Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

Not so good news, trans was getting rebuilt, it is already in the car and shop noticed a small leak near the fill plug. Turns out there is a real minute crack right at the plug. I don't have an issue with the shop, while it would have been nice to have caught before the rebuilt and being cleaned and washed etc. I have trust in this guy, and he didn't just sweep it under the rug. Guy is honest, said he put the seal in with normal pressure, appears he is not trying to brush it off but he did say he thought that there was a good amount of teflon tape on there before hand, so who knows? No prior leaks though... Regardless...

He wanted to present me with my options, remove tranny and get all the fluid to one side and there is a good TIG welder across the street whowill come over and notch it and fill it, or wait longer, more disassembly andend up finding a new case, and possibly have to throw something in again for the addtl labor.

Iknow pics would be so much better, but I didn't have my digital and the camera phone didn't capture it.What do you guy think of welding in this area? Just to give you an idea, I was there shooting the sh*t for an hour and there was a little puddle of about one inch on diameter on the case already.

It is not on any of the horizontal ribbing of the case, and obviouslyaway from the bell housing.

Weld it or gosearching for a new case? Thanks.

RE: Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

Sounds like someone overtightened the fill plug.
It's tough to get the aluminum clean enough to weld when it's been soaking in oil it's whole life.
The worse that can happen is they will say the case is NFG if they try and weld it.
They should also drill the crack so it wont walk further, then weld it.

Who's going to pay for the extra work? You or the shop?
Obviously not the shops fault as they indicated to you the excessive use of sealant tape.[sm=smiley29.gif]

RE: Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

Shop will be picking up the welding since they trade out enough work with the neighboring welder (if cost gets out of control I imagine they would offer to split it at least) I had never done anything to the tranny prior, although I have not had it that long, so I never looked nor plugged it with the tape...rest of the car is dynomite luckily.

RE: Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

I'd say, how bad do you want it back? If no hurry I would located a new case and go that route. But if you are renting a car I would go ahead and do the weld, and maybe in the future look around on ebay/junkyards for a new case.

RE: Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

yeah...this sucks. It's my hobby car...but I would like it back already. With this happening and Christmas coming up, I can see this going way past the holiday.

D&D performance has a case for $129. I wonder how long it would take to ship..basically theyhave to rebuild the trans again another five hours,plus get it in and out, and all the other work they have going. Plusobviously they don't want to do this all over again, andMIGHT cost even more (half the labor again?)...They said they would stand behind the weld but who knows for how long etc.

Do it once and do it right or do it twice and pay the price? Hmmm. Any more opinions???

RE: Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

well, you have 2 options...and you know that

1st off, personally, id just get it welded and call it good... but... if your not into that idea...

how much is a case worth to you? i uh...might know someone who has one(i.e. me lol)

RE: Cracked Trans Case! Yay!
 

HAHA well we'll se what happens with this guy tomorrow. it's $129 from D&D, I get a discount from Ford so I am going to price that out tomorrow. I might buy a whole tranny and tell this shop to keep my old tranny and the labor and parts invested and do what they will and only pay install labor. I dunno yet...

How much u askin you sly devil?