Cast Iron, Ni-99 Cleaning question

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So I've got this tractor in that has been one big headache.  Story is we had a cold snap here, this guy's old M tractor rear end was full of water and iced up when he tried to use it, he rocked it to break it loose and here he blew a chunk out of the axle housings.  It was three days later before he brought it over to my shop and I figured 3 days was enough for it to drain out of a hole the size of my two fits put together.  Nope, there had to have been over 20 gallons of water/oil come out of that yet once it got in my warm shop.  Made a mess all over, filled up a oil pan and ran over while I was working on something else put another one under there filled that up to and made a mess and filled up 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket.  I'm pissed and annoyed with thing, it's been here a week and it's still leaking oil.So yesterday I clean up the axle with a grinder prepping to weld it, got a piece of plate rolled to the contour of the axle, got some nickel rod, still got a slow drip so I stick a rag in and sop up all the oil pooled up at the bottom I can get, wipe the outside with acetone to get the oil residue off, and I tack the piece on and am ready to start welding a bit, letting it cool all afternoon.Well the day before he called wanting to know when his loader would be done because he "needs" it.  He got a load of gravel to cover up the oil all over his driveway because he's tracking it in all over his house.  So being a new business and trying to be nice to people I tell him he can use our loader to do that quick.  Of course he shows up right after I get that tacked on.  I get the tractor started, show him all the controls and figure he's got this, he can't even make it out of the parking lot and he's killed it.  I don't want him to mess this up or wreck something in his yard so I say I'll drive it over and level the gravel quick.  That is a whole other rant there...So you guessed it, I get back and oil is seeping out the sides of the plate.  This is the first time I've used nickel rod, this is the biggest cast repair of done as well, most of the time I use TIG welder and 309L. So I try running it on DC+, can't get it to stick for crap, read online that I can use AC, switch it over to AC after wasting a stick and a half on DC and it welds beautifully then.  It's too expensive to waste though, so how clean do I need to get it to get a good weld?  If I run a rag through there to get a majority of the oil wiped away can I weld?  I drilled a 1/4" hole on the bottom plate last night to let it drain but it's still leaking out the sides this morning.  If worse comes to worse I'll drill a big hole in the plate, let the oil drain out there more and get a brush and some acetone and try to scrub out between the plate and the axle housing, but I worry about welding that hole up later and pulling the edges of the plate enough to make them crack.  So just how forgiving is Ni-99 rod to cleanliness?
Reply:Oh and the oil is running off that gear, so removing that plug doesn't help.
Reply:Now that's ****ty can you jack one side up or lift the back up in the air to get the oil to drip in a diff direction? Maybe I've never tried it you can put a PC of bread in to sock up the oil well your welding
Reply:You need to warm up your housing before you weld it. Place a small heater under the housing walk away let it warm up to a nice warm not hot!! Use a 309l rod tig dc start welding On this housing I walked the cup wetted in nice. Clean it really well Don't rush your welding cast likes it slow. Attached ImagesMiller 250DX HTP 221 DV AC/DCHenrob O-A Miller 180 MigMiller 150 Inverter   Hobart 10,000 Welder-Generator   Have a good day!!!
Reply:Being under the tractor and such a large weld I didn't want to TIG weld it, I've been using Ni-99 rod, no pre heat and while it's welded, there are a few spots that need to be touched up.  When I would weld the oil would heat up and run out.  I drilled the hole bigger took a propane torch and heated it up trying to get the oil to run out more.  It's going to drip all night through the bigger hole then take the grinder to to it tomorrow, scrub and clean and try to get those few holes, I may have to try to TIG those spots though because the nickel rod seems to suck both trying to zap those holes or running a weld into them even after grinding the welds down.  I am impressed as I haven't had any cracking.
Reply:Go get yourself one of those small portable type parts washers from TSC and a couple gallons of mineral spirits. put a gallon in it then set it under the housing with the hose in the rearend, perhaps in the drain plug since it sounds like you have the plate in place already. Maybe squeeze the hose with some wire or something so that it kinda sprays instead of just pours out. Reposition it a few times and when your fluid is dirty then replace it with more clean mineral spirits. Then run some air into it to help dry it out. That will help get a lot of the running, dripping oil off the insides and just leave mostly a film that will burn off. I usually do this with axles when I need to weld up some bracket or make modifications. I have awesome luck with 309l tig on cast iron. Usually lay it on like you would tig braze so that you just melt the filler onto the cast with as little dilution as possible. Then make another pass on top. I also like to run a weave and go slow as it lets each dob of filler shrink a bit and lessen the stress. 309l isn't really the right filler as you can get too much carbon from the cast iron into it and it forms carbides that want to crack and I think they can form over time also and eventually crack. That is why it is important to have very little mixing of filler and the casting. I am not sure if that is exactly correct but from my memory it seems familiar. After the rinse out and air dry take your torch and go over the weld spots to burn off residue before trying to tig. I never have luck with stick on castings so no advice there.Millermatic 252Lincoln 175 plusTA 185tswTA 161stlhypertherm pmax 45Victor torchHenrob torchAn S10 for each day of the week
Reply:Unlike most welders I've met, I don't even pretend like I'm king **** welder.  It's tough enough to get my 6'4" frame under this tractor on a creeper, getting the stick welder in there and keeping my welding hood on, I can't believe they are suggesting trying to TIG weld this.Normally cast pieces I can sit at comfortably I use 309 and TIG weld it, I don't want to try to run a pedal, feed rod, hold a tig torch, then let all that go to try and peen the weld.All though after grinding, trying to zap these welds with Ni-99 rod, and ending up in either a bigger hole or boogery welds, I did remember I had gotten some 308L rod with my Ranger 10,000 when I bought it.  I dug that out and got the two holes giving me problems a zap and it's working.  I'm letting the welds cool now but I'm going to take my time and use this to clean up some of the welds.
Reply:Originally Posted by AntiblingUnlike most welders I've met, I don't even pretend like I'm king **** welder.  It's tough enough to get my 6'4" frame under this tractor on a creeper, getting the stick welder in there and keeping my welding hood on, I can't believe they are suggesting trying to TIG weld this.Normally cast pieces I can sit at comfortably I use 309 and TIG weld it, I don't want to try to run a pedal, feed rod, hold a tig torch, then let all that go to try and peen the weld.All though after grinding, trying to zap these welds with Ni-99 rod, and ending up in either a bigger hole or boogery welds, I did remember I had gotten some 308L rod with my Ranger 10,000 when I bought it.  I dug that out and got the two holes giving me problems a zap and it's working.  I'm letting the welds cool now but I'm going to take my time and use this to clean up some of the welds.
Reply:Originally Posted by 7A749Those welds look really good Dale
Reply:Originally Posted by powerI was not trying to come off as a King-----welder because Iam not.. only a suggestion of welding it using tig as a method is all.
Reply:Its all cool..No problem. Hope you get it done soon so you dont have to loan out your tractor again that would be painful to me!!Miller 250DX HTP 221 DV AC/DCHenrob O-A Miller 180 MigMiller 150 Inverter   Hobart 10,000 Welder-Generator   Have a good day!!!