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Brazing Cast Iron

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themoose:
 When I was growing up in rural Connecticut dairy farming was still how most of my neighbors made their living. When it came to maintaining their farm equipment they had learned how to be self sufficient through necessity. If a piece of machinery broke in the middle of planting or haying season they couldn’t afford to take the time to have someone come out to fix it so they became very proficient in putting things back together themselves. One of the things that always amazed me was how they seemed to be able to fix just about anything with an acetylene torch. They could heat and bend steel back into shape, cut a new piece to size and then weld things back together and be off and running again in no time flat. One of the more difficult skills was the repairing of cast iron which they did often and very successfully. Most people are afraid to tackle such a repair and opt to just replace the part. If you have the time and money that’s most likely the best way but that’s not always possible. If you have a broken ear or cracked block or head on your rare next to impossible to replace engine you might have no choice but to attempt a repair. I happen to find this old article those talks about how to braze or as the article calls it “Bronze Weld” cracked cylinder blocks. I thought it was interesting and might be a skill worth adding to your arsenal just in case.  Moose

cocobolo:
moose...I've seen similar info before to what you have posted above, but I have a question for you which falls in a similar vein.

I have a broken hub carrier from a '64 'Vette rear end in need of repair.  The missing pieces were long gone when I got the unit.  Do you know if it possible to build up some weld on such a piece, either with bronze or perhaps a specialized rod of some sort?

I'm attaching pics to show what needs to be fixed.

First pic shows the broken part...sorry about the out of focus.

Second pic shows it with the bar sitting in place.  It would be held on with a mega bolt if the broken part can be repaired.

Third pic shows what the former owner did to the other side...he welded in that short piece of pipe.  I guess his plan was to use one of the newer type rods which go right around the whole assembly.

And the last pic shows the whole piece so you have some idea what the heck I'm talking about.

themoose:
From what I remember they are made of nodular iron. When welding this form of cast iron the formation of martensite lowers the ductility of the iron and makes it easier for cracks to start.  I think this is occurs in welding of many types of castings, but the formation of martensite seems to be a bigger problem in nodular iron. It can be done but I don't think its worth taking a chance on a suspension component.

Moose

cocobolo:
Fair enough.  I think a replacement part is less than $100...so new it will be.  And many thanks for the information.

Coley:
Interesting article.  One question I have is that they call it "brazing", brazing uses brass rod and not bronze, or am I missing something?

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