Man have I done it now. My friend (at my urging) bought a Syncro Westy off
of Ebay. The transaction went really well. When he got it home, he noticed a
leak of gear oil from what looks like an access plate which is held on by 6
12 or 10 mm bolts on the passenger's side fore of the tranny and aft of the
drive shafts.
With hubris intact, I say "I wonder if these bolts are loose?" and proceed
to tighten. (Yes I have a torque wrench, it's the mind that is gone). You
know where this is going. One of the bolts snapped. "No problem" says our
hero "Ill drill into it and use an extractor. (You see where this is going
don't you) Busted the extractor and could not get the damn thing to move. SO
now I'm frustrated and my pal looks sick. SO I drill some more and put a
1/4" tap in to just redo. The hole now seems a little big for this tap, so I
go up a size. (Can you believe this gets worse or that I am so stupid - in
the words of "THE Bricklayer" "at this point I seem to have lost my presence
of mind")

SO sure enough either the tap was too big or I bottomed it out, but the
threaded hole split. Ouch. I would feel better if it were mine. The only
good thing is that there is no hole into the case, but the access plate
still leaks and will not be tight. So we need a solution.

1. Can this be welded, retapped and fixed (no, not by me) if so what is the
alloy of this casing? Seems pretty soft.

2. Can this casing be replaced?

3. Is this a job for JB weld? (but I assume someone will want to use the
access area again

All responses will be appreciated, I need to fix this.

Jonathan R. Cooper
Rebecca J. Hartman
Cleveland, OH
1985 Westy GL "Dawn Treader"