Attention Steve US Alloys

It has to do with the oil pickup assembly on the Ford N motor. The oil pump on that motor is built into the front main bearing shell, which is a steel forging of some sort. The oil pickup tube is a drawn steel tube, maybe 3/8 or 1/2 in diameter, which is attached to the pump housing.

The attachment is a known weakness of this design. The pickup tube hangs out sideways, it's - oh, maybe 6 or 8 inches long, and it has a drawn bell on the outer end which hangs inside a creen cup to pick up the oil. The tube is set into a socket in the pump housing where it is - attached by some metal-melting means, and that is the question. Sometimes the tube itself cracks around about the point where it enters the housing, but sometimes the melted-metal attachment lets go.

Conventional wisdom is that this joint is made by brazing or silver-soldering, and those terms (as you know) mean different things to different people. Myself, I doubt that it is "brazed", because to me that implies an oxy-acetylene torch. It might be "copper-brazed". It may well be attached using some higher-melting-point solder. Some think that a conventional, plumbing-style tin-lead solder would be enough to do this job.

Drawing on your vast store of knowledge in this area - what would you suggest would be the best attachment method? That a guy could do himself, if he bought the materials from you? And what size rolls does it come in?

Any input you have would be useful.

Have a great day,

llater,

llamas

Thanks

Pat

• U.S. Alloys/Weld Tech

If I'm picturing this thing correctly, it would seem that the root cause of failure is most likely to be contributed to vibration. A cu based alloy does not typically lend itself well to that type of stress.

I would think a relatively high grade,low temp, soft solder would be useful here. If I were recommending something in our line it would be the #1216 with an acid core. It has good flow and creep characteristics and good shear strength as well. It does actually contain a small percentage of Ag as well. Bond temp is 430°F and the alloy is available on 1# spools in diameters of 1/16"-3/32" & 1/8".

This part may have originally been placed using a higher heat process. That could have contributed to the failure of the tubing (due to vibration)in the HAZ where the carbides would concentrate.

I wonder if a threaded tube with Loctite applied might also be a good fix. Just a thought.
Steve