Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey guys, I got my front diff center out, and am about to weld it up, but I was just wondering what is the best way to do it, I am considering doing it as discribed on this website

http://www.island4x4.com/4x4tech/axle/weldeddiff1/

but was just wondering how those of you that have welded diffs did it. is there a better/stronger way? I have read about some people welding the spider gears to the side gears but after reading that

"A fully welded diff will often bind up the drive-train making it difficult to unlock the hubs." thought the 1st way might be the best.. Any opinions??

I did the method shown on island4x4.com to the rear of a 1.3 wide track , very easy to do ,also easy to change back to standard just new side gears.It's working great so far (over 1 year) even with heaps of onroad klm's , I think any welded diff is BAD practice but this method would be my choice for the front if welding is your only available option, the small amount of movement left in the gears should make it easy to engage/disengage hubs, and the limited use of the front diff should keep the wear factor created by having that movement to a minimum.

This has been done by a few people on here with fairly good results, but the one problem that has arisen from this welding tech, has been that it may give just a little movement of the gears therefore increasing the shock loads that the diff gets. This was the assumed problem with somone not long ago that lead to major diff failure.

Id just say have a search on here for weld+diff and see how otheres have done it. I am running front and rear welded and justy welded the absolute crap out of the centre.

This is what was done to mine, it's working fine for years.
make sure side plate is back on before welding other end, or the teeths may not line up.
me learnt hard way
christover

is it best to use low hydrogen rods when welding the gears

i used tc 16 low hydrogen rods , but before doing anything i;d do a search on welding centres and look at all the pro's and con's of this and other methods of welding it
cheers Jai

Believe me, I've done some searching and then some!! The tech sheet on island4x4 is the best(insructional wise not nessecarily best method) I've found after a weekend of searching. I thought a fair few more of the guys on here had welded their diffs so thats why I thought I'd run it by you guys before I made the finale decision... you haven't steered me wrong yet..

With yours christover, I'm taking from the diagram that your side gears are welded only to the side plates, there is no welding inside around the spider gears like the island4x4?? On Pirate4x4 they talk about completely welding the whole center solid by putting bolts and plates and stuff in there is that more trouble then it's worth?? Thanks again for your input..

Whitey wrote: With yours christover, I'm taking from the diagram that your side gears are welded only to the side plates, there is no welding inside around the spider gears like the island4x4?? On Pirate4x4 they talk about completely welding the whole center solid by putting bolts and plates and stuff in there is that more trouble then it's worth?? Thanks again for your input..

yes, that's right, but I didn't do the welding, Gwagensteve did 1 and Joey (sr20de zook) did the other.
Mates are cool
It has been strong enough for my needs, tho in usa they use thumping great V8's huge tyres etc.

christover

Whitey wrote:Believe me, I've done some searching and then some!! The tech sheet on island4x4 is the best(insructional wise not nessecarily best method) I've found after a weekend of searching. I thought a fair few more of the guys on here had welded their diffs so thats why I thought I'd run it by you guys before I made the finale decision... you haven't steered me wrong yet..

With yours christover, I'm taking from the diagram that your side gears are welded only to the side plates, there is no welding inside around the spider gears like the island4x4?? On Pirate4x4 they talk about completely welding the whole center solid by putting bolts and plates and stuff in there is that more trouble then it's worth?? Thanks again for your input..

No its not.....weld a plate in. Dont weld t the carrier coz they have a tendancy to explode and make sure u put ur axles into the diff before tacking the plate into position (so the plate doesnt block the axles for going all the way in). The weld the absolute crap out of the centre and gears and where ever else u can see in the centre