8N Busted Bell Housing

[equeen]

I'm considering a 52 8N that is missing a chunk of cast iron about 3" x 4" in the bell housing under the battery at the starter "housing". Apparently something has busted through the housing from the starter/flywheel area of something has been smashed against the housing externally. Couple of questions....

1. What could cause such a damage from the inside?

2. Could a welder, not me, braze a piece of plate steel over the hole and all would be well?

Thanks.
 

[pconnie]

a good welder can fabricate a cast iron piece for the hole..cast must be prepped with a cutting electrode first..grinding leaves disc particles in the metal, which will usually result in cracking..if you get this make sure the welder does it correctly
 

[pconnie]

the clutch could have let go, or starter broke and it was propelled by spinning clutch
 

[equeen]

Owner has put duct tape over the large hole - to keep out water I suppose.

Seems to me that it would be VERY dangerous to operate a tractor with a large hole at that spot.

Am I missing something?
 

[Ultradog MN]

It's amazing how much abuse these Fords will take and still keep ticking.
If it were me I would do one of three things.
Leave it as is and just run it - it might go for a long time. Or buy a different transmission and install that. You might even buy just an empty case and install the parts from the broken one into it.
It is not hard to do and a case could be purchased fairly cheap.
As for welding it yes it can be done. But welding cast is expensive and takes some skills.
Watch the slideshow at the link below for a transmission repair my pal Kenny and I did on a Ford 5000 transmission last summer.
A couple of added comments about it here:
It's amazing that that tractor ran for years with that hole in the side with no ill effects.
It was expensive - the junk case cost $100 and the rod we used was close to $100/lb and we used 2 1/2 lbs to do the job.
But, we did save an otherwise good tranny and rear end which he sold it for $1600 so it was worth the investment.
5000 tranny repair

 

[JEK1]

That sounds like the same type of repair that I did on a 2N about two years ago. I formed and cut a cold rolled steel patch that fit as close to the out side as possible. Then V'd it out on the weld seam. Using a mig welder, I welded in small length beads about ¾".Then stopping to let the cast iron cool. Also welding one side then other side. This is commonly called cold welding. Surprisingly it turned out real good.

I really could not tell you what caused the damage. This almost sounds like day saa voo. I did this on a 2n tractor where the fellow bought it real reasonable like $400. Come to think of it, I did replace the ring gear on that flywheel because of missing teeth. That could have caused an internal failure inside the bell housing. The breakage is in an area that does not affect the structural strength of the tractor and does not have to be water tight. Good Luck.
 

[01BIRDDOG]