I am wanting to weld the spiders in my D44 because in the next couple months I am going to re gear and lock and replace everything anyways. I would like to get the rear end locked up for wheeling between now and then. I am wondering how difficult this is I have never done it and on a scale of 1-10 I would rate my welding skills at a 4-5.
thanks
Oh I have a 220v Mig too

 

its not hard, but time consuming.. pull the axles, remove carrier, remove Ring gear (to prevent slag from sticking to it) make sure you weld your spiders together first then weld the spiders to the carrier. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for cool down between welds so you have no cracks.....

reinstall, order your new stuff and pray that your junk doesnt break


Or go to randys and pick up a lockright on sale for 208. then resell when you are ready to upgrade

 

wow that is a lot more work then I thought it would be, I was thinking I could just pull the cover drain the diff spray some brakecleen on the spider gears and weld away and the pull the carrier pin to do the back side.

I have never set gears before so I think that is probably a little out of my skill set. Thanks for the info though

 

I just did this as I want to re-gear within the next year and am currently running 3.55 gears in a trac loc carrier. Because of the dam trac loc the cheapest lunchbox locker I can find is $450 so I opted to weld the spiders while I save up for new gears and a new carrier. My welding skills are in the 1-2 out of 10 range so I had a buddy who welds for a living come in and help me out. It only took him about 20 minutes to do all the welds. I I am so glad I did it, being locked up in the rear is awesome. If your jeep it not a daily driver and you plan on upgrading before too long anyways this is a great route to go.

 

Oh yeah and one impotant step I forgot, remove ALL slag from carrier!!! Otherwise u will chew up the hears and break things extemely quickly!!

 

you can weld the spider gears while they are still in the axle. as you said-just remove the cover clean, dry and weld. you just HAVE TO make sure that you are only welding the spider gears and getting slag on anything else. its pretty simple tho. I have seen it done this way many times. And to do the back, just turn your wheels so the carrier turns to the other side.

 

no no no, this is how you weld your diff.

 

haha, I love that pic but it always makes me wonder WTF whoever did that was thinking.

My friend who welded my diff did not remove the carrier, he was just really carefull to not get slag everywhere.