Why Not Weld Front Diff?

I was thinking about welding up the front diff in the jeep. I cant afford a locker or anything, and want my 4 wheel drive to be at least 3 wheel drive..

I did some looking around and what i think i understand is this

if you weld the front diff..

hubs unlocked: No change in driving at all

One Hub Locked: only tire with locked hub pulls, good for mild 4wheelin

Both Hubs Locked: Both tires pull. good for straight line hard pulls. bad for turning.

Is this about right? if so, then what is the downside to welding up the front diff?
i dont wanna do anything to the rear except maybe a selectable locker one day down the road because this is gonna be a daily driver/part time player.

Set me straight if im wrong here peoples. I know you will

 

Re: Why Not Weld Frong Diff?

i found this on another site




welding up front diffs is a waste of time
1 u will break cv's
2 u wont need the steering system any more as it wont do anything any way(the truck won't want to turn)
better off with an air locker or auto locker or just leave it
3 it will drive like crap

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Hope you are not going to drive it on the road because you can't steer and wont get a WOF

Even as a trailer Queen I still wouldnt do it as you can't turn tight

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Not a good idea. Being able to steer is a nice feature on a vehicle. With the front differential welded you would be shoving the front wheels around a lot instead of steering.

 

Re: Why Not Weld Frong Diff?

So it will effect steering even with both hubs unlocked? that would be unacceptable

 

If you weld the front diff you must do so in such a way that both the front axle u-joints are operating in the same plane. If not you will have a very difficult if not impossible time steering.

Welding the diff puts a huge amount of stress on the front shafts and U-joints.

Unlocking one hub now puts ALL the stress from the front drive to the one axle and joint that is still locked in. Normally that stress is distributed between the two axles so in effect you will have doubled the stress on that one axle, u-joint, and hub. Plust that side will be pulling while the other side will not. Torque steer will be difficult to control.

 

I had mine welded for a while. Eventually I broke it. I didnt have any $$ when I welded mine. It will drive fine with hubs unlocked. As mentione they dont steer very good when the hubs are locked so I would unlock 1 hub until I needed the other one.(This isnt recomended) Eventually it broke and I found a used detroit and put it in..

 

I've had mine for about 5-4 years I like it fine. Drives normal on the road. I had manual steering the first couple of years. went though Tellico & River Rock. Now that I have power steering I really like it. It's a dailey driver weekend warrior. Doesn't turn as tight in 4wheel with both hubs locked but then none would unless you had a selectable locker. It's best to pull it out and weld as much as you can front and back an all spider gears.

 

May I recommend the book Hating Life For Dummies......

 

Lock rite cheep.
Steering good.
Welded bad.

 

:iagree:

We all need to learn the hard way sometime...

 

steering is a beotch although with one hub unlocked its not that bad, would i recomend it?? absoultley not. you will more than likeley find your self breaking more $hit and will cost far more in the end than if you had done it right in the first place

 

with one hub unlocked it will still turn hard and the diff action wont be in use so it will steer you. With the diff working even though both wheels arnt spinning even power is still being applied

 

So..using my awesome powers of deduction....
im getting the feeling that maybe its not as good of an idea as i thought maybe it would be....

i am confused a though, if a spool/locker does the same thing, why does it work better than the welding would?

 

If it done buy a good welder you should be fine. The good thing about welded front dif is that you have no slip or lag time before you have traction. which means less stress. No slip then grab. Becareful of advise from folks that have not tried some just posting their opion.
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With a locker in the front when you arent under a torque situation the locker will UNlock and lets the vehicle turn, and if you have twin sticks you can put it in 2 wheel drive on the fly and that will disengage the locker as well for tighter turns... A spool is the same end result as welding the diff.

 

If you are going to wheel in an area that you NEED that much traction, you WILL break things immediately. If you only wheel logging roads and want some traction to get through a mudhole in a straight line then it works great. Also a real pita to keep jumping out to lock the other hub. Lock-Rites are very cheap, easy to install, and 100% reversible. Once you weld the diff, you are basically throwing it away. And yes I have run one.

 

yes this is just my opion, i had bought a jeep truck that sombody did the old lincoln locker trick to, steering components were bent due to this welded diff. had i known it was welded i would have never bought the truck, and it sold very quickly and cheep to a guy that needed other parts off the truck to maintain his daily driver. just a good way to junk a perfectely good diff IMHO

 

A locker allows the two front wheels to turn at different speeds, while a spool does not. The spool is a solid axle. The locker allows one wheel to turn faster than the other, but the slower wheel can turn no slower than the speed of the driveshaft.

 

Well, we're all just posting our opinions. Some just come from more experience than others

I've run automatic lockers like the Detroit and Lock Rite, Spools, welded, ARB's, limited slips, and opens. That's just where my opinion is coming from. I can't speak for any of the other folks.

 

So, cost no object, which wins? ARB?

 

ARB in the front would be MY first choice. I like the detroit in the rear (just in case there is an air presure problem the rear will still work) If I had a 9" or bigger rear axle probably a spool in the rear..