Welding a 10 bolt

Ricky B

Ricky B

Wiiide Open
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
LKN - Tha Dirty Mo (Mooresville, NC)
I know everyone says welding a 10 bolt is a bad idea on a fullsize but I'm bout to help my buddy swap some 30 spline (front/rear) 10 bolts into his sammi. The sammi has the tracker motor and will be runnin 35's. I was thinking since a sammi is so light wieght and has so little horsepower welding the rear diff would be ok in this application. Let me know what you guys think.
 
I ran a welded rear 30 spline 10 bolt rear in my full bodied jeep for about a year. Several trips to tellico etc.
lots of dd use to. It had 36's with the 4.0ho motor and a nv4500. It broke oddly enough on the pavement one afternoon driving around town. I still got home but, the case busted into a few pieces that left me the one side driving all the time.
 
I would just weld the spider gears together and don't do like my dumbass did with some D-44's one time. I tried to weld the forged spider gears to the cast carrier. Needless to say one of my buddies found hairline cracks in the carriers and we had to junk them.
 
Seeing Red Again said:
I would just weld the spider gears together and don't do like my dumbass did with some D-44's one time. I tried to weld the forged spider gears to the cast carrier. Needless to say one of my buddies found hairline cracks in the carriers and we had to junk them.
Click to expand...

That's the only to insure it *won't* break... weld everything into a homogeneous blob! Mine was TIG'd with alloy filler and has been holding up that way for about 5 years...
 
wait so i should weld it to the carrier? or just weld the spiders into one huge blob?

Also should I tack weld the spiders while there still in the axle with the axle shafts in place then pull it out to finish the welds? Just figure that way would ensure everything still lines up when i put the axle shafts back in.
 
Just weld the spiders together, carrier's been known to crack like Red said. Krawler did mine, we just kept it hott and continuous, burned everything together real good. No problems so far. Krawler has done at least 4 carriers that I have seen...no troubles. Just melt 'em together and go!!
 
Oh and if you are a jack leg welder like me, watch out for the little bits of spatter and crap that will go all over the place. Clean that thing real good because little metal shavings can be a bad thing to a ring and pinion.

I'm sure a good welder wouldn't have that problem as much, but if you saw my booger welds you would understand....
:lol:
 
Pull the carrier out and get it up on a table. Alot easier to get in there and run some good welds, and its only 4 bolts to get it loose. A wise man once told me you might as well get it on a table and weld in comfort :). I had to use a piece of tube and a BFH to pop the carrier loose. Don't be scared to whack it, should pop right out. Good luck.
 
i use a piece of metal that will lay right in between the spider gears and weld the corners and all the way around. So when you look at it just looks like a plate welded on all 4 sides to the gears. Probably a mute point but if doing a rear that has c clips only do one side so you can still get the axles out if needed. I haven't ever broken one that i welded with the piece of metal in between the spiders
 
i welded my dana 44 and my 14 bolt. i did the dana 44 with the piece of metal on the spider gears and then just welding it until there were no more spaces where the teeth were. I run 38 inch tires with a chevy 350 and 5.13 gears and i haven't had any problem with it at all. I welded it once before just doing the corners, and i welded the corners good enough to think that it wouldn't come loose, i did it on both sides and broke it loose in 2 trips. I have done probably 4 or 5 with the pieces of metal and haven't had any problems with any of them. 3 of the sets are on full size rigs
 
something that will help alot and hasn't been mentioned is to preheat the spider/side gears with a propane or mapp torch. get them good and hot then weld. especially if you're using a smaller machine. a welded 10 bolt should hold up decent under a sammy. the carrier will become the weak spot with it welded.
 
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