I ran welded gears in my dirt track car for four seasons (same 12 bolt rear) My "mentor" during the building of the car, made sure that the gears absolutely meshed at the welds, allowing plenty of travel from forward to reverse. BTW: If you have never welded spiders before..."you don't weld the gears together!" You weld up (fill) one "gear cog" on each gear completely and grind the weld smooth if it is higher than the ends of the opposing teeth. Reinstall them in a fashion that allows them to mesh at the same time in forward gear, sort of like setting the timing marks on a cam to the crank. It does have its draw back on sharp turns, as mentioned earlier.
Norm
