Technical 1939 ? cluster - can a tooth be welded

Years back, a local wrecker spe******ed in Ford V8 gearboxes. Mostly built up from ***orted used parts. He kept welded up cluster gears on the shelf, sold on an exchange basis.
Never heard any complaints. At the time new parts were hard to find here, and expensive, so the cheap and cheerful worked
Garpo

 

Gee... too bad no one told him it couldn't be done!

 

I would agree with those on here who have said that the welding would change the metallurgy of the gear itself, but nobody has brought up the idea of welding the gears, and then having the repaired gear heat treated to restore its hardness properties.

It has been a while, but years ago I machined some custom axle inserts for some off-topic half-shafts, including the splines. Those were welded on several times, and then heat treated, and we never had a problem with them. It might create some more machine work depending on the oxide left by the heat treating process, but it's still doable. The process also isn't extraordinarily expensive either.

 

Weld, grind, throw it on the BBQ coals then in some water and go ridding around.

 

In manufacturing, generally parts are rough machined, heat treated and then ground. This is due to the oxide formation as mentioned, but also because the parts distort or warp to some degree. Even if it were only a few thousandths of an inch, that would play havoc with gear operation.

 

Steve, from what you've mentioned in your posts you seem set on using what parts you've collected. If so, why wait, why not get to work? If you want to know what gear sets will swap in, VanPeltsales has a manual, "the in's and out's of early ford transmissions", in addition to ***embly tips it has an application chart that would tell you what ge****ts will work.

 

If you weld with hard face no heat treating involved, weld and grind to suit.

 

Yes and no. The freshly built up weld is nice and hard. The steel right next to it was heated high enough to make it harden as it cooled down so that may be as hard and fragile as gl***, and the (previously hardened) steel a bit further away just got hot enough to be annealed so it isn't hard anymore. Welding on heat treated steel is always a headache.

 

Gears and gear cutting is a very specialized industry. The shape of the gear is NOT something that you can form by hand with a hand held grinder. Even if the weld didn't cause a problem, you would end up with more clearance than necessary just trying to get it to work easily. Then if all goes well, you have something thats most likely not as strong as the original gear..........and all the other teeth are no stronger than the ones that originally broke. Its a poor design that has few to no replacement parts available, and life being what it is........it will choose to break again at the worst possible time. Then you have to figure how to get home ($$) and now a replacement part is even scarcer.....

Sometimes spending a little money up front ends up being cheaper in the long run. I used to have a 33 Ford with a Cad 365 hooked to a closed drive. Wasn't much fun to drive because I knew I was probably only going to shell the transmission if I got on it. Now when I build anything, I make sure I have something that should take the torque and still get me home. Nothing is ever 100% sure thing, but the odds move into my favor when I do things right. When I try to get by, I found I always regretted it later...........

 

It's a late follow up to some of the posts, but the radiation therapy just kicks the **** out of me - literally & figuratively!
I'm digesting the majority of the responses and will probably just pick up the typical rebuild kit and a new reverse idler, polish out the nicks and chips from the cluster and build it back up. Trying it under those cir***stances won't cost me much, and if it does fail due to the original issues I brought to the HAMB I just hope it doesn't destroy the great case I'm starting with. I did contact Mac directly but never received a response.
To all you transmission guys out there, which later model side shift trans should I keep an eye open for if in the future I should attempt a full Internals trans plant? Thanks for all your help.
Love you all for your help & wisdom.

 

Once again, VanPeltsales has an ***embly guide that includes an "applications list". I'd check to make sure but I believe that would tell you what ge****ts would work for your application.

One thing you might try is networking with hot-rod builders in your area, they might know of something you could use, also, I've had good luck placing a "parts wanted" ads on social media. Best of luck on your project.