Hey, I wanted to post this little tip so that someone else might avoid the problem that I had...

(I would not be a bit surprised if this was already a well known thing, but here it goes anyway:))

I welded a rear diff for the first the other day. (Had a loker, decided to sell it and go lincoln.) Welding went just fine, but when I tried to put the carrier on the shafts, it was a no go. They hung up on a BUNCH of splatter beads. I filled and filled and was left with about 2 kinda bad spots that looked like the weld melted into the splines...
So anyway, I got pissed off and put the carrier on the shaft and beat the hell out of it... I soon discovered that welds must be harder than the splines on a shaft cause I smoshed one...

I might have been able to file away my mistake but that would have left me empty inside... So I got a bearing pressed on a spare shaft of mine and pulled another carrier with spider gears out of the spare front axle I had in the basement.

Now, I needed a trick to avoid splatter welds. I didnt want to put a shaft in there for fear that I might weld it onto the carrier...So I got some wood dowel that was a tight fit in there and pounded it in there.

Other than the smoke when the burnt a little, the system worked great...

Another tip, when I was having trouble getting the ring gear on the carrier (couldnt even get it on enoguh to thread bolts) I put the ring gear in the oven and carrier in the freezer, slittped right on after that. Made that part 10times easier...

Whew, didnt mean for this to be this long but there it is...

Does anyone have pics of their welded diff? Just wondering how much it was built up. Been thinking about doing it myself but also dont want it to fail or break on the trail and not be able to get home. Has this failed on anyone?

Originally posted by markmo
Does anyone have pics of their welded diff? Just wondering how much it was built up. Been thinking about doing it myself but also dont want it to fail or break on the trail and not be able to get home. Has this failed on anyone?

do a search for pic's. there has been several posts on this subject.:D

the two most important things to remember are
1 make sur you get it as clean as you can ( no grease)
2 dont get to crazy with the welder, go slow and dont over heat you carier, this will distort the shape.
oh yah one more thing, try and weld the spider gears up first. then when cool, weld the spiders to the case. my .02

A lot of folks would disagree with you there. Many people say DONT weld to the case....I dont cause I dont think it matters. With the gears pasted together and to the center pin like I did if they break I will be surprised. And if it does, Ill take the 3rd member out and when i get it home Ill just fill the whole damn thing up:)

Anyway, I just dont think that those welds are gonna break seeing as how the metal of the welds is stronger than the spider gears...

Also, remember that back whenever, they used to fill their carrier up with lead to lock it:) I would think lead would give way before my welds...

Anyway, Im not knocking your welding to the carrier, just givin ya a hard time:)

i have done it both ways and it worked great. one thing that welding to the carrier dose is , take the presure off the pin and makes it more like a spool. we do this only in hard driving setups

I have done it 2 ways. First I welded to the carrier - that broke. The carrier is cast and does not like to be welded (at least with my TIG)...

Second time I just welded the spider gears. That way worked out great!

The third time I just stuck an ARB in there. Works much better on the road ;-)

CAZ

Originally posted by TyTy
Also, remember that back whenever, they used to fill their carrier up with lead to lock it:) I would think lead would give way before my welds...

This is a trick they used back in the 40's and 50's for dirt circle track racing when it was a "poor man's sport" also used it in "drag racing" in the 50's. Worked pretty good and like you said the lead would loosen up over time. Then you would take a "rosebud tip" and melt the lead out and do it over again!!!:cool: :usa: :cool:

DO A SEARCH!! there is tons of info on this!:eek: