I got my bellhousing back today. I sandblasted it and dropped it off thursday
morning, and it was done thursday afternoon. Cost was $58 to weld up the
crack and weld closed the clutch linkage hole. I then drilled two holes in
it, installed rubber grommets and ran the flex lines through them. If anyone
is interested, I had the work done by standard welding in Medina, OH. They
billed me for 3/4hr tig time, and 12 minutes general shop labor, presumably to
fit the plate to the linkage hole.
I asked them all the pertinent questions that were brought up here. First
they do all the work for a good local tranny shop, as well as tons of other
stuff. I applied for a job there 6 months ago and got the impression they
have 0 employee turnover, so I can infer that their guys are highly skilled.
They said that heat treating was unnecessary, as was thought. They did not
back purge the weld, they said that what they do is to weld both sides of the
crack, and that is the way they prefer to do things. They also did not heat
treat it, again they find it unnecessary. As a skilled steel welder, I can
say that the welds were beautiful with great penetration. I am extremely
pleased.
The longer I think about it, the more I seem to remember that most of this
crack was already here, but it could easily be the power of suggestion. I had
them seal up the linkage hole for two reasons. 1. Just in case I needed the
added stiffness of tying in the web below the hole into the rest of the
bellhousing. 2. It is the most sanitary way that came to mind to seal up the
hole since I was no longer using a mechanical clutch. So far I am very happy,
and now the engine can go back in tomorrow.
Thanks for all the help and advice while I was looking into this.
James Nazarian
71B Tourer
71BGT V8
85 Dodge Ram
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