to keep rocks and small pets out of the brake workings.
I agree with David that building up the road rash area with weldment is the most logical repair method, and plan to repair a '15 housing I have in that manner sometime soon - mostly just for aesthetic reasons.