Stepdown Rear Axle Housing

[hudman51]

re: '51 Hornet. Questions concerning where center section mounts onto rear axle housing. It looks like Hudson attached doubler plates around the opening to stiffen things up. Is there a top semi-ring and a lower semi ring? Now that the center section is out of the way, I can see 2 - 3 areas that would otherwise be laminations in the steel, and small gaps where the top & bottom half approach each other.

It would appear that the rings were welded circumfrentially around the opening before some clearances were ground into the opening, after these cuts were made, they exposed the "cracks" / laminations since the weld wouldn't have penetrated that deeply?

Or do I need a new housing :(

J Cronk
(Holding my breath)

[Clutch guy]

Jon,I'm confused here.Are you saying that where the casting/cast iron meets the metal housing/tubes have holes in the welds or have cracked and split??:confused:

[Clutch guy]

I guess another question here is which axle does it have,should have a Hudson type,which in turn would be all steel with a removable pumpkin??

[hudman51]

Doug - This is a "Hudson-type" axle housing with welded cover. The flange surface on the housing is not cracked on its face (bolting surface), but rather on its edge, with the "crack" or lamination appearing parallel to flange face. The axle housing looks to be of fairly thin material, with a 1/8"(?) doubler ring attached to the inside of the housing to stiffen up the flange face. The studs go thru both the backing ring/doubler and housing for the center section to attach to.

Thanks