T18 cracked case - weld a good fix?

[Chero77]

I have been emailing a guy about a 100 miles away about his T18. He has told me that the bearing retainer over the input shaft cracked in two and has been welded together and ground smooth. He says he has run this repaired case for eight years and never had a problem.

For those experts on welding, I have been told in the past that welding generally makes for a poor repair on cast iron?

Also, this trans purportedly has the long 9.5" input shaft and the factory cast iron spacer between the trans and bellhousing, yet the owner is certain that it has a 4:1 first gear. Anyone know if this combination was ever made by the factory? The trans was swapped into a CJ from some other vehicle.

I may be able to get this for a low price, but the question is just what exactly am I getting.

Thanks,
Dave

[ December 09, 2002, 02:35 AM: Message edited by: Chero77 ]

[Sundowner]

call tri-county gear.
you can but a new Warner input bearing retainer. they aren't even that expensive.

[Lindel]

If the welder knows what he's doing, then welding cast iron shouldn't be a big deal. My Dad used to weld on cast iron all the time, with no failures.

[Nobby]

Originally posted by Lindel:
If the welder knows what he's doing, then welding cast iron shouldn't be a big deal. My Dad used to weld on cast iron all the time, with no failures.I absolutely agree a good, specialist, well set-up shop should be able to weld up cast-iron no problem.
The deal is with cast iron if you do not know what you are doing then you will more than likely f*** it up. The thing to keep in mind is that the risk factor for failure is higher with cast-iron repair, but does not mean avoid it.

Check out this website if your interested its give a description of various processes.

http://www.locknstitch.com/PreheatWeld.htm

[scotty]

if the trans has the spacer between the bellhousing and tranny,then it definately came from a a FSJ.the cjt18 used a shorter bell that bolted righ to the tranny. i have been told that all FSJs used the wide ratio t18(6.39 first) so it would stand to reason that this tranny should have it as well.

i wouldnt say never,and of course my info could be wrong. if he as counted 4 turns of the input shaft to 1 turn of the output in 1st gear,then you cant really argue too much with him about it smile.gif

[Panther]

Dave,
I know you have been looking to do a manual trans conversion for some time and I wanted to give you heads up about this ebay auction
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1874421922
I have no comment on the cracked case but you will encounter problems with the installation if you get the short shaft version or CJ version. The auction has the bell housing, spacer and includes the input shaft. With this you could convert to the v8 version and have a straight swap. It's not mine but I ran into it while searching and thought I would give you heads up.
Lee