Thanks for the response Daryl, I guess I can take your expert's word as
Gospel.  Any special Paint suggested, or suggested prep work?

Fichten

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daryl Christensen" <aatransaxle@direcway.com>
To: "Herr Wibo Fichten" <wibo.fichten@ROGERS.COM>;
<vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 15:21
Subject: Re: Transmission housing corrosion and (separate question) asbestos
;~(

> Corrosion on trannys where salt/anti icing stuff is used is all too
common.
> There are many core tranny's I get that have totally unusable cases due to
> that problem and there is nothing other than painting when thay are still
ok
> that will stop it.
> Once the alloy is starting to go, there is nothing permanent that will
help
> that I know of. JB weld will temporarily do the job, but wont stay put for
> long. Some guys have added steel pieces onto where the shifter mounting
tab
> goes to jury rig it, but you have to have enough material there to hook
the
> plate to....no easy answer..
> Daryl of AA Transaxle
> Duvall, WA. (Seattle area)
> 1-877-377-0773 toll free
> 425-788-4070
> aatransaxle.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Herr Wibo Fichten" <wibo.fichten@ROGERS.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:54 PM
> Subject: Transmission housing corrosion and (separate question) asbestos
;~(
>
>
> > Busbrats, Vanagonites, Syncronauts, lend me your ears...
> >
> > I have a project 1988 Syncro and have discovered to my dismay rather
> severe
> > corrosion of certain areas of the transaxle housing.  There are no
rotted
> > through holes, but the shift link attachment point (a sort of tab
thingy)
> > fell off. The place where the diff locker switch enters the housing is
> quite
> > corroded.
> >
> > This is a canadian vehicle that was winter driven, but my 1984 2wd,
which
> > was also winter driven (but not every winter), has it's housing quite
> > intact.
> >
> > The affected parts seem to crumble to a dark grey dust.
> >
> > Any suggestions as to what may have caused this?  Sure there is road
salt,
> > but I was under the impression that aluminium was much better at
resisting
> > corrosion, as opposed to steel?  Aluminium road signs exposed to salt
> spray
> > seem to last forever. The head corrosion problems were attributed to
> > phosphates, not road salt.
> >
> > Anybody know if you can weld aluminium (to add some metal, essentialy,
> > rather than to join two parts).  Would this be at the risk of warping
the
> > housing?  How about the other handyman's duct tape, epoxy of the JB Weld
> > variety (for an outside application, as opposed to the head repair
> > proceedures discussed in the archives)?
> >
> > How can I stop or slow the dammage? Just a bit of rust proof oiling, I
> > suppose?
> >
>