JasonAndreas

Has anyone ever seen a cracked transmission bellhousing lobe? This is the part of the transmission that the clutch release shaft pivots in? Mine looks like it broke away in two places. I'm pulling the engine tomorrow and hopefully a local machine shop can weld it back together but if anyone has any suggestions for how-to reinforce this I'm all ears, retail $$$ for just this part of the bellhousing is $1900USD.

Monique

Perhaps www.vanzweeden.com could help you? If your shop cannot repair the component.

Weird. The area is not under much stress I would think.

viperbob

That is really strange Jason. I have never seen a failure like that even on a turbo with a monster pressure plate and a power slave cylinder.

chris walrod

Anything, including castings, is fixable. The machine op for milling that bore should be easy to get to with a mill post weld. Trouble is, one has to locate that bore unless you have access to drawings.

I have heard of these breaking when the cross shaft doesnt engage the 'blind' side bore, or 'misses' it upon assy. Doesnt appear this is the case for you, though.

Wow, this is a weird one..

JasonAndreas

I pulled the engine/tranny and both ears are broken. So I will drop the tranny off at a local machine shop later today and we'll see what happens.

viperbob

Does everything else look OK? All I can think of is if somehow the pressure plate jammed, or the throwout bearing got locked onto the guide tube, then all of the force in activating the clutch would be pushed forward through the fork and into the shaft. I am reaching here, but to break both ears like that has to be caused by something.

Rick Lee

I think this is not uncommon with the early G50 Carreras. Plenty of dicumented cases like this on Pelican and it's usually an easy repair.

viperbob

The cases were modifed since the early G50 days and this has not been an issue since then.

Rick Lee

I know, but Jason makes no mention of what vintage car this is.

viperbob

Jason has a very nice RSA (RS America). C2 vintage.

J.PELLEGRINO

Jason,I am sorry to hear of your problem,I have seen it before.I think it is caused by the bearings that the shaft rided in seizing up and the ears just snap off.We have fixed many and I also have a bell housing if it came to that,which would be very inusual.Let me know if i can help,good luck,Jerry

JasonAndreas

Both ears are cracked but otherwise yes.
After talking with the old guy at the machine shop that I left the transmission with he thinks either I damaged the ears last year trying to remove the release shaft with my improvised bolt puller (hex bolt, some washers and a socket) or the release bearing that pulled through the pressure plate (last year) stressed the ears.

I posted this to here, the 964 forums and at Pelican. The portion of the bellhousing that cracked is the same on the 993 and the 964 casting. The responses I received on Pelican sorta "calmed me down" or rather I'm no longer drinking as heavily.

Its extremely encouraging to here that your experiences show that it can be fixed. When/If I eventually need to replace the syncros and I tear down the transmission I will probably come looking for a new bellhousing. Or if the local machine shop is not as succesfull as they think they will be, I will stop by. Its been a while (5-6 years?) since I've been back to Natick but living out here in the absolute middle of no where has been sorta/kinda good... and I still haven't been able to thank you for letting me watch while you & your mechanics massaged my car back to normal which is what convinced me that I shouldn't be afraid to work on it.