Weld it or spool?

[FireZapper]

Keep an eye on that mini spool. I bet the side gears are starting to flare where the blocks ride.

 

[Exploderpilot]

i think all these options are relative. whether you spend the money to buy a spool or weld up your own, it all comes down to skinny pedal control. the 8.8 and 9 inch are both monster strong if you just dont do anything stupid. a little throttle control saves you a lot of money, reguardless of the topic. my buddies race truck is a 2.3 liter turbo making 350+hp, and with a welded 8.8. never broken. he just knows how to drive it.

 

[Exploderpilot]

i on the other hand have broken everything, because i get pedal happy. i broke my lim-slip, put in a lunchbox, broke that, welded it, broke that, spooled it, broke that! now i'm rolling open diff again!!!

 

[Splodersport]

For a 9" you don't have a choice since its hard to really weld it. I was riding with Firezapper when the mini spool let go. The 8.8 design really sucks and if there is ANY slop at all (I'm talking thousandths of an inch) between the center and outter blocks the mini spool will eat itself, which in turn will eventually break the cross pin. I wish I'd had a chance to take a picture of the damaged mini spool, but when trying to fix the thing along side the road I didn't cross my mind. We got lucky and an RRORC member lived close by and he brought a new cross pin. I had to remove the carrier and take the ring gear off and put in the cross pin to capture the axles just to get home. Its by far an inferior setup IMO.

On my 86 Ranger I ran a welded front and rear diff and never had a problem with it. When I pulled the truck up from OK to IA it was unknown to me at the time that there was very little oil in the rear diff. This in turn at the cross pin almost in 2 and it could not be removed. After welding the rear axle was stronger than it was stock. The trick to doing it is knowing the property of the metals involved, mainly cast steel. Because cast steel and other steels are different they cool at different rates, thus causing welding problems as they contract at different rates causing stress fractures. The best way is to take a torch and preheat the area that you're going to be working in. Get everything up to a constant temp and stop every now and then to reheat to keep it hot. Ideally use a stick welder with (I believe, but its been a few years since I've done it) a high nickel rod. Make multiple passes to build up the weld area. The spiders should be welded together where they mesh, and welded to where they meet the carrier. After that do a post heat to make sure everything is at the same temp. When done you should use ideally a brine solution, but an oil will work. This will help to keep the heat in the carrier and gears to lessen the effect of cooldown between the cast and non cast metal. In 5000 miles I never had a problem with it and even after the offroad trips they still look like the day I welded them. The front has survived having a hub blow, yoke rip apart, and the same short side shaft break its splines off in the case all at the same time. The only reason I'm not welding my 9" and D44 is that I can't do the 9", but the 44 I decided to do the full spool since I need a new carrier anyhow and its not much more.

 

[Hotweels]

FWIW

3/32" E7018 DC werk's quite nicely

here's a D60 carrier i did with about 10 rod's of 3/32" E7018 DC @ 90 amp's with a miller thunderbolt, the carrier resides in a 3/4 ton dodge pickup with 35" BFG MT's... so far no breakage.

jam rod's in till yer arm starts to hurt

like i said tho.... it's a crap shoot.... you wanna do it cheap then you take yer chances... what roll's outta my shop has a full 30/30 warrenty..... 30' er 30 second's what ever comes first... i just do what others ask of me and i tell em straight what the risk's are.... so far all of my customers have been happy.

 

[jfman]

Does it make your truck use up more gas on the freeway ? Or does it affect the driving only while turning ?

 

[RockRanger]

Uses a bit more gas after alll you are dragging a tire around a corner. The picture above look good except if you are welding an 8.8 dont eld the cross shaft in orelse you will never get an axle shaft out with out cutting every thing apart.