MTFCA Forum

Ideas on fixing this crack in a rear end housing?? I am thinking about lock n stitch maybe.
Yes I know housings are like A holes, they are everywhere.
This is a WT housing, they are not that easy to find.
Thanks Dan

Any crack can be fixed to some extent. Since it is cast iron, it is a little more tricky. But there are shops that can handle it and make sure it won't come back. I would normally say find another one but if they are a hard part to come by you have to use what you have.

Lock n stitch might be good. I might soak some lacquer thinner in the crack and then JB weld it. If the bolt cracked it maybe it should be in there when applying the JB.
Others will have alternatives I'm sure.
Rich

Rear end housings are not made from cast iron. The are mallebale iron and I've found that the Certanium machineable nickle AC arc rod works pretty well on it. Not at all like using it on cast iron. Preheat it and cool slowly should give you a pretty good repair. Try it out on another chunk of housing 1st to get the hang of it.

Pre heat the whole side off the car of course.., use nickel rod. Lock stitch has no tinsel strength.

Hank

Dan,

Call me.., I have a match set of housings with the step. They have the light web casted into them.

Hank

I also didn’t think the rear end housing is cast iron. Using a low hydrogen rod like 7018 would work to weld up that crack. I learned that from my welding instructor many years ago. That paticular rod is an alternative for cast iron engine blocks and malleable iron when you don’t have anything else. A friend in the tech school we went to used 7018 to weld up a 352 block in his 58 Ford that threw a rod cap. It knocked a piece out of the side of the block and he tacked it back in with a 7018 rod and welded it up. He ran the 58 Ford for another couple of years and sold it. It was still running well when he did.
It’s no telling how long the crack was in the rear end housing in question. It would probably last a while still like it is.
JB weld would work well too. Clean it up well before using it.

Finding welded up rear ends at farm auctions wasn’t a big surprise either. Farmers patched and welded on them when they were turned into trailer axles.

Didn't see WT Wide Track before.., Oops, me bad!

And here's me thinking "What's with a WT housing?" Is that like DB forging?
Allan from down under.

Wide Track

Forgive my ignorance BUT how do you tell if it’s a WT.
Is it the longer width, forging is a little different or is there a WT marking or ??

People may have had one in a pile of T remains and junked it out without knowing what it was.

Drill out the housing to tube rivets and change the housing.

I agree with Adam, however if you can find someone who can quality weld it, then next best would be to weld and re-tap the threads. The problem is that the crack is in the threaded part and there is torque at that area, so there is always a strain when stopping or starting and you need the bolt tight to keep everything in alignment.
Norm

I would have it welded, re-drill the hole and use a keysert for the bolt, but, I'm pretty sure there won't be a keysert for Henry's odd size bolts.

Allan from down under.

I think it would be very unlikely that a keysert could be fit into an area with so little material around it. Even if it COULD be fit without breaking out...talk about a crack waiting to happen...

Honestly, Adam has the very best solution, followed by welding and re-tapping advice.

I have successfully repaired Rux housings with similar cracks by grinding a 1/8 -3/16 radius trough over the crack & brazing. Chase the thread.
Its 1 crack of 6 bolts. Not a critical structural thing over 6 bolts. The area is too thin for inserts & too bastard a thread, unless you go underside to a 3/8" bolt. Helicoil Might work. Stock bolt is 11/32-16 as I recall.

Thanks for the replies. I am going to get it vatted and go from there’s
Yes thread is one of Henry’s better ideas. I am the guy that made some taps for that thread a few years ago. Dan

Dan
I have utilized the services of "Casting Salvage Technologies" in Virginia several times with complete satisfaction.
When the casting was repaired it was impossible to find the repaired location.
https://www.therestorationshoponline.com/
Good luck.
Ron Patterson

I have basically avoided answering here, because my likely repair although practical and generally reliable, is not the best advice. I am with Speedytinc on this. The problem with brazing something like this is simply that once the steel is contaminated with copper in the brass, It basically cannot be properly welded without removing a whole lot of previously good base material. That said, brazing something like this is a good repair, and as Speedy mentions, with the stresses spread around multiple bolts and housings, loss of overall strength due to brazing would be minimal.

My main point however for chiming in at this point is just to stress that Ford did use quality materials, and welding or brazing either the center (pumpkin?) housings or the backing plates from most of Ford's years of model T production is not generally difficult. I have brazed a couple center housings as well as quite a few backing plates to replace or repair badly worn brake cam bushings. Usually they braze up very nicely.
However, there are exceptions. Especially where after-market options are used. I have never needed to repair a Ruckstell center housing (so far?), so I do not know about those. I have repaired a few later Ruckstell backing plates without problems. However, once, a Hall Scott cast backing plate came my way. It had been damaged, and someone before me tried to repair it with very bad results. I began to try to clean up the mess of it, only to make it worse. That casting was of poor quality iron that did not want to be welded in any way shape or form. The Ruckstell repair was switched to replacing the backing plate to a later Ford backing plate carefully placed and riveted.
I still have the nasty Hall Scott backing plate. Maybe some day, when I need to do a bit of basket weaving, I will try to fix it.

Here is an older thread on what a WT or Wide Track is in the Model T world.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/17 ... 1301262142