i welded my original 12 bolt carrier, put some 3.08 gears on and tested it out. i did burnouts, hard shifts and donuts, so far it has held up. question is: do yall think it will hold up when i put my 4.10's and slicks on? anyone have experiance with this? my combo is in sig. the reason i'm doing this is my crappy auburn is starting to slip.

Imho, it will be like driving a spool on the street!

NOT a good move b/c your car will slip a tire as well as push when turned..

pdq67

This is standard procedure to lock the rearend the poor man's way for circle track racing. It will wear the tires out when turning and if the tires are slightly different in circumference, it might drift to one side while going down the highway.

But, as far strength is concerned, if you weld the hell out of the spider gears where they mesh with the axle gears, you won't have any problem. Even if the welds break, the differential will still never turn again anyway because the welds are in the way. The only thing you have to be carefull of is to make sure you clean out the welding slag. If you MIG weld them, there should less to clean up.

Larry

i forgot to tell you that i was only going to use it for drag racing, i'll put the auburn in for the street.

Do you mean you did this??
http://www.stangsource.com/files.cgi?download=232
If so, I doubt it will hold for any period of time. There is a tremendous amount of load and leverage against those welds. You're better off just getting a spool or better still, a Detroit Locker.

Make sure you have a rev limiter fitted for when it lets go!

Another reason a locked rearend and a rearend with a with spool is not good is b/c if you break an axle, you just might turn a 90 real quick!!

isn't this what happened to Fat Jack's Porky hopped up swiss-cheesed '48 Ford Coupe more than several years ago??

pdq67

Getting the welds to hold is the least of his worries. I don't know what you have for axles, but I hope they are not stock. The axles is what's taking the beating and if you have ever seen what happens when an axle breaks in a c-clip type rear end, I think you would think twice. This procedure has been done for years, there are many horror stories that go along with it. There are also people than have gotten away with it for years. On the dirt there is a lot less load on the axles when turning. You could easily buy a minin spool for not much money and get the same results. Still not something that should be used with stock axles, nor on the street.

thanks everybody for the input, to be safe i think i'll just get a spool for the strip. better safe than sorry. i wouldnt want to crash my baby either! I think my wife and kids would want to see me live another day also.

A guy I went to high school with was killed when the axle in his budies 69 broke. The spiders gears had been welded. They were doing about 60 when the axle broke the car went off the road and turned over in a ditch.He was killed instantly the driver spent a week in the hospital.He was 19 at the time of his death.Welded spider gears are for Demo derby cars only.

I don't think I need to add to this, but I will. Welded gears are very dangerous. Welding on heat treated gears effects the metal in a way that makes it britle. The gears may bust, or an axle may give first. Either way you will probably loose an axle and wheel when you least expect it. You might not be the one who dies. It could be the person in the other lane.