convince me to buy a detroit for my 14 bolt

Grant

New Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Colorado
Is a Detroit worth the money for a 14 bolt? My jeep is on full width axles, barely street legal, and isnt a daily driver. Should i just weld it or get a detroit. Opinions?
 
grant...like we told you at URE, weld that fawker :flipoff2: . no im serious though, its not worth it for a detroit if you dont drive it anymore than to and from the trail. you may want to build a diff cover too, unless your just going to patch yours
 
Im gonna chop the bottom off the diff tomorrow. I figure i can get maybe 2 inches out of it? Hopefully. Ill fix and plate up a cover for it as well.

Then, welding the carrier. Found a 300 amp TIG to use. The 175 wont quite cut it. Hoping to be at DPG friday evening
 
For mostly a trail rig...welding the rear does make sense in a lot of ways, but it does ruin that carrier, etc.

Something else you may want to look into is full spool, but I think that involves setting backlash etc, so you might as well do the Detroit if you gonna spend the cash anyway.

If you can scrape up the cash, Detroits are nice...if you are going to weld it, FIND someone with LOTS of knowledge about this first, I think you will want lots of preheating, etc and weld all the gears to the carrier, etc. (Not just welding spider gears.)

That is what I have "heard" anyway...you will like the detroit on the street more than the welded rear. (But it sounds like it is mostly for trail use)

Sam
 
Grant said:
Im gonna chop the bottom off the diff tomorrow. I figure i can get maybe 2 inches out of it? Hopefully. Ill fix and plate up a cover for it as well.
Click to expand...
you can get more than that out of it...PM buggybuilder for more info.


100_0117.jpg

100_0116.jpg
 
My vote is for a spool. If your road driving is at a minum...the tire wear isnt a issue. Detroits are great...but there advantages are really only come into play if you still drive you rig on the road. (In my opinion). Plus the spool is alot cheaper than a detroit.

Seth
 
SHINTON said:
you will like the detroit on the street more than the welded rear.
Sam
Click to expand...

For the limited street use mine sees, I like the spool more. It's predictable. Off-road, it's even better.
 
if you know how to weld your spiders the right way into a mini spool, you dont ruin the carrier and i have only heard of one person actually breaking the spiders apart. its a guy named george, a lot of you have probably seen him at URE (yellow dodge D50 cab truck on 49 irocs and rockwells). he said he broke both the welds them selves and the spiders on one of his welded rockwells, but it was one of those bouncing-up-and-down-tire-in-the-air kind of situations and then suddenly getting traction. i think and he agrees that the problem wasnt the welds or the spiders, but more that he didnt properly pre heat and then cool off the welded gears before and after like sam mentioned. that guy Aaron871 or somthing has a good pic of what a proper home built mini spool should look like. hold on, ill find it

edit- here you go. these are for rockwells but you get the point
1371914-a1BendixJoints015.jpg

1371917-a1BendixJoints021.jpg
 
why would i do such as a thing as try to persuade you to buy a detroit when you could buy a chevy 12 bolt from me..................................just weld em dude. you'r clearly past that point.
 
yeah man mines welded and really doesnt drive that badly on pavement
 
weld it....

as long as you get it set up right and keep everything in line, you can weld the spider gears outside of the carrier and not hurt the carrier it will be basically like you just bought a spool and put in it, you can take it out and still buy a detroit or whatever you want if you aren't happy with it later on. thats what i did with my 14b and i like mine and i drive it on the road and back and forth to the trail, and i haven't had any problems out of mine.

Kregg
 
Thats the way mine is done and haven;t had any problems yet. Its gives you a little slack before its solid instead of always being in a bind when welded solid.
 
but the slack will chew up the spiders and welds, and the crap they spit out will destroy your gears. its not like 14ff carriers are expensive, what are you scared of?
 
84cucvk-5 said:
Here Check out this link on How to properly weld 14 bolt spiders. http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/9/054/article/The_Proper_Way_to_Weld_Spiders.html
Click to expand...


awww.ford_trucks.com_articles_2003_66d3ea40.gif


I don't personaly care for that method. In my head it seems that it may cause stress in unnatural directions when the spiders bind up on those welds. Not to mention the momentum that is allowed inside the carrier before the binding and the lack of weld.


If you are gonna weld a 14 bolt, weld it with the carrier assembled, welded the spiders to the carrier through the holes in the side of the carrier, like this
Click to expand...

I like that Idea better than the above, but I believe it could be stronger.


I think the key to strenght in welding this style carrier is first welding the spiders to the cross. This is CJ Lagos pic, similar to mine.
aar.sized.jpg


Then filling with weld. I know that there are a lot of centers that are welded through the holes that are holding up. I just don't care for it.
 
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