bert bellhousing cracks.

[racin6mod]

I spent the better part of the day grinding and welding cracked bert bellhousings. everyone had cracks in the same areas one was just 6 races old. I can't believe bert hasn't made changes to the casting to address the problem. I have to wonder if a bras from the trany to the rear of the reverse mounted started would help prevent the torque cracks from the starter cranking the motor along with helping hold the starter from bouncing on rough tracks.

I would recommend anyone buying a new bert bellhousing to take die grinder or drimel grinder and deburr all the sharpe edges and radius all the edges to eliminate stress risers that enable the cracks.

[powerslide]

Did they all have the bolt behind the starter when they cracked? I agree bert has a problem but that bolt elimates some of it. When i replace mine i'm going w/ a brinn, looks like its braced better on that side

[keeks]

I think most skip the bolt behind the starter by putting the starter on while the bell is on the bench. That will help a lot.

[hucktyson]

I have never cracked one that had the bolt installed behind the starter

[jared1624]

the biggest problem is with the quality of the casting, they use sand molds and pour the metal into the mold, until they shoot the metal into a die and get the impurities out of the castings, it is never gonna get any better.

With that being said, the only time i have ever cracked a bell housing, 4 of them in 8 years of racing, something happened to let the driveshaft bottom out into the transmission. So if you are having an issue with them cracking, take a look at your driveshaft travel

[mudeater18]

I have several seasons on a Brinn. No cracks. I use the bolt behind the starter.

[late96]

I agree with jared1624, it's usually a driveshaft issue with it bottoming out.

[racin6mod]

I should have stated I run a machine shop/fab shop and all the bellhousing came from different car owners. I just chose to switch the welder over to weld aluminum and repair them all at once. But this is a repair job I do often and most ever bert bell I see for sale on ebay or other site all have crack repairs.

[Rayburnt1]

We have 175 nights on a magnesium bert bell and its perfect. We did crack 3 or aluminum ones though. Just saying.