ATV gear case repair, be easy on me

[monkers]

I posted on another forum and thought I could just transfer it here, but Im gonna just sum it up in a few posts with a handfull of photos. Here goes. A guy brought me a gear case for his ATV he hit something heres how it looked:

I had to make a crude fixture to hold the "lug" position as it was originally when I make a new lug and weld it on. I bolted a piece of plate to the front

then added strips to the side of the plate, drilled to the current lug so I could just put my new lug in the same spot

then I made a new lug on the lathe

This is the setup I used to hold the casting to remove the old lug and prep for welding

cleaned up old lug removed

fit the new lug, had to grind a slight radius to fit the housing

I used a Miller Shopmaster with a 30A spool gun to weld this because some of the casting was thick, and I only have a Lincoln Squarwave 175 and didnt know if it was powerful enough, and also, I **** at TIG...need LOTS more practice. Here are the shots after welding

Then I cleaned it up with a flap wheel, made sure no weld was in the way of bolting the flange on, I also hit the flange with a large flat file

Thanks for looking at my project

 

[sberry]

I would say that looks pretty darn good.

 

[monkers]

Damn, sorry about the photos, I use Photoshop and I checked all the photos I wanted to post and resized, Im new to posting pics, I dont know why it didnt resize all the photos, Im sorry about that.....

 

[monkers]

sberry, thank you, I have to practice a lot more with the TIG and it would have looked better. Also in the other forum, they said I should have used a touch more heat. Im learning, haha.....I like jobs like this that make you think a little....

 

[OccupantRJ]

Damn good repair! No one has a need to be easy on you. You did a good job. The world is full of people who only WISH they could do things like that repair. I especially like your fixture to keep things in position during welding. Give yourself a pat on the back.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Hey Monkers, your fix looks great. Using M.I.G in this perticular aplication is better than T.I.G. IMHO. Less heat into the part = less distortion.

 

[e3pres]

The only grief you'll get around here is that you haven't restored your vise yet.

 

[mike13u]

great job man

 

[Griff93]

Good job! How did he break it? It looks like it might be out of a suzuki to me. They are pretty well protected.

 

[larry_g]

Great looking job there. My only concern would be is the bearing bore still round? Do you have the means to with a DTI or maybe blue up the bore and install/remove the bearing cup to check for 360* contact?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[OccupantRJ]

Damn, sorry about the photos, I use Photoshop and I checked all the photos I wanted to post and resized, Im new to posting pics, I dont know why it didnt resize all the photos, Im sorry about that.....

I didn't see anything wrong with your pics. Then again, I'm on a 23 inch monitor.
Seriously, a lot of people place their pics inline from a hosting website. Only thing is though, if the OP dies or loses the account, there go the pics with him.

 

[monkers]

Thank you all for the kind words! Im not certain how he broke it, hes very rough on stuff....he uses it a lot for deer season (bow season now). I think it was cracked for a while judging from the looks of it but im not sure. He will certainly put it to the test haha.... I was concerned about the bearing bores, so I only welded a little at a time and let it cool before I contiued.

 

[sberry]

sberry, thank you, I have to practice a lot more with the TIG and it would have looked better. Also in the other forum, they said I should have used a touch more heat. Im learning, haha.....I like jobs like this that make you think a little....

I hate those jobs, they are tedious and a last resort which I usually am in need of at that point, I get enough of them. But there is a call for that type of thing. I like the resourcefulness here and admire a good repair.
As for the tig it probably looks way better in person and in hand vs highly magnified and well cleaned for pictures, bright lights show every little flaw. I put some simple beads on another site and some real goldenarms comment on how sloppy it is,,, yes at 10X and spotless clean it looks somewhat crude but if you were on a drilling rig you would walk right by it without a second thought.

 

[Benji]

Nice work.

 

[Toolhorder]

I like it. The first pic I though it's a goner

 

[chris fresh]

great repair,i give you credit for jumping in and doing it.even tho the you think the weld is sloppy,it looks good cleaned up with the flap,and it looks pretty heavy.hopefully you got good penetration and it will hold up.maybe even be stronger than original because of the build up that wasn't there before.

nice job!

my next learning adventure will be tig,i love mig,but i'm doing more and more copper work now,and tig's where it's at to make million dollar seams in copper.

 

[monkers]

thanks guys for the kind words, Sberry, I want to be clear to you and a few others, this was not done with TIG, this I did with a Miller spoolgun. Just want to make sure were all on the same page lol. Thanks again guys, as far as I know its still holding up

 

[Michael951]

great job man

 

[chris fresh]

ah,i thought it was tig.

 

[monkers]

No chris, my TIG needs alot more practice, and I only have a Squarwave 175, so I wasn't sure if it had enough umphf to do it

 

[monkers]

Chris, thanks for the kind words, I like doing jobs like this, they make you think, and you dont know until you try.....lol

 

[NUTTSGT]

It looks like it will work to me. I know a few times when I have welded stuff and I don't want the heat to spread, I've wrapped a wet rag around stuff. Right or wrong, I don't know but it does seem to keep alot of the heat from spreading.



Since it's been almost two months since you fixed it, how is it holding up for the guy ?

 

[monkers]

as far as I know Nuttsgt, its still holding. I havent seen him to talk about it, just in passing at the coffee shop etc .... I use wet rags around stuff also to help pull heat out of things...

 

[riceburner]

Great effort, it appears that you didn't have enough heat in the base material, that could be part of the reason the weld appears to be sitting on top of the base, I might have considered heating the base material, also it does appear to be some contamination.

I think a chunk of brass or copper that was machined to be the same diameter of the bearing bore in place might of helped control some the warpage of the bore.

 

[monkers]

thanks riceburner, a few people have mentioned heating the part to bring the crud to the surface, then cleaning again, Im gonna try that next time...and Ill crank the machine up a touch more, thanks for the tips

 

[zmotorsports]

Overall it looks like a good repair. I have repaired many engine cases and transmission cases using the same technique by machining a bung or standoff and then welding it to the main body.

These jobs **** because by the time they get to me the owner is not wanting to spend much on the part and wants a "good deal" because the new part is too expensive. The problem is that these are so time consuming that the new part is not far off from the repair. If I were to do a "quickie" job and something didn't line up when the owner was reassembling it then he would be pissed because I didn't take the time.

These jobs seem to be a no win situation. I enjoy doing them as far as the work goes but dealing with the tight-*** owner is not fun.

Mike.

 

[jhelrey]

It's like carbs... We would rather install a new one vs. rebuilding them. Costs of labor and materials will usually beat the price of buying new and installing. Customers are dense and just don't understand that.

 

[monkers]

thanks zmotorsports, you are right about trying to explain it to the owner, and get money from them.....I also enjoy doing this work, makes you think, and you feel good when its done and the guy is on his way. In this case, the new part was over $1000.00 I was told, and I did it for MUCH less.....I just do this on the side to occupy my mind and give me some beer money.....lol...jhelrey, I understand what you`re saying, you are correct, people just dont understand......

 

[NUTTSGT]

Overall it looks like a good repair. I have repaired many engine cases and transmission cases using the same technique by machining a bung or standoff and then welding it to the main body.

These jobs **** because by the time they get to me the owner is not wanting to spend much on the part and wants a "good deal" because the new part is too expensive. The problem is that these are so time consuming that the new part is not far off from the repair. If I were to do a "quickie" job and something didn't line up when the owner was reassembling it then he would be pissed because I didn't take the time.

These jobs seem to be a no win situation. I enjoy doing them as far as the work goes but dealing with the tight-*** owner is not fun.

Mike.

thanks zmotorsports, you are right about trying to explain it to the owner, and get money from them.....I also enjoy doing this work, makes you think, and you feel good when its done and the guy is on his way. In this case, the new part was over $1000.00 I was told, and I did it for MUCH less.....I just do this on the side to occupy my mind and give me some beer money.....lol...jhelrey, I understand what you`re saying, you are correct, people just dont understand......

I completely understand the cost vs time to fix the problem along with new price. When you guys fix something lilke this, how do you figure a price to repair ?

Up front price ? (you eat the extra time when something else appears)

Standard hourly shop rate ? (owner ******* about cost)

Percentage of new part cost ? (agreed upon by both parties)

 

[NASTYZEN]

I charge by the hour + materials.
I will give an aprox. of the time it should take before hand though.
Most people are satisfied,the ones that ***** usually stop bitching when I walk over to my band saw and turn it on and ask what will it be.
Pay up or end up with two pieces again.

 

[Strouty]

I charge by the hour + materials.
I will give an aprox. of the time it should take before hand though.
Most people are satisfied,the ones that ***** usually stop bitching when I walk over to my band saw and turn it on and ask what will it be.
Pay up or end up with two pieces again.

Oh you are mean! I like it though. I hate it when people ***** after you explain what went into something you did. They are not customers I want, so next time they ask I double the price, that way if they come back it is worth listening to them *****.

 

[zmotorsports]

I completely understand the cost vs time to fix the problem along with new price. When you guys fix something lilke this, how do you figure a price to repair ?

Up front price ? (you eat the extra time when something else appears)

Standard hourly shop rate ? (owner ******* about cost)

Percentage of new part cost ? (agreed upon by both parties)

I charge by time + materials as well as others. I generally try to guestimate as close as possible when the client drops the part off to see if they would like me to proceded.

I don't get a lot of them bitching when done but is seems like many will make a snide comment like "man I didn't want to buy the place" or "I only needed one". Many people just don't have a clue how much tools and equipment cost as well as how much time will go into something like this.

Don't get me wrong, not all of my clients are like this but it only takes one to put a sour taste in your mouth. Many of my clients are happy and appreciative that I took the time to explain the difference in cost between a repair and a new part.

Mike.