sp100 aluminum

[jerricuda]

I have an sp100 and need to repair a small hole in an aluminum motorcycle case. I ha:confused: ve a small spool of Lincolin .030 aluminum wire. Is it possible to do the job with my welder and if so what mods do I need to do to my machine to weld with this?

[BobC]

I am into welder repair and don't do much welding myself, but If I had an aluminum motorcycle part, I would try to find a really good, experienced TIG welder to fix it.

Aluminum is very sensitive to any kind of contamination of the metal. If it's not prepared and cleaned properly, especially if it is an oil tank or crankcase, you could end up with a nasty mess.

I'm sure one of the many aluminum welding experts will be by soon to to give you better advice.

Cheers,

[jerricuda]

I take it that this is an "I dont know" response to my question.

[Tailshaft56]

I think tig would be a better choice. How big is the hole? Pencil, dime or pinhead?

[jerricuda]

after removing the engine tearing it down and having it tig welded I was left with a pin hole . After all the time and money spent to get to this piont. I am going to repair it myself. I plan to change out the cases next spring but am going to just plug the hole for now

[BobC]

I take it that this is an "I dont know" response to my question.

I just tried to be honest and helpful. I won't try again.

[gnm109]

Everything that BobC said, plus:

I believe that your machine is simply to small for a motorcyle crankcase. While it is true that Lincoln says you can add an aluminum kit which is comprised of a teflon liner, different roller and so forth and changing to pure argon, you simply won't have enough power to do much to that crankcase.

It's awfully hard to generalize on this website wihtout getting your head knocked off, but I would think that TIG would be the ideal choice for motorcycle parts. I do some aluminum welding on Harley parts such as primary drive cases, transmission cases and crankcases and I would always use TIG after preheating the part for a while.

It's certainly possible to weld your crankcase with MIG, it's just that a 220VAC machine would be needed in my humble opinion. You're going to need more than 100 amps to do a good job. I use a 250 amp Lincoln tramsformer machine and it's usually pretty well cranked up for a casting such as you are talking about.

I'll put on my flame suit now and wait for the MIG folks to speak to the topic. I'm sure they'll tell me that MIG is better, ideal, etc.

:cool2:

[jerricuda]

Sorry Bob I didnt mean to offend you, As I am able to do the weld myself and was only asking for some technical information about the welding machines capability to run aluminum wire, not an opinion as to who should do the weld or how tuff it will be. My mistake, I should have been more clear with my question.

[jerricuda]

Thanks Gnm109, Thats more of the info that I was looking for.

[gnm109]

Thanks Gnm109, Thats more of the info that I was looking for.


First, welcome to the forum!

I just noticed about the pinhole. If the person who did the work with TIG left you with a pinhole, he probably owes you something. In any case, it's a pain to have to disassemble the engine again to fix just a pinhole.

You didn't say what sort of bike or the value to you personally. If the machine is somewhat expendable, I would certainly consider using JB weld to fix it by simply pressing some into the hole after an acetone wash job. That stuff is incredible. I'd bet on it stopping the leak, forgetting the unpleasant aesthetic aspect of it.

Obviously you're not going to want to do that on a vintage Vincent or Knucklehead Harley. I do recall, however, fixing pinhole leaks in British bikes with a small ball peen hammer, I used to ride flat-track and scrambles on BSA's, Triumphs and Ariels and the castings were so poor on some of them that they would leak from the factory. A tap with a hammer was usually enough to stop the leak if you could get at it. That was before JB, by the way. Ha.

Regarding JB Weld, I recently had the coolant/lube tank under my Enco horizontal bandsaw spring a leak. Welding it would have been a simple job but the leak was on the bottom and would have required either a teardown or actually turning the machine upside down for access. Since it weighs in at about 400 pounds and I'm sort of lazy anyway, I cleaned the leak thoroughly with emery cloth and acetone. Then I spread some JB weld over it and let it set overnight. guess what? No more leak.

Good luck on this. Being a biker myself, I know how it can affect a person.

Regards

GNM109

[prop-doctor]

it can be done with mig but i would practice on some scrap before u do the case .. but i would try the j-b or something else unless you have welded alum. i do tig every day and have done cases it best to tig because of the heat control mig is tuff to use to fix holes
but if you gona change out case try a good epoxy first unless it has pressure under it

[Joe H]

Use the JB Weld like suggested above. I have fixed some big cracks in dirtbike crankcases with it. After JB-weld, I went right back to abusing the hell out of the bikes with no problems.

[BobC]

Sorry Bob I didnt mean to offend you...

No Problem jerricuda. I need to be a little less sensitive.

I do wish you well with your project. Good luck!

BobC