welding die cast aluminum

Apr 18, 2004 4 Replies

my neighbor got jealous of my mower and went and bought a used commercial 60 inches himself



well to get to the point he broke the five speed tranny housing almost in half when he plopped it down on a rock in the creek trying to get to the back of the property



I have undertaken the repair as he is going to redo all the phone lines in my house and add some network wiring for my dsl


I have disassembled , cleaned and baked the housing after putting it back together on a piece of box tubing to act as a fixture to hold it flat , it is a split type housing



top half and bottom , I machined up some half rounds to bolt on to the plate in the locations for the needle roller bearings and used the good half of the tranny to locate these my question is what kind of filler rod should I use



I expect to have to grind out the first passes of the weld and re weld to account for some outgassing of the material



it is a peerless tranny that was cast by Tecumseh


The best general TIG filler for aluminum castings is 4047. It has twice the silicon of 4043, so it has even better wetting, less shrinkage, and a lower melting temp.

Call around your area. Likely one welding store has a box of it in the back somewhere. I went hunting for it a while back and didn't really have that much trouble finding it.

If you really can't find any in your area, I will sell you some. I have about 20 lbs of 3/32", and 10 lbs of 1/16".

I just used some to widen the edges of a chevy intake manifold for a mechanic friend.

thanks Ernie , a truer welding guru the world has never had

Sometime ago somone who had been doing it commercially recommended 4043 for aluminum boat propeller repair. Would 4047 be better or is there something different for that application?

Ted

4043 is used by people who don't have any other options. There are about 20 filler metals for various cast aluminums, but 4047 is the best alloy generally available. The rest are special orders and expensive.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required