source Hewland transmission case

[dajl]

my Hewland transmission case is cracked. need repair or replacement. thanks for the help. i am located in CT

[Pi_guy]

my Hewland transmission case is cracked. need repair or replacement. thanks for the help. i am located in CT

Mk or LD

[HazelNut]

PM me if you need an LD.

I have most of an LD200 sitting at WRD. I was slowly gathering up bits and pieces to build up a spare.

[Earley Motorsports]

Get it welded up by a competent welder. Both mine and as well as many other folks have them welded up. If it is a MK9 or VW case they can be either aluminum or magnesium.

[racerdad2]

Scott Church of Gear Daddies in Lakeville, Mn. does a great job of rebuilding, preparing, bluepeinting gear boxes.

Sounds like all you need is a good welder. My Reynard case has several major welded repairs from broken ears, etc.

[dajl]

thanks guys for the replies. My transaxle case is cracked where it mounts to frame behind the ring gear. Gather part hard to come by and expensive. Will go the weld route. Have some locals in Danbury area should be able to get the job done.

[Bill Manofsky]

I just had a crack in my case heli-arc welded by a competent welder named Brian Womack from Bancroft Motorsport near the Orange County airport in Los Angeles. He did great work. He says he has been fixing Hewlands for years and has seen many, many cracked cases.

Find a good Heli-arc welder and clean up your case before you take it to him. Remove all the oxidation and any paint at least an inch either side of the crack. A circular wire brush on the end of your drill should do the trick. Get as much of the dirt and grime out of the crack as you can using degreasers etc. and maybe a fine wire pick.

[Steve Demeter]

I would consider carefully heating the area to burn any lingering oil out of the area after all the cleaning is done. Then clean it again.

Cleanliness it the first step to a good weld.

[S Lathrop]

That is a VW case and it is magnesium. So you will need to find a compatible welding rod. Demeter's comments about welding and cleaning are extremely important to follow.

I had issues with that case cracking on many cars. Having the case welded will fix the crack but not the reason it cracked in the first place. You need to build a brace that prevents the cracking.

There is a round spot on the center of the case that is part of the rib going down the center of the casting. You can drill a 5/16" hole in the center of that circular spot and then spot face that area. That will be the center of a W shaped brace The next 2 points will be the ears on the side plates and you will then finish with 2 more legs to the original mounting pads for the VW transmission mount. The area where the cracking starts. This will stop future cracks.

On several cars I have built the brace and drilled the end of the crack to stop the propagation of the crack and the case never had to be welded.

[pooch776]

Steve,

Do you have a photo of the brace you are describing that you can share with us? I consider you a wealth of information and would like to know more since I have had a number of cases crack in the same place over the years.

Thanks, Joe

[S Lathrop]

Steve,

Do you have a photo of the brace you are describing that you can share with us? I consider you a wealth of information and would like to know more since I have had a number of cases crack in the same place over the years.

Thanks, Joe

Sorry but I do not have a picture. The last one of these braces I made wan on a Zink Z16 with inboard rear suspension. That was maybe 15 years ago. That car was very prone to crack the VW bell housing.

[scorp997]

VW cases are pretty easy to come by, and the newer Rhino cases are stronger in some areas (and pretty cheap). You do need to have someone machine the clearance in the reverse idler area (find someone who has done it before), but otherwise it is a stock VW case.

My local shop can do the work, for about an hour shop charge. I would suggest finding a shop that can do the machine work AND the pinion crown setup to make sure it is properly done.

[S Lathrop]

As I thought about the case cracking problem, I first saw this with the Zink Z10.

Many of the older FF mount the engine and transmission in similar ways. The engine has 2 mounts on the side and the 2 mounts on the top of the transmission side plates.

If you look at the side of the car and draw a line between those two mounting points, engine side and transmission (actually 4), you can visualize an axis between the mounts and easily visualize how much of the mass of the engine is above and forward of that axis. As you corner the car, the engine torques around that axis. The transmission case is the weak point. AS I remember, the cracks are most common on the left side.


On the Z10, I started adding a brace from the left side of the roll bar bulkhead to the left side of the block on the generator boss at the top of the block. On some cars we added a brace to the top of the cylinder head. On the Z10 I did not make the W brace but anchored the front of the engine and I added a boss to rear bulkhead to pick up the bolt on the VW case where the VW starter mounted and the case bolts to engine adapter.

[BorkRacing]

Steve, on the Z10 do you recommend both or is the generator boss attachment sufficient?

Rob

[S Lathrop]

Steve, on the Z10 do you recommend both or is the generator boss attachment sufficient?

Rob

I like the head mount. On the current cars I am using a 1/4 aluminum plate that bolts to the head under the water outlet and an additional block that bolts to the front of the head. The plate then extends to the roll bar on both sides. On the Z10, you would add mountings near the outer edges of the bulkhead.

[BorkRacing]

The torque on the water outlet won't cause leaks? So I presume you use 2 gaskets, one above and one below the plate?

Rob

PS while we are talking Z10, i have one of the around and down the back of the hewland type headers. How much will it affect power if I shorten the secondaries 6 inches?

[S Lathrop]

The torque on the water outlet won't cause leaks? So I presume you use 2 gaskets, one above and one below the plate?

Rob

PS while we are talking Z10, i have one of the around and down the back of the hewland type headers. How much will it affect power if I shorten the secondaries 6 inches?

And I have third bolt that goes into an aluminum block bolted to the front of the head. All the heads have a mounting boss on the right side and front of the water outlet. Many heads have those bosses drilled. It is possible to bolt through the bulkhead into that boss. If you choose to do that, I would use something like a leaf spring bushing in the frame and bolt through that bushing.

[HayesCages]

Has a repaired area as shown in bottom picture, lower right. Early style pinion bearing w/4 bolt retainer. $100 + shipping from 83860

[Robert J. Cavanaugh]

my Hewland transmission case is cracked. need repair or replacement. thanks for the help. i am located in CT

Hello I have 4-bolt pinion bearing case machined $375 plus shipping %70-223-8870 Bob

[dajl]

thanks for all the discussion! Located transmission shop Lee Williams in NC. has new case> aluminum used by off road guys so extra strong. $500. new better than weld. he is afraid that in time will fail again. he also is very fair on labor to remove trans and install in new case, looking over trans for needed repairs. gonna go that route. Interesting discussion re crack. Mine is left side at top front. Had car 17 years> no problems with that.

[HayesCages]

You won't regret that decision

[Earley Motorsports]

Lee is a great guy and so helpful.