Crack in clutch housing - how concerned should I be?

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Yes, it looks bad, but is it something that can wait until the next major, or does it need immediate replacement? What might've caused this?

If it does need fixed, would welding the crack be appropriate here?

 

It’***** something harder . Like reversed into a kerb .
Would have thought needs immediate replacement.

 

When is your next major?

 

5 years or so.

 

It's only going to get worse. Take care of it now.

 

Julia,

Welding the crack should be okay. But do it soon.

Challenge cars have reinforced front and rear cross braces to protect the clutch housing and nearby parts...


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Our cars are subject to this type of undercarriage abuse...




1:57 - 2:05

 

Julia, check your car's past service records. This might be a good time to have a clutch service performed.

 

Good idea! It's had a recent clutch service.

 

I would weld it but you need to look at it carefully to see what is the best approach. For example do you weld in situ because that can help stabilize the part before you weld the inside. Sometimes I would take the cover off and weld if I was not worried about warp.

 

I got mine welded. I had it off anyway to grease the flywheel.

It hasn't missed a beat since.

If you just want to replace, they're on ebay from time to time.

 

I told the shop to go ahead and replace it.

 

Looking back closely at the BaT photos, the crack was there when I bought it. My bad for not noticing. I still wonder how long it's been that way, and if it really is critical to be fixed, but wth, it's only money, right?

 

I would, if that comes apart at high revs it's going to be a bad day. You don't need any specialized tooling or shop to fix it, a decent welder should be able to take care of it and R&R of the clutch is one of the easiest jobs you can do on one of these.

 

But regreasing the flywheel is one job that takes both know-how and special tools.

 

How often have we all said that to ourselves.

Looking closely at the picture you posted, there might have been a previous repair attempt. You made the right decision to replace the clutch housing.

While your shop is at it have them check this...


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Right, Mitchell. My car has a clutch service and flywheel regreased annually before the track season begins.

 

Isn't that just the park brake cable?

 

Yes it does.

Absolutely not

Replacement is likely to be NLA--Welding would be the more likely repair.

Car is too low to the ground and you hit something at speed.

The oil/grease inside is going to make this a hard job, but taking the part off may destabilize the location of the flywheel bearing--which you really do not want to do!

Suggestion: Grind multiple small round evenly spaced divots along the cracked area and make sure they remain pristinely clean. At least 6 maybe 10. Make sure you stabilize the drain corner with a divot from the horizontal direction.

Then figure out what kind of wire to use in a MIG for that aluminum alloy. MIG Spot weld at rather high AMPs the divots to penetrate the aluminum rapidly just enough to stabilize the housing before removal.

Remove Flywheel Bearing--it will suffer from the heat being applied.

After removal, clean and degrease the housing inside, grind 1/2 way though the crack from the inside at 45º--BUT DO NOT grind through any MIG spot weld. Preheat the housing with a Oxy-acetylene rose burner and keep housing in a thermal blanket exposing only the cracks to the TIB welding keep the housing above 300ºF. Now TIG weld to build up a small arch above the original aluminum surface along the entire arch.

Allow housing to cool overnight inside the blanket.

Then clean and degrease the outside, grind off the stabilizing MIG spots and grind the cracks from the outside at 45º until you reach the TIG weld material on the inside--DO NOT grind through the TIG weld. Preheat the housing with a Oxy-acetylene rose burner and keep housing in a thermal blanket exposing only the cracks to the TIB welding keep the housing above 300ºF. TIG weld the cracks from the outside with a small arch above the original aluminum surface. Make sure that the housing at the back of the drain corner on driver's side has solid weld across that structurally critical point.

Allow housing to cool overnight inside the blanket.

Now that the housing is stabilized, you can consider grinding out the corner where it looks really nasty--leaving the structurally critical weld in place.

Do not be surprised if there is more damage inside than is visible outside.

If the part were still available just buying it would be vastly less cost than welding it up (labor).
AND NOTE: the different uses of MIG and TIG, and Oxy-acetylene
This is a job for someone who knows what they are doing and already has the equipment.
You will be paying him a lot, probably like an aircraft repair welder.

 

This looks too good to be true but I'd check it out.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335837110226

Also https://www.eurospares.com/Parts/164050/Ferrari?pi=111943

 

I wasn't sure what that was, John. My car doesn't have a parking brake.

 

I don't think so. You are making it way too complicated. I don't know what a pro would cost but maybe $100 bucks? Maybe $200 which would really be pushing it. A few pros around me have $45 min. and I doubt you would need much more than that in time. That cover is huge and the Aluminum throws off heat really fast. I would not even bother to pop the bearing out if you did not have the tools. Not that much heat is going to go in there. The bigger issue might be how you feel about the cover looking like frankenstein? The factory even cast FERRARI into the cover. You can have a beautiful TIG weld but it's still going to look ugly.

 

I'll do it for free if you want to send it to me.

 

Personally I would not weld it w/o taking it off. It needs proper prep work and should be inspected on the inside. Welding it in place is just the cheap way out, suitable for something like my 23 year old Toyota Tacoma with 200k miles on it. The part is readily available. Do it right.If you are going to take it off, replace it.

 

If the part is available - buy it and replace it .. you may never be able to do that again

 

Wow, that's a generous offer. I would take that on.

I would also take the opportunity to remove the flywheel from the bell housing, grease it all up, and in the mean time send the empty housing to Intmd8 to tig weld. In the end, it's a weld and it does not have a lot of holding stress on it.