Filling hole in cast aluminum for tapping?

Blaze

Blaze

The Jeeper Reaper
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
So I royally screwed up the front plate on my T56 in my Trans Am. The throwout bearing retainer bolts snapped off and were stuck in there pretty bad. Well, I was having a really shitty day and in my rage filled state and my lack of desire to remove the front plate, I majorly fucked it up after an easy out broke off in it. Like, majorly.

So I ordered a new front plate, but wondering if this thing can be saved. I started screwing around with it since it was already so fuxored and I managed to bore out the hole on the mill and get the easy out out and then milled the chewed up spot flat, but it is now about 1/4 inch lower than it was before and the hole I made was quite a bit bigger. I can't TIG weld, but is there a way to fill the hole and build up the boss a little bit to make it functional? It is straight up cast aluminum. I'd like to drill and tap an M6 bolt into it.

I don't have any pictures unfortunately.
 
braxton357 said:
Wish you were closer, could build it back up with weld in 10 minutes. Maybe this is your reason to buy an ac tig setup
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:lol: Sounds like something I'd do. Spend several hundred dollars to repair a $200 part.
 
I may get laughed at, but Northern Tool has those aluminum repair rods and they absolutely work. I have built several ham antennas with the rods and simple mapp gas (acetylene is too hot) and a little time.
You can get from Amazon and eBay too.
 
Alumaweld rods .....
 
If y'all get a tig weld to hold threads I wanna come learnt sumthin.
The material has always been to soft after the annealing effects of welding for me to make decent threads.
Maybe it's using 4 flute taps, but most of the material tears or gauls to the tap and ruins anything ressembling a thread. Also have tried cutting fluids and paste wax of various types.

A fancy insert or a two part epoxy has served me well for threads. Or a through bolt when applicable.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
If y'all get a tig weld to hold threads I wanna come learnt sumthin.
The material has always been to soft after the annealing effects of welding for me to make decent threads.
Maybe it's using 4 flute taps, but most of the material tears or gauls to the tap and ruins anything ressembling a thread. Also have tried cutting fluids and paste wax of various types.

A fancy insert or a two part epoxy has served me well for threads. Or a through bolt when applicable.
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I have heard this from others.
 
ponykilr said:
I have heard this from others.
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I refrained from being a know it all metal nerd. Some very substantial reasons don't allow aluminum welds in general to make good threads.

Its all in the "science of metals"....
 
I've seen repairs made by boring the hole larger and turning a round plug to weld into place, then machining after welding. Better than tapping a weld.

If it's not too oversized, look into a Keensert, or a solid E-Z Lock insert. Those can both deal with oversized holes (I've used them to adapt M8 holes to M5 fasteners, for example).
 
Fabrik8 said:
I've seen repairs made by boring the hole larger and turning a round plug to weld into place, then machining after welding. Better than tapping a weld.

If it's not too oversized, look into a Keensert, or a solid E-Z Lock insert. Those can both deal with oversized holes (I've used them to adapt M8 holes to M5 fasteners, for example).
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I picked up an EZ lock kit for my t5 bellhousing. I have no doubt this will work on my 1 stripped out bolt. Stupid easy.
 
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