Broken PP straps, leaking tranny, best option to fix?

[clintonk]

OK, tranny experts, I need help! I posted about my clutch failure a few months back.

I confirmed today that 2 of 3 PP straps broke and put a tiny pinhole in the wet tranny section. The hole is so small that no debris could have gotten inside. I drove slowly home about 2 miles after I noticed the leak. With just one strap left, I'm very thankful I got up my steep driveway!

So what is the best remedy?

1. Replace entire tranny. I'd rather not; the mileage is high but the car was never raced or abused.

2. Replace case. If I replace both halves, do I still need to re-shim all the bearings? I don't know how to do this. Anyone got a spare tranny case?

3. Have the small hole welded by a good aluminum welder.

FYI, the clutch was a SHOShop Hi-Revs Jr installed by FPS in Atlanta. I got over 100K out of it. The fingers were worn but not broken. The Rev-B Ford release bearing is intact and spins fairly smoothly. The friction material is worn almost down to the rivets. If only the PP had held out a little longer!

Clinton Knight
'90 White 194K
'95 Green 60K

<small>[ December 14, 2003, 09:15 PM: Message edited by: clintonk ]</small>

 

[Ishodu]

I would try and get it welded, its worth a try. You may want to open it up to make sure there isn't any peices floating around. There might be more metal missing on the inside than the outside.

 

[CheckerSHO]

I have a trans out of a 90...i didnt get to drive the car before pulling engine/trans but odometer had 88k on it and i carfaxed it, and its not 188k...but the car only went 100 miles from 96-01 eek! so its probably not right miles. Case looks good though. Im pulling the drivetrain out of my former daily driver 90 soon too(160k) and will sell the trans out of it, it shifts great . PM me if interested.
thumb

 

[KM92SHO]

Haveing the tranny welded prob not a good idea. i just had mine welded by a place that does welding for that kind of tranny and i ended up spending 170. the bad things is the next day i was leaking and today i had to bring my car to a shop cause my stuff started to bang tranny was leaking and clutch and flywheel got screwed up because of all this so new tranny might be better. write back because i am in the same boat that you are

 

[Bizzy]

http://www.alumaloy.net/

I was thinking of ordering some of this stuff and messing around with it on a junk set of heads to try out some velocity porting on the valve area. Also I have a mtn bike frame with a crack at the seattube that I think this would work perfect on.

Supposed to be able to melt it like soldier using a propane torch, and it could be used to seal a hole in your tranny like that. I'd actually split the case, and drill out the hole a little so that you'd get good material ***********. I think the stuff was $45 for a pound of rods.

They had a pretty low budget infomercial on tv, but I wantched them repair a broken mounting nole on a tranny housing, from start to finish, ant it looked like it was a great repair.

Check out the site, I think the stuff might just be worth your $45 if you wanted to fix it yourself. Not to mention they have a money back gaurantee.

<small>[ December 15, 2003, 12:42 AM: Message edited by: netviper ]</small>

 

[shojuan]

Crap, just slap some JB Weld over it.

 

[MyFirstSHO]

Netviper,

Were you watching that infomercial yesterday too???? I was flipping through the channels and i just get hypnotized by this "Alumaloy". First repair i saw was them fixing a radiator that a real radiator shop would not touch cuz its aluminum (or sone stupid excuse). I was kind of skeptical on that. But I, too, saw them repair a tranny case (an "ear" they called it, it was the ****** where one of the bolts goes) and it did look pretty darn good when it was fixed. The Alumaloy is (looks) very easy to use, just heat the area (not the alumaloy rod) till it reachs 728 degrees, then let the alumaloy flow, it can even bridge gaps, and they kept saying "Alumaloy is so strong, we have the physical properies to prove it", i say its worth a try.

Clintonk, If you are planning on pulling the tranny, give the alumaloy a try, or if you can fit a portable propane torch in the area that needs the fix. If you are lazy like me, give the JB weld a spin. It really depends how big the hole is, you might have to get it welded with some fabrication if its too big.

Hope this helps thumb

 

[munkee]

Clintonk, you said the hole was just a pinhole. Another option you could try is to find the smallest rivet you can that is slightly larger than your hole. Then JB weld over the top of it.

 

[Rockledge]

I've seen that Alumaloy infomercial a few times myself. I have to admit, some of things they did with it looked pretty neat. I saw the tranny ****** repair part of it, too. I would be very interested to hear back from anyone who does try it out. My #1 question concerns strength of the bond of the Alumaloy to the existing metal.

I notice the same company has similar products for cast iron and steel. Almost sounds to good to be true, doesn't it?
shrug

<small>[ December 15, 2003, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: Rockledge ]</small>

 

[SHO_Driver]

I'd change the case half or even swap MTX's. I wouldn't want to drop it again if the leak returned.

 

[Bizzy]

clintonk:
So what is the best remedy?

1. Replace entire tranny. I'd rather not; the mileage is high but the car was never raced or abused.

2. Replace case. If I replace both halves, do I still need to re-shim all the bearings? I don't know how to do this. Anyone got a spare tranny case?

3. Have the small hole welded by a good aluminum welder.

1. I'd either replace the entire case, or the tranny. Finding a good spare case could be difficult. I may have one here though, but I'll have to check.

2. If you replace the case, you will have to reshim the diff, but not the bearings as all the bearing service shims (except the diff shims) are the same thickness. Might not be a bad idea to replace the bearings though in which case new shims would be in order.

3. **Disclaimer** This would be MY personal preference only. I wouldn't have the hole welded, but if you did I wouldn't have it done while it's in place on your car. Personally I would prefer to gut the tranny and then have them weld it if I decided to go that route.

<small>[ December 16, 2003, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: Bizzy ]</small>

 

[drivinhard]

Just keep the fluid topped off

kidding...

Not a bad reason to go with a clutch that has stronger rivets, and bigger straps. I bet the rivet sheered though, and that the strap was still intact. I've never actually seen a strap break, just the rivet sheer...

 

[Bizzy]

MyFirstSHO:
Netviper,

Were you watching that infomercial yesterday too???? I was flipping through the channels and i just get hypnotized by this "Alumaloy". First repair i saw was them fixing a radiator that a real radiator shop would not touch cuz its aluminum (or sone stupid excuse). I was kind of skeptical on that. But I, too, saw them repair a tranny case (an "ear" they called it, it was the ****** where one of the bolts goes) and it did look pretty darn good when it was fixed. The Alumaloy is (looks) very easy to use, just heat the area (not the alumaloy rod) till it reachs 728 degrees, then let the alumaloy flow, it can even bridge gaps, and they kept saying "Alumaloy is so strong, we have the physical properies to prove it", i say its worth a try.

Clintonk, If you are planning on pulling the tranny, give the alumaloy a try, or if you can fit a portable propane torch in the area that needs the fix. If you are lazy like me, give the JB weld a spin. It really depends how big the hole is, you might have to get it welded with some fabrication if its too big.

Hope this helps thumb

I saw the informercial like 2 weeks ago and was transfixed but what I was seeing. I thought of a few places that I could use somethng like that.

 

[shojuan]

Rockledge:
I've seen that Alumaloy infomercial a few times myself. I have to admit, some of things they did with it looked pretty neat. I saw the tranny ****** repair part of it, too. I would be very interested to hear back from anyone who does try it out. My #1 question concerns strength of the bond of the Alumaloy to the existing metal.

I notice the same company has similar products for cast iron and steel. Almost sounds to good to be true, doesn't it?
shrug

The stuff sounds like solder, plain and simple. Fancy solder is never going to work as well as good welding. If you do try that stuff then put a layer of JB weld over it.

Here's an idea. Get a little square of carbon fiber cloth. Get enough so you can try a practice piece. With your practice piece take some mixed up jb weld that's at the upper end of the working temperature range and apply it to the cloth to see if it will flow through the cloth. If not then find a good liquid epoxy that can take tranny heat. Then clean and scuff up the area surounding the pinhole. You a wire brush or some coarse sandpaper to scuff it up good and then clean with acetone. Then apply the carbon fiber cloth and epoxy. You could also use fiberglass cloth. I personally would feel pretty confident about such a repair if it seemed to pass muster after the epoxy cures. Crap, you could smear some silicone over the cloth/epoxy repair after it cures if that would make you feel better about it. I doubt you would have any leaks after that.

Just make sure the fluid level is below the level of that pinhole so that the area remains dry after you clean it with acetone.

 

[clintonk]

Originally posted by Bizzy:

1. I'd either replace the entire case, or the tranny. Finding a good spare case could be difficult. I may have one here though, but I'll have to check.

2. If you replace the case, you will have to reshim the diff, but not the bearings as all the bearing service shims (except the diff shims) are the same thickness. Might not be a bad idea to replace the bearings though in which case new shims would be in order.

3. **Disclaimer** This would be MY personal preference only. I wouldn't have the hole welded, but if you did I wouldn't have it done while it's in place on your car. Personally I would prefer to gut the tranny and then have them weld it if I decided to go that route.

Great info, Bizzy, thanks! The trans is already out, and I would certainly gut it before having the case repaired. But if you have a case, I'm interested. I don't understand about reshimming the diff, but I guess I'll find out when the SHONut video arrives!

drivinhard, the two broken straps are both in very small pieces. I found one rivet head, too. I will certainly use a stronger PP next time. I have the SHONut setup waiting to go in.

Clinton Knight
'90 White 194K
'95 Green 60K

 

[Bizzy]

shojuan:

Rockledge:
I've seen that Alumaloy infomercial a few times myself. I have to admit, some of things they did with it looked pretty neat. I saw the tranny ****** repair part of it, too. I would be very interested to hear back from anyone who does try it out. My #1 question concerns strength of the bond of the Alumaloy to the existing metal.

I notice the same company has similar products for cast iron and steel. Almost sounds to good to be true, doesn't it?
shrug

The stuff sounds like solder, plain and simple. Fancy solder is never going to work as well as good welding. If you do try that stuff then put a layer of JB weld over it.

Here's an idea. Get a little square of carbon fiber cloth. Get enough so you can try a practice piece. With your practice piece take some mixed up jb weld that's at the upper end of the working temperature range and apply it to the cloth to see if it will flow through the cloth. If not then find a good liquid epoxy that can take tranny heat. Then clean and scuff up the area surounding the pinhole. You a wire brush or some coarse sandpaper to scuff it up good and then clean with acetone. Then apply the carbon fiber cloth and epoxy. You could also use fiberglass cloth. I personally would feel pretty confident about such a repair if it seemed to pass muster after the epoxy cures. Crap, you could smear some silicone over the cloth/epoxy repair after it cures if that would make you feel better about it. I doubt you would have any leaks after that.

Just make sure the fluid level is below the level of that pinhole so that the area remains dry after you clean it with acetone.

I still say www.alumaloy.net. The stuff is $45 bucks for a pound of sticks. It is no solder, solder when you hit it with a propane torch.

I'd go the alumaloy route, chances are that you wouldn't even have to crack the case open or at the very least just pull the side of the case towards the PP/clutch area off, which I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) but aren't 90% of the internals in the half of the case that is pointing towards the drivers side wheel? At that point all you'd have to do is just reseal the case.

Finding a shop to weld the AL of the case might be costly.

 

[BenBrausen]

I have a friend that's gotta '89 with a hole in the tranny that's been fixed with WB Weld. He's put over 20K on it since the quick fix. Amazed it holds.

 

[Bizzy]

LOL the front valve cover on my winter beater was held togther with JB weld. It leaked, but it held. it was funny to pull that cover off and see the big cracks in it with JB stuffed in them from the outside.