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Starter gear boss broke. Looking for advice for what next.

35K views 59 replies 28 participants last post by  ModernOutlawMotorsports  
I've had this happen to two wildcats that I've owned. The second time confirmed that the stator cover lets go first. Here's how mine was fixed, with thanks to my friend Hank Boismenu for his wisdom & skill. Attached are photos...


We ground away the cracked boss and cut a structural plate to fit flush with the case, supporting the boss. It was welded in place and ground flush.

a second plate was added for additional support and boss hole was filled with weld.

it was welded in place and ground flush.

Here it is dressed and ready for re-drilling.
I can only add five images per post, so I'll follow up with how we orientated the new boss.
 

Attachments

Here's how we orientated the hole...

A steel plate was drilled to match the stator cover holes to create a drill jig.

We orientated a bushing to the jig to center the new hole accurately. Here it is mounted to the case. The bushing was then welded to the steel plate.

We used the broken stator case to ensure the new hole would like up with the new cover by drilling completely through it. We mounted it to the engine with the jig sandwiched between and drilled a new boss.
I'll add to the post with what we did with the gear dowels.
 
now that the engine boss was reinforced and replaced, we looked into going deeper into the case with a longer dowel.

even though the first dowel is longer than the second, they protrude evenly in to the case.


We used another long dowel in the damaged hole, as it protrudes deeper into the reinforced case. We just drilled deeper with the jig to the new depth.
Since the weak stator cover is the root of the problem, the new cover had it's boss reinforced as well. This repair was done a year ago and the wildcat is running strong with no issues from the repair. My current wildcat had the engine replaced under warranty for the same problem. Even though it is a 16 motor with beefier case boss, I intend to pull the stator cover to reinforce so this doesn't happen to me again.
Hope this helps anyone experiencing this design flaw.
 
I made a cardboard template, traced it onto a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate and cut it with a band saw. What is most important is to completely fill the broken boss with weld and redrill the hole in the precise location with a jig. I also went deeper into the case and used the longer shaft of the other reduction gear. I used a new stator cover and reinforced it's boss before installation. Its still holding very well and can't imagine it breaking that way again.