welding a CVT variator

I have a variator from the CVT of a scooter and a part of it got chipped off. I tried AC TIG welding it but i can't seem to make a decent weld puddle.

I tried welding on a sample piece of aluminum sheet and my weld seems to be fine on that one.

I don't know what's wrong but I was thinking maybe the variator isn't aluminum since the piece just chipped off and didn't bend. But then a very small portion of the aluminum rod did fuse to the variator.

Can aluminum be brittle like iron?

I tried sticking a magnet onto it but it's not magnetic.

Reply to
lethaldriver
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Not really. The extreme-strength varieties that have low elongation are not going to be that brittle.

It sounds like you have a piece of zinc alloy. Did it give off a lot of white fumes when you took the TIG to it?

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

"chipped off and didn't bend" sounds like the cast aluminum (756, an "old" alloy, similar to A356-T61) bogie wheels on Cushman Tracksters. The tensile strength of alumimum alloys varies widely and I'd guess that your application requires a fairly specialized CASTIING alloy if it is alumimum. Maybe ask your welding supplier for advice. Even bring the part to them and ask for help. We have had good luck welding repair parts onto those bogie wheels (in the past, now we cast new ones) with a mig welder set up for it. Sorry, but I don't remember the wire number. If you do succeed in welding it up, you may defeat the heat treatment the part may have originally gotten. For some reason, heat treatment of aluminum just doesn't stick in my brain. I have to relearn it from scratch every time it is an issue. Give my good old iron-alloys any day for that.

Pete Stanaitis

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Reply to
spaco

Likely is, that it is a die cast alloy of aluminum, and probably contains a fair amount of zinc.

It wont weld worth a pinch of ****, and the stuff that looks welded may or may not be, when it comes to the crunch.

Pony up to the parts department, and pay the man. Maybe Ebay.

See if you can work out why it broke in the first place, if it was not directly because of operator inputs, or the lack of, just to slow down the rate of change of the new part to being another broken one.

Brittle and chipped, sounds like die cast alloy to me. Maybe an aluminum alloy, possibly one of the Zamack family, or similar.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

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