could you weld a rear differential on a daily driver? AS you can tell I know nothing about the subject please clarify.

 

Sure if you like buying tires all the time, like to chirp around corners, and you don't have ice where you live. It really eats tires, but it's possible.

 

I drive a spool every day- 40 miles round trip, and w/ weekend miles thrown in, I average about 350 miles a week. A spool acts the same as a welded diff, but it's stronger. As mentioned above, tire wear is greatly increased, but if you rotate avery 2500 miles or so, you'll get about 20,000 miles out of a good set of tires like MT/R's. In my case, thats prolly longer than they'll last due to trail damage anyway. I had a Detroit Locker in the rear diff, and disliked the way it behaved on the road, and in reality, it very rarely unlocked anyway w/ the light weight of a pickup.

It boils down to what you want-

Awesome offroad traction- with the expense of buying tires annually,

or,

a decent driving street rig. As my buddy and I say:

"If you Lock It, it will GO"

later

 

I had my 76 Vega Station Wagon rear end gears welded back in 1979 after I dropped a 350 racing engine in it. There was so much torque the wheels would rotate inside the tire. I kept replacing tires every 35-40k.
So yes it can be done, and its cheaper than buying a locker.
-Mike

 

Haha this is so cool. I just finished reading an article in four wheelers about lockers and welding your diffs. Basically what everybody's said was explained in this article. But something else I got from it was that either the welding done is usually pretty crappy, or if it's good welding, the gears aren't meant to have that much stress put on, therefore making them very weak and very easy to break.

it'd be a good idea to just stop by a book store and read this article, very informative.

 

ANother issue with welded diffs/spools, you have more of a tendancy to eat up bearing seals......

But yes, if you are looking for a cheaper locker, can't beat it. But another isue, you are still running a weak carrier when you compare the carrier to a detroit/arb..

 

this is a buddy of mine who welded both the front and rear diffs in his p/u. i have never seen a truck take such a beating on a trail before, so if his gears hold up to the welds, i guess it can be done. his wife drives this truck around town from what he told me before, so i guess it can't be too tough on the street. just as it's been stated, cheaper than a locker, harder on those tires.

BE CAREFUL IN SNOW, ICE, OR RAIN!

 

there is an xtra cab i saw here the other day with welded f/r. the guy said it was ok on the road, but was mainly for offroad...

the rear would eat up the tires... and

front would be fine if you unlocked the hubs right? or not?

 

you're right on unlocking the hubs. if you have ifs, i have heard of people going through cv's left and right with both sides locked up (usually during turning wjile locked).