Posted by David Sherman on Saturday, April 30, 2005 at 10:58PM :
In Reply to: Starter Breakage???? posted by Dylan on Saturday, April 30, 2005 at 3:08AM :
I haven't seen one break, but who knows what's happened to it over the past 40 years. Did you happen to look at the crack before you welded it to see if it looked fresh all the way across or if it had been growing for a while. I can easily imagine a crack might have started due to one bolt being loose or missing and the starter wiggling around a bit. This might have happened long ago, and the bolts well tightened since, but the crack might have grown. Or a crack could have started long ago when somebody dropped it or something hit it, but he didn't notice or thought the bolts would hold it okay, but eventually it cracked the rest of the way.
By the way, brazing is just as good as welding for cast, and is easier on the metal and easier to do. With a clean break and good luck, the braze will also wick down into the crack, which weld won't do. It's best to heat the part fairly evenly and then bury it in sand to cool like you did, but no peening is necessary and I've never had any brazed cast iron let go yet. The tensile strength of brazing rod is actually stronger than cast iron itself, so if you can get a good bond (clean it well and use plenty of flux), there's no reason it shouldn't last forever.
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