tried searching for it but is there a right up describing how to go about welding the spider gears in a 14 bolt???
thanks

just take them out and weld them into a ball and put them back in. thats all there is to it.

The way I did it is different ,I read it on coloradok5.com in the tech section, check it out , their way has lasted me about 10 trips so far , and I am not too easy on my rig.

By the way I have done about 7 different axles and none have broke.

i did mine like on ck5 about a year ago. later tho i read that isn't the best way to do it. there is alot of play in the rear end that way. i don't drive my truck alot but i'm gonna tear it back apart and weld it up in a ball.

I looked through the tech on coloradoK5 and couldn't find anything about welding the spiders :confused: ...Am I just blind or did they remove the article?

The old tech article on CK5 for welding the 14-bolt by just filling in the voids in the gear was/is a bad idea............I believe it was finally removed. The guy who originally wrote the article found some issues after putting a few miles on it this way and pulling it apart to inspect it. The wear and tear kept making the "slop" worse and the spiders actually started cracking do to the huge impact stress they were seeing.

If you are going to do it, weld the spiders and side gears into one big ball. I did this probably 3-4 years ago on my K5 with 38's and lot's of trail use with no issues so far. Here's a quick review of the process I used:

- split the carrier in half to access the side and spider gears
- lay one half of the case on the bench and then lay that side gear in the case, then lay the cross and spiders on that (makes sure everything is lined up)............tack it together
- lay out the other side of the case with that side gear installed.......lay the tacked cross/spider/other side gear on it and tack them.
- temporarily bolt the two sides of the case together and make sure everything lines up and fit properly
- removed the tacked together side/spider gears and weld the piss out of them

The nice thing is that you can simply slap in a Detroit or a stock open gear setup at a later date if needed without replacing the carrier or setting up gears again.

A lot of the pictures are missing from KidJethros old post but try this http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=316290&highlight=welding+spiders