Welded differentials.....who is willing to admit that they have done it?

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If you run tall tires on the street it will be much more forgiving.
 
Did it a lot when we drive speedway. It was on quarter mile tracks. Tarmac.
When going from welded to some kind of sure-grip. You need to setup the hole car different.
 
A "poor man's posi" or "Lincoln Locker" has been around for many years.
I have never done it myself, but I don't see why not for your intended usage.
I say do it!
 
Who knows, I may never get around to it. I'm off work and am trying to take my mind off of politics since that **** gets stressful to think about all the time.
 
Back in the 50's in my 32 with 283 chev the lowest gear I could get for an banjo ford was 4.44. I wanted to go lower so I got a 5.38 Willy's rear and welded it up wouldn't last long at all had it welded several times and finally bot a chev rear and found some 5.13 gears. Twisted several Willy's axles also. Dumb but it was cheap!!!
 
Yep.
Brothers 69 barracuda 7 1/4
Lol.

Weld held, but spider gears did not....
Enuff said.

Driving straight wasn't the problem.....lol
 
I have a 7 1/4 carrier on the shelf with welded spiders, that I removed for a to install a sure grip.
Back in the 1960's I had a 63 Ford Galaxy, that had 4:30 welded spiders 9 inch. Jumped on it one day, and broke the left axle, car went left across two traffic lanes. Lifted and corrected the steering wheel, and went right across two lanes. That weekend it got a detroit locker, and new axles. Had to change my shorts. With todays traffic, would have had a crash, for sure.
 
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I worked for a mom and pop small machine shop in Macon all through the 80s. The owner had a Chevy Monza drag car. Although it had slicks on the back, it was otherwise street legal. We actually used to go pick up parts in it from time to time. It had a spool in a Ford 9". I think it had like 33 - 19.50-15s on the back. You never knew it was a spool because the tires helped take up some of the slack. It drove pretty good on the street.
 
Rick@Laysons said:
I used to weld the spiders in the dirt track cars we raced in street stock, they'd last the entire season with no issue. It was crude....but effective!!!

Some advice if you're going to do this....

Spray the spiders down with brake-clean or something similar first to get as much of the oil out of there as you possibly can. Make the first welds with a 6010 or 6011 rod....just enough to get a good base weld in that ties the gears together. Then switch to a 7018 low-hydrogen rod and go to town building up and fusing together all that you can. If you start getting porosity in the weld, stop and switch back to the 6010/6011 rod and burn the porosity out, then back to the 7018 to finish.
Click to expand...
Thus^^^^.....tens of thousands of dirt cars have had this done.
 
My brother runs a spool in his 9'' rear end in his big block '69 Chevelle and has for years.
You just learn how to drive it and don't boot it on a corner especially if the road is wet.........
 
I ran a mini , then switched to a full spool in my Dart. drove it on the street plenty. never had an issue. it was a big block drag car, so handling was never its strong suit.
 
Done it!! A buddy and I put together a 79 Malibu with a 406 in it. We welded up the 3.42 gear that was in it, through on some dirt track tires and went drag racing...yep...drag racing with Hoisier dirt track tires on the back. Blew up the gears after the 3rd pass. Figured out S-10's with 5 spd has 3.73 gears in them and, did it again but with more weld. More weld was the answer but, then it twisted the axles. That thing ran 7.40 in the 1/8 mile and, we only had about $1,000 in it...lol. If all your doing is out running Roscoe in the back 40 you should be fine...lol
 
Yea I've done it as well. The Old Jeep for going into ugly mud spots. It really made a difference. But boy did I hate it on pavement, almost wish I went with a locker if I could of afforded one.

Andy'sJeep.jpg
 
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