I picked up my F-150 from the service department at a local Ford dealership this afternoon. It's a 2004 F-150 5.4 4WD Lariat with just over 130,000 miles. I took it in to have an exhaust manifold replaced. The job required them to pull the cab and the engine in order to extract some of the studs. Anyway, nobody mentioned a word to me about this when I picked it up, but upon reading all of the verbiage on the invoice later I found this:

"Had both engine transmission alignment dowels stuck in trans bell housing LH bell housing cracked while removing dowel. Repaired cracked ear on bell housing and added angle bracket"

It does not appear that they welded it - but I cannot be certain as some type of gray sealant has been pressed over the crack around the ear. The tech added what appears to be roughly a 1/16" or very slightly thicker angle bracket mounted on one side at the engine-transmission mounting bolt, with the other side then bolted to the bell housing through a hole that he drilled just beyond the crack.

Question #1 - Do these crack often during removal or does this sound unusual?

Question #2 - Does the repair they made sound appropriate?

I would really appreciate any knowledge and/or advice anyone can share here on how I ought to approach this.

Thanks in advance!

 

The "grey sealant" you saw was probably JB Weld....been in use by shade-tree and pro's for a fair number of years...some think its mana sent from heaven, others think its the ultimate lazy-a$$ way to do stuff...me? I'd rather fix it right...but again that is just me.


as for the frequency of this issue...not too sure it happens that often...

 

I worked 5 years in a ford garage and did countless exhaust manifolds.....never once did I have to pull a cab or an engine. the most I did was on the pass side pull the starter and motor mount bolt and rock the engine up a couple inches for access

 

Bell housing should be replaced by the dealer. There is no repair to an aluminum bell housing short of Heli-Arc welding. The torque converter (or clutch) housing is subjected to enormous torque during operation of the vehicle. Maybe it will be okay and maybe it won't.

 

I would NOT be satisfied with that "repair". I would talk to the shop manager first. Maybe the cheap "repair" was authorized, maybe not. Then if necessary, start up the chain...regional manager, and so on.