Welding JD440 Parts

[jd440]

Hello,

I have to repair a couple of parts on my 1958 JD440IC. The steering clutch housing has broken bolt holes at the bottom and the front track idler has a crack across a spoke.

I took out my handy angle grinder and ground a little of the material in the area of the breaks. The sparks were yellow and they had long tails. This should mean that the material is cast steel in both cases.

I have been told that to weld the cast steel, the material should be heated up with an oxy-actylene torch (or similar) to release the hydrogen in the metal and then welded with a 6011 (or similar) rod or wire. A V-groove needs to be made where the crack is or the new and old material meet. Make multiple passes of 6011 to fill in the groove. Keep the weld free from slag or other contaminants. Finally, a 7018 rod can be used to give a tough hard surface if needed.

For those of you with experience in this area, how does this sound? If you can give me any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. The worst job is trying to fix a bad repair.

Derek (JD440)

[Lavoy]

The front idler is cast steel, the clutch housing is cast iron. Unless you have an extremely high steel content cast iron, you can not use 6011. You will need to use stainless, nickle, or braze it.
The front idler is no problem, just vee it out, and weld it back, no preheat necessary.
7018 is a low hydrogen rod, main use is on higher carbon content steels, tensile strenght is about 10,000 PSI over 6011.
Lavoy