Transfer case housing crack repair

[Erik Anderson]

Ram forum folks,

I have a 1998 ram 2500, V10 engine that has a cracked transfer case housing.

Its acceleration was, initially, delayed and soon the engine began to stall out when idling or coasting. This progressed to essentially not being able to drive whatsoever over the course of 20 minutes. Since nothing unusual or remotely intensive occurred within 48 hours of onset of symptoms, I assume that this leak is actually fairly slow and just reached a critical threshold on the day that it had issues.

I had thought that my truck was doomed to be parted out, since cost of a replacement case would be close to the value of the truck if I were to sell it. However, it occurred to me that a crack in a housing may not be that hard to braise if I could get the truck home, depending on the size of the crack and extent of damage.

I have seen guys on Jeep and Ram forums talk about using epoxy to fix housings... seems a little janky, but makes it seem that various forms of bubble-gumming together may be possible . Does anyone have any thoughts on this as a possibility?

 

[avantiguy]

They "glue" wings on airplanes and body parts on vehicles so start searching Google for the best product for your issue. What's the downside, probably that the crack can continue to develop if the ends aren't drilled to relieve stress.

There are also any number of folks that TIG weld Aluminum so ask around for who's the best in your area. Check with Marina's a lot of boat parts get fixed with TIG welding.

 

[yoda]

Are you saying the t-case ran out of fluid and is completely locked up?
If so you have major issues inside the case, ie bearing locked up and probably the cause of the case cracking.
Also that would not cause your truck to die at idle.

 

[chri5k]

Project Farm to the rescue. See this video for a review of aluminum brazing rods. If the crack is in a non-structural area (i.e. not a mounting flange) you may be able to repair it with one of these rods and a torch.