welded diff's
 

I've been doing research but can't find too much. I'm thinking of welding my front diff, and was pritty sure that once the hubs were unlocked I wouldn't even be able to tell that anything was anything different up front. I found a post with the title "welded rear diff??" the last two posts talk a little bit about welding IFS.

--rowan say: "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?"

which is basically the same question I have. but then,

--monkeynuts says: 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).

So is it a good idea or not.when people go throught cv's is that just when the hubs are locked or does it have an affect either way(locked or unlocked).
what I was aventually thinking of doing. Was welding the frontt diff and of course driving around with the hubs unlocked. As far as the rear goes, a buddy of mine has an old toyota rear axle sitting around and said he would hook me up with the diff. Sence I would then have two diff's I could weld one solid and leave one open. then when I wanted to go wheeling, it would only take a few minutes to switch out the diff's. Is this a bad plan or is there anything I didn't think of. I am a super poor college kid who has spend alot of time cruising the board looking for the cheapest way of doing everything. well i'm going to continue searching. thanks for all your help, and hopefully usefull comments.

eddie joe ramirez
Albuquerque, NM

bad idea, especially on a front diff, they need to be able to differentiate when not going straight, otherwise axles will snap like a hot knofe cuts through warm butter

I have an '89 pickup, manual hubs, 4.56 gears, V6. I have a welded front diff and I would never go back to an open. Always carry a spare CV axle though, especially if you have a welded front. Steering will be much more difficult on high traction surfaces. By high traction I mean dry hard packed dirt. On surafces with less traction than dry hard packed dirt the vehicle's turning radius goes up a bit. Do not ever attempt to run the 4WD on wet or dry pavement. You'll break something in an instant.

Thanks guys.

miket223, how many CV's have you broken. and how hard are they to replace out on the trail. :welder:

I haven't broken any yet. CV axles break, that's just what they do eventually. If I had an open diff I'd still be carrying a spare. You'll need a basic set of hand tools, a 2-3 foot pry bar to speed things up, 22mm socket for the shock, and the axle nut socket. I don't remember what size it is but that information is readily available on tech writeups and I'm sure someone will chime in here and tell us what size socket it is. Total time for a CV axle swap can average about 20 minutes to 1 hour.

What you want to be able to do is get a set up to allow you to have the hubs locked and to disconnect the ADD while the truck is in 4WD (kinda like the cable actuatior they have for the Jeeps) If you can rewire the vaccume switches to be able to toggle the Add off, you have basicly disabled that side and you can turn the wheel. I am seriously thinking about this myself.. I would love a DPDT that would lock the ADD in one position and unlocked in another.

Anyone have input an rewiring those relays?? I have not even looked at it yet..