Welded diff's

This is something I've been wondering about for a long time. What exactly gets welded on a welded diff? And what does it do as far as options go if, say in the future, one were to want an LSD instead?

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Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
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hahaha...and no i'm not serious.

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Chris

There was a bunch of threads on specialstage on this a few years back with pics and shit like that. That's probably best place to look.

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Grant Hughes

you get the idea... and to go LSD you'd be replacing your welded open carrier with a new LSD carrier, so welding it wouldn't hurt your future options.

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TV and Beer! What could be better?
http://weregonnahaveatvparty.blogspot.com/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2010 10:50AM by joshm.

joshm Wrote:
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> you get the idea... and to go LSD you'd be
> replacing your welded open carrier with a new LSD
> carrier, so welding it wouldn't hurt your future
> options.
>
>
>
> Edited 1 times. Last edit at Apr 29, 2010 by
> joshm.


Weld everything to everything. The middle picture is sufficient. The extra block in the last picture is just unnecessary weight. One thing that should be mentioned is you must have a pair of axles slid into the side gears when you weld them to keep them aligned or you'll never get them to go back in again. Don't ask me how I learned that lesson oh so many years ago. Best to use junk axles in case the heat weakens the splined end or just keep them in long enough to tack the side gears in position. Oh, and remove the ring gear before welding so you don't warp it or get spittle all over it.

Without the ring gear, won't the 'lip' on the diff warp and or get covered in spittle. and make it pain to reassemble? Would the best solution be to leave a junkyard ring gear on the diff like with the axles and then replace it with your fancy pants ring gear after the diff has cooled?

Andrew_Frick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Without the ring gear, won't the 'lip' on the diff
> warp and or get covered in spittle. and make it
> pain to reassemble? Would the best solution be to
> leave a junkyard ring gear on the diff like with
> the axles and then replace it with your fancy
> pants ring gear after the diff has cooled?


No, you're not welding on that part. One thing I should have mentioned. Use plenty of that welding anti-spatter spray to keep the welding spittle from sticking. Knock loose all the spatter dingle balls and wash the whole diff (actually, it's now a spool) in a solvent tank to clean everything up after welding.

A diff can be welded in the car. Take off the cover, spray a can of brake cleaner in there, let dry, weld the piss out of the spidies, spray another can of brake cleaner in there, put the cover back on.

Thats how Tim did it for me and it has worked like a champ!

alkun Wrote:
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> A diff can be welded in the car. Take off the
> cover, spray a can of brake cleaner in there, let
> dry, weld the piss out of the spidies, spray
> another can of brake cleaner in there, put the
> cover back on.
>
> Thats how Tim did it for me and it has worked like
> a champ!


NOOOO!!! Do not do this! That is the stupidest thing ever. I will put this in caps to emphasize the point. DO NOT EVER WELD ANYTHING YOU'VE SPRAYED BRAKLEEN ON!! The fumes are highly toxic and can cause serious brain damage or even death if you get a good whiff.
Never mind the fact that I'm now taking bets on how long it takes before your rear end breaks... It's just harder to weld it well in place and good luck getting all the spittle cleaned out of there.
Take the diff out and do it properly, it's really not very difficult. Don't be lazy.

I have to agree. in car welded the diff in my Volvo, it lasted 1.5 months and blew up in dramatic fashion. I removed, cleaned, welded, re-cleaned the diff in my XR, and it went to a few drift days, and did like 5,000 miles incident free. I have since upgraded to the BMW LSD.

Al, have one of your spare diffs welded properly and swap it in before it fails.

>
> NOOOO!!! Do not do this! That is the stupidest
> thing ever. I will put this in caps to emphasize
> the point. DO NOT EVER WELD ANYTHING YOU'VE
> SPRAYED BRAKLEEN ON!! The fumes are highly toxic
> and can cause serious brain damage or even death
> if you get a good whiff.
> Never mind the fact that I'm now taking bets on
> how long it takes before your rear end breaks...
> It's just harder to weld it well in place and good
> luck getting all the spittle cleaned out of
> there.
> Take the diff out and do it properly, it's
> really not very difficult. Don't be lazy.


Hmmm, maybe that why me no think so good now. It was actually carb and choke cleaner, which from the label looks to be regular old solvents, not chlorinated. Unfortunately this is probably not nearly the stupidest thing I have ever done,


The welded diff is a temporary measure, when the square pumpkin returns, it will be all trick, no hinky.

Doivi Clarkinen Wrote:

> NOOOO!!! Do not do this! That is the stupidest
> thing ever. I will put this in caps to emphasize
> the point. DO NOT EVER WELD ANYTHING YOU'VE
> SPRAYED BRAKLEEN ON!! The fumes are highly toxic
> and can cause serious brain damage or even death
> if you get a good whiff.

Do they even MAKE chlorinated brake cleaner anymore?

All I ever find is a blend of acetone and methanol and some other HCs.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Pete Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Doivi Clarkinen Wrote:
>
> > NOOOO!!! Do not do this! That is the
> stupidest
> > thing ever. I will put this in caps to
> emphasize
> > the point. DO NOT EVER WELD ANYTHING YOU'VE
> > SPRAYED BRAKLEEN ON!! The fumes are highly
> toxic
> > and can cause serious brain damage or even
> death
> > if you get a good whiff.
>
> Do they even MAKE chlorinated brake cleaner
> anymore?
>
> All I ever find is a blend of acetone and methanol
> and some other HCs.
>
>

They certainly do.

Doivi Clarkinen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> alkun Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A diff can be welded in the car. Take off
> the
> > cover, spray a can of brake cleaner in there,
> let
> > dry, weld the piss out of the spidies, spray
> > another can of brake cleaner in there, put
> the
> > cover back on.
> >
> > Thats how Tim did it for me and it has worked
> like
> > a champ!
>
>
> NOOOO!!! Do not do this! That is the stupidest
> thing ever. I will put this in caps to emphasize
> the point. DO NOT EVER WELD ANYTHING YOU'VE
> SPRAYED BRAKLEEN ON!! The fumes are highly toxic
> and can cause serious brain damage or even death
> if you get a good whiff.
> Never mind the fact that I'm now taking bets on
> how long it takes before your rear end breaks...
> It's just harder to weld it well in place and good
> luck getting all the spittle cleaned out of
> there.
> Take the diff out and do it properly, it's
> really not very difficult. Don't be lazy.


I agree with you but Al left some important bits out. Let me clear this up. It was non-chlorinated cleaner. I welded it with pulsed-arc spray transfer which has no spatter so there was nothing to clean up when I was done but a little bit of burnt oil residue. I can thoroughly guarantee that 275A with 0.045" wire got me plenty of weld penetration and strength for Al's weak ass engine. Total time start to finish was less than an hour.

-Tim

Why to never use brake clean on parts before welding....

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

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