Flywheel Housing - Cracks near horizontal bolt holes.

[Don/WI]

Last week I was preparing to clean up the flywheel housing. When I was blowing off the casting in preparation before sandblasting, I noticed that there were cracks running thru each of the horizontal mounting holes. These can be easily seen in the attached two pictures. I did have a few more of these parts, and the next one thatI inspected did not have any noticable cracks.

My question is: Can these cracks be welded or brazed to make them servicable or do I have a new boat anchor/picture frame or whatever? Thanks for any response that you may have. Don/WI

[pat in Santa Cruz]

one of them is well along the way to all the way through. I'd look for a replacement. This location and around the motor mount bolts is where you will find cracks. Yours is probably warped too.

[James Rogers]

As long as you can find good ones, that one is a boat anchor or fodder for the scrapper. I have a few that were repaired in different ways that I save for hard times. There is someone making new ones from aluminum but they are pricey.

[msmaron]

[QUOTE=Don/WI;174894

My question is: Can these cracks be welded or brazed to make them serviceable or do I have a new boat anchor/picture frame or whatever? Thanks for any response that you may have. Don/WI[/QUOTE]


WHY??? there are so many good ones to find so you dont have to repair why would you even consider doing it?

[Jim Brierley]

New aluminum housings are available from Dan Eubanks, [email protected] The late '31 housings have reinforcing ribs and most that I have seen are not cracked.

[Glenn C.]

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They also make new cast iron housings if you would prefer. I clean the machined surfaces of all flywheel housings, and check the parallelism of the two surfaces on either the surface plate, or milling machine table, with a surface gauge, before acceptance for installation.

[TinCup]

When I rebuilt the motor on the coupe I found the same thing with mine. I found a better unit but I had to cut the tree down that had grown thru the center. I had it blasted and it cleaned up great. Their is a great shop in town that says he can weld the old unit good as new but the guys in the club say they wouldn't trust it.

[Chris in WNC]

Mark is a little optimistic about the numbers.
in 25 years I have only found one that was not cracked.
it's great that Snyder's has started making good replacements.

[James Rogers]

Originally Posted by Timothy Kelly

WHY??? there are so many good ones to find so you dont have to repair why would you even consider doing it?
__________________
Mark Maron
Dir. Ill., Region MARC
160c SIG Group


Mark:

My experience has been that the vast majority of flywheel housings that I have touched over the past 40 years are cracked. Some worse than others. Some are not too bad.

Please share with me where I might go to find a stash of uncracked original flywheel housings as I am in the market for dozen or so.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can lend.

Timothy

I have 8 or 10 that have been checked and are un-cracked IF you have money.

[gunmetal blue]

You get a welder that knows what he is doing and he can weld it. Redrill holes, and mill down flat surface. From Northern Indiana I wish you guys lived around here I would weld them for you. 574-221-1475

[J and M Machine]

These cracks on the flywheel housing are common due to the wishbone and poorly reinforced flywheel housing. In late 1931 Ford Solved this problem by adding more iron to the inside and outside of the housing as you'll notice the ribs cast on the bottom of the flywheel housing.

These cracks, I wouldn't recommend welding nor brazing as it's going to crack next to the weld due to the flexing. We've had great success with metal stitching.
Typically almost every engine has some sort of crack that we repair by this method. A good machine shop can handle this for you. Rather than tracking down the all elusive non cracked one.



http://www.jandm-machine.com/metalStitching.html

[Terry, NJ]

I'm new to all this so please bear with me. I saw the thread and wen t to check mine. They seem OK, However, I looked inside and motor mount holes were reinforced with ribs. Is this what you mean by the later ones having ribs? Or is it at another location? TIA
Terry

Originally Posted by Jim Brierley

New aluminum housings are available from Dan Eubanks, [email protected] The late '31 housings have reinforcing ribs and most that I have seen are not cracked.

[modelAsteve]

Just drill a hole at the end of the crack to stop it from creeping and use it!

[Jerry Parr WI]

Originally Posted by modelAsteve

Just drill a hole at the end of the crack to stop it from creeping and use it!

My theory is most of the cracks are caused by rough handling while they are out of the car. Attached with the four bolts on the back of an engine this is a very fragile item. When you bolt a transmission to it and put in the upper bolts it becomes very rigid. I don't hesitate to use ones with cracks. I have never heard of one breaking while installed.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I agree with Jerry about the rough handling, and I wouldn't be surprized if a high percent of the cars have covers with at least a couple small cracks. If I didn't have a perfect cover, I wouldn't be affraid to use one with a couple small cracks. The way we drive these cars today it would probably outlive me.