Bellhousing Cracks

[canbeam]

A friend of mine contacted me a few weeks ago, looking for a 260 5-bolt bellhousing for his Tiger. He had the engine out of the car, and noticed that his bellhousing had a significant crack in it, near the starter dome, and instead of getting it welded up, he thought he would put in a used one. He was wondering if I had a spare. I said no problem, I have four and I'll drop one off at his place on my way to the City. I did that, and the next weekend he contacted me again and said, guess what, your bellhousing is cracked near the same area as mine... I couldn't believe it as I thought his crack was a fluke, maybe the result of some sort of accident, or trauma to the drivetrain. I then checked my other three and sure enough at least one other one was cracked in the same area as well. I dropped them all off so he could check them all and pick the best one. The other two were so greasy I didn't want to get into cleaning them. That means that at least 3 of the 5 bellhousing were cracked. Is this a known problem? Has anybody had a bellhousing failure? I would assume that as the cracks get worse there could be some vibration to further damage the drivetrain. My friend figures Ford realized this and that is why they went to a 6 bolt design. He is probably right.

 

[spmdr]

I have not seen a cracked 5 bolt Bell. HOWEVER, a lot of Bells have casting flaws that LOOK like cracks.

BUT, ALL of them are OLD enough to a .... Vote a few times over.

And flaws CAN turn to cracks?

And I would add, I don't see that many 5 bolt bells these days...

DW

 

[0neoffive]

For the record; the only time I've seen a cracked 5-bolt bell is when a naive tech/mech tried bolting in a mis-fitting starter, And yes, guess where it cracked. Make sure it sits flat, bead blast it clean and fire up the spool gun. Amen

 

[Warren]

There's one hanging in Playa del rey for 100 bucks. It's blasted clean as a whistle. If you want his number PM me.

 

[canbeam]

There's one hanging in Playa del rey for 100 bucks. It's blasted clean as a whistle. If you want his number PM me.

Thanks I'll let him know if he has any grief. The car is very stock with original paint and this is the first time the clutch has ever been removed and replaced.

 

[canbeam]

Just an update on the cracked bellhousing situation. As I mentioned before I brought down the other three bellhousings to my friend and left them with him. Just like the first one, they were covered in dirt and oil so couldn’t be inspected properly without some work. Well, it turned out the other three had cracks at the same place! He then saw a couple on ebay, and bought a very nice looking bead blasted one, that looked like it had no cracks, and the seller said it was perfect. Well, sure enough when he got it also had a slight crack in it in the same location. I think it is so small he is going to get it welded. That is 6 of 6 bellhousings. He is a pretty experienced Tiger guy, so doubt he would be fooled by flaws. Looks like it is something everyone should check when they are working on their drivetrain. They are all cracked in the area of the starter bulge, so maybe they are caused by repeated starter stress.

 

[spmdr]

I also looked at a stack of bellhousings. 3 were too dirty to see anything, of the 4 that had a chance to see anything, 2 had the casting flaws I have seen on most and 2 had surface issues that masked any flaws/cracks.

The one bellhousing that is the cleanest has a very clearly seen "flaw" that could be considered a crack except it appears to be only on the surface.

I goes right to the machined surface but can't be seen in the machined surface and can't be seen on the other side.

The first Tiger I bought had the same flaws/cracks that I think are what we are talking about.

At the time, I concluded that they where not serious because they were on the car when I took it apart

and it was not a problem.

And if it ever became a problem, I would deal with it then.

As it turned out, I had the bellhousing off a few times and there was no change in the bellhousing "cracks"

I gave up any worries of the Bellhousing cracks/flaws.

Beware of welding castings!

The chance of ending up with cracks that were not there before are high.

And the chance of distortion is extremely high.

DW

 

[spmdr]

Exibit C or F

I call this a casting flaw. It's very common on 5 bolt bellhousings.

DW

 

[Tiger67]

Yes on the casting flaws. When I cleaned up my housing I thought it was done for. On closer inspection, not one of the "cracks" went through the casting.