Anyone know any welding gurus who can weld cast aluminum? This would be for one of my mx bikes -- the drain plug cracked and broke away. driftin240 helped me to repair the majority of the damage with a timecert, but there is still a large chunk of aluminum casing missing that I want filled in. Thanks.
Durafix welding might work. I never used it so i dn't know how structurally sound it would be but the infomercial makes it look indestructable and easy. Apparently all you need is a propane torch and the rods you can buy. If you want to give it a go by yourself. Check it out. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-85515200479269460
It's for my backup bike -- '05 yz125. Maybe I'll give that durafix a shot since it was something I was thinking about trying anyways. But then again, if I can get it welded for cheap, I'd rather go that route since I'm going to pull the motor out of the frame anyways.
Do you have the part that broke away? Its really not that hard to do as long as it is clean. Yours might not be? Is the case split open so you can get to the inside. You would have a hell of a time with the oil there...
The bike has a skidplate, donkey. :roll: The broken case was due to a microfracture more than likely from me overtightening the drain bolt at one point.
Right now the crankcase is still in tact. I don't want to split the cases if I don't have to. Yeah, I'm not sure how things would work out with 15w-30 oil residue in the case. From what I've heard, welding aluminum requires a lot of heat. :eek3:
Yeah I stripped out the drain plug on my 00 Kawasaki Super Sherpa, had to flip it over and change the oil. LOL!! Drain plug was safety wired to the frame.
i can weld it for you . the thing is that you will have to re tap that hole(lol) so when you do that it will leave metal shavings in it. so if it were me i would take it all apart and clean it so it can be welded right and taped without risking the motor.
The shavings aren't a concern to me since this is a 2-stroke bike. The case oil is only for the wet clutch and gearset and the shavings that come out after an oil change (due to aluminum clutch plates) are worse than what you'd get from drilling and tapping. The combustion chamber is sealed off from the gearbox, so there would be no need to split it apart to only clean it. The hole has already been re-drilled, tapped and then was fitted with a threaded steel insert. Would you want that taken out before welding?
