Note to others: weld your tubes to the diff housing!

[scotts90ranger]

I think I've posted in this area of my Ranger doing a tractor pull from the beginning of September, the ol turbo Ranger put down 226', beat a 4.0L cherokee by 20', also beat two V8 Wranglers and two 4 cylinder Toyotas...

Anyway, I had a little axle wrap at the end and broke the rear yoke from contact of the D shaft side straps hitting the yoke, pierced the radiator with the fan (just a little hole), bent the drivers side leaf spring, and broke the passenger side plug welds on the diff!

Anyway, as I said in the title, if you are already there with the welder welding shock tabs on and spring perches, weld the tubes to the diff housing... even some non perfect welds will be better than nothing, I thought about doing it on mine while I was there a couple years ago but decided against it...

 

[kunar]

ill be welding on my spring pads and shock mounts tomorrow. i had thought about welding the tubes as well, and kinda wondered how important it really was. i *will* be welding the tubes after reading this. thanks.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Isn't there a need for specialized rods or wire because the tubes are steel and the housing is cast?

Richard

 

[Captain Ledd]

I just mig welded mine, not sure if you were supposed to or not. I practiced on a junk full size 8.8 first and got it dialed in so they were looking real nice and pretty.

If course I'm running a N/A 4 banger with a 31 spline Explorer axle and A/T tires, doubt I'll ever be in a situation where it's under enough stress anyways.

 

[scotts90ranger]

It probably should be done with special rods and such, but anything is better than nothing if the situation is there...

It took a lot to twist the housing, I was in 1st low full throttle with like 15k pounds behind me with siped 35" mud terrain tires and a locker, 12psi boost... was enough power and traction to lift the front drivers side tire... Still, with all that I'd only heard of people doing that with V8's and/or doublers so I didn't think it was a big deal, until this morning...

 

[UrbanRedneckKid]

Technically, to weld mild steel to cast steel, the cast should be preheated, then tig welded with high nickel rod, then wrapped with blankets to slowly let it cool over a few hours.

Mig welding works, just isn't the "proper" way of doing it. I wouldn't repair a housing, or weld brackets to the cast w/ a mug welder, but it would be ok as extra strength on the tubes.

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[scotts90ranger]

I extracted the affected spring pad and took a wire brush in the drill to the joint of the tubes and diff, next steps are to drain the oil then unload my trailer so I can drag the axle to work or my mom's house to use a big MIG or 220 stick welder, the housing won't really fit in my Geo Tracker so the trailer is required