Can a SMTA transmission housing be welded?

I have a SMTA with a cracked tranny housing, my B-In-Law was plowing with it years ago and was rather rough with it. We think a ball bearing fell out somewhere and jammed up cracking the housing, not sure until we pull it all apart (moving it to my house is going to be a question all in its self)

Can these be welded? My welding guy said that he does have cast rods for welding cast, will that work? I have heard some talk about stitching? I know nothing about this,thanks for the help guys. ~Anthony

if he know what he doing with cast rods that the way to go

Yes, I good welder can weld the cast iron. One welded my M and I have seen others.

On my M, a bolt in the universal broke and one of the pieces go wedged between the bull gear and the housing.

I drained the trans-axle, lifted the trans-axle top using the seat bolts, put 6x6 blocks between the top and the case, and proceeded to replace the broken bolt (after removing the two partial bolt pieces.)

My M was welded when I got it - looks like the drawbar may have broken and hit the bottom of the transmission. Make sure your welding guy really can weld cast.When it comes to cast there are that think they can weld it and there are those who really can weld it.

To move it, the oil in the trans can be drained.
Remove the PTO unit.
Reach down into the final drives and remove what ever is jamming it. (might require lifting the housing to allow pressure to be let off) then with care, the tractor can be rolled gently onto a trailer. That patch is very commonly found. It is not a problem. Jim

By cast rods, are you folks refering to nickel rods? I used those on a 350 trans case and it worked out fine.

(quoted from post at 19:53:52 11/12/12) By cast rods, are you folks refering to nickel rods? I used those on a 350 trans case and it worked out fine.

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No there are far better rods out there nowdays.

Yes, it can be done without a problem. If he gets to torch out to preheat, find a professional welder. That is gone with the nickel rods.

Can it be welded?-yes Can you do it?-probably not. As other have eluded welding cast iron is something between art and black magic for us who can't do it. Take it somewhere with a skilled welder who does and knows cast iron. Cast iron is brittle if you don't do proper heat control as it cools you hear what sounds like little chimes going off as your newly welded cast iron proceeds to crack in several places-don't ask me how I know this. If it is a crack or hole in the middle of the housing, like say maybe something wedged between a bull gear and the housing AND it's not where you're bolting something on or pushing in a bearing or providing significant structural support or locating a shaft or axle you might be able to braze the hole shut, not quite as skilled of a project and if you have access to an Oxy-Acetylene rig you could probably pull it off. One of my High School friends Dad often dealt in used equipment, would buy junk and fix it up, run it a while then sell it. They bought a John Deere 350 crawler with a cracked rear end housing. They decided to weld it. To preheat it they had about 150 pounds of charcoal burning under the rear end, we teased them about barbecuing their bulldozer for years. Another thought- if you're not looking to have a totally correct expo quality tractor ask around and look around, you might run into a 400 or 450 housing & rear end and swap out enough parts to maybe get a fast hitch on you're tractor. The 400 and 450 diesels are expensive to repair so one with a bad engine might be a deal for parts on the hoof for you.

I have welded cast many times. I use a wire welder and cold weld it.

If it is just a crack, clean off the oil and paint and maybe v it out a little.

Then cold weld it. What is cold weld? You weld maybe a half inch or so and quit. When it cools you go another half inch or so. Never get it to hot and it won"t expand. Once it expands it"s to late and will crack again as it cools. It may take a day to weld a 6 inch long crack.

I work from both ends of the crack and work towards the middle. Lay the root bead a little at a time "cold welding". Then lay two or 3 more beads by cold welding.

I have welded cast dies for forming car parts, engine blocks and other cast items with this method.

Maybe one failure out of ten. If it fails you grind it out and try again SLOWER.

Use high heat settings on the welder, just don"t weld to much at once.

Gary

I welded a B block once with 308-16 and it worked they told me it wouldnt work but it did. Sinse then have ground smooth and used rubber cement that they use installing windsheilds it aslo works as theres no pressure.