Would appreciate your input on my self imposed disaster that happened this weekend :(. I was installing my beautifully restored Owen Dyneto generator CL896 in my 1931 Packard, and I must not have had the splined shaft correctly aligned and seated, so when I was snugging down the nuts, it created so much pressure on the endplate that the endplate cast iron cracked and broke in two-- ughh!!!

I'm contacting Jason from AER to see if he has a spare part lying around, but was also considering 3D printing a replacement part. Has anyone had any experience with 3D printing such a replacement part or similar part? Not sure you can 3D print cast iron, but maybe there some similar metal alloy that would be compatible with cast iron in this environment- heat expansion/contraction

Thoughts?

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OH Man!!! I can't help you but I'm sure sorry to see that.

A competent welder can put that back together again.

It wont be perfect anymore and will require some hand fitting, but it is not in the "dazzle" zone so nobody will see much of it.

However, unless something is missing the unit should slide flush with the crankcase and not require tightening to close any gaps so when you put it back together run the nuts in by hand and do not use them to seat the housing.

I had Caddy V-12 castings fall apart on me and was able to put them back together again, so fixing your part is certainly possible.

Hi Stephen, Yuck, what a heartbreaker! I can almost hear that fateful 'cluck' as it broke. Looks to be cast and, as Tim says, a good welder can repair it. Emphasis on 'good' as it is a bit of a trick to repair cast. My experience is that they heat the whole thing up and artfully trickle braze in and 'fill up the porosity of the cast 'holes' to get a good fusion and adhesion. In my opinion, brazing is a near-art-form, and I would want to get someone who is well-reputed to perform the 'operation'. Properly done, and ground, cleaned up and painted afterward and it should be nearly as good as new. Good luck. Chris.

Thanks guys- looks like I've lucked out- I spoke with Jason Smith at AER, and he has a spare that he is going to clean up and repaint for me. Good lesson in the unforgivable fragile nature of cast iron!

Its not just the generator that has a brittle cast iron end.
Starter motors from the same era can fail
http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/mod ... id=209324#forumpost209324

Hi David- thanks for the thread reference. Sounds like the starter end caps have an innate engineering defect. Nice to have the sand casting company reference: alcast-foundry.com. Appreciate your input.