MTFCA Forum

Does anyone know what material the backing plates were made from? I heard they were made from malleable iron. One of the backing plates on my rear end is bent and cracked, I don't remember being able to bend malleable iron that much.
Thank you.
Craig

Definitely not grey iron. Malleable or nodular iron is a good guess. Not sure I would try to bend it back… but might consider bending it cold if you do try. I have welded sections on to repair flat spots from lost wheels. Use stainless rod and a TIG welder, works good

They will take some bending. I use a 24" adjustable wrench for the purpose. However, if yours is cracked at the bends, it would seem to have been bent too far. The backing plate is not a highly stressed piece, really only used to mount the emergency brake shoes/cam. As such, any repairs will also not be highly stressed either. It is not uncommon to have to "adjust" the plate to get the brake shoe pivot bolt positioned so that the shoes lay against the backing plate.

Allan from down under.

it welds very nicely with Certanium Nickel Arc Rod. Tig with the same rod works also, just break off the flux. A less expensive option is to Tig braze it.

I have acetylene gas welded (mild steel rod) or brazed several model T backing plates with ease and success! The only real exception was an early "Ruckstell" Hall Scott backing plate that refused to weld at all and even brazing it resisted. Someone before me had pretty much destroyed the thing with really bad welding. So I didn't try very hard to repair it. It clearly had been cast from some substandard iron, but I am not expert enough to know what it was.