>1. Silver Brazing. My brother is in the jewelery findings biz. He has
>miniture torches (pencil point thin flame) and is quite good with them.
>I'll have him braze the thrust washer to the lower bearing cap.
Might work. Bigest potential problem I can think of is the softness of the
braze material. You
might end up with the washer cocking in use.
>2. Epoxy. This is probably a pie in the sky fix. But I've read of
>several hi-tech epoxy adhesives that will withstand 600 d.F. and set up
>as hard as steel, and are capable of beiong machined. I once used a
>product called "JB Weld" to glue a aluminum alternator case back
>together. (Big time hack!) Guess what- 4 years later it's still in the
>car and working in one piece. Go figure.
We had a Cat diesel throw a rod through the block. Used JB weld to repair the
shattered block.
Engines been in service for many many years now without problems. Another
place I know band aid
repaired a cracked Vega block with JB Weld. The engine has never had it's
bandaid repair followed
up on because it hasn't needed it.
Bigest problem I forsee is getting the thrust washer installed properly with
the epoxy behind it.
Kinda hard to locate things precisely this way. But it might be worth a shot.
>Anyway, ponder these.. Add anything that that pops into mind. Worst case
>is I'll just button it up and let it finish destroying itself!
Something that comes to my mind is a powder weld. I've seen it used to build
up worn out shafts
so they could have new splines cut and be placed back in service. I've also
seen it used on cast
manterials to build up a new surface and have it remachined back down. This,
it seems to me,
would be the most effective type repair for your block. A *good* welding shop
would be able to
build up the block and cap, and a good machine shop could cut them back down to
the proper
dimensions.
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