It's not called porn. It's forn! (four wheel drive porn)

 

 

At the Higher Ground shop right now watching them shave the 14-bolt!:

 

Just a little hole:

 

Are they going to weld that whole shut, isn't it cast? Just curious and a little out of the know.

 

Yeah they weld this plate on:



Yes, the pumpkin is cast, so they heat everything up to 400 degrees then weld using special rods for welding to cast:

 

I made it over to the Higher Ground shop today in time to see Jim and his crew starting the shave on my 14-Bolt. This is definitely a lot more complicated than I would have thought - not hard for them - but there is no way that I could have done something like this. A LOT of measuring and preparation - once you start cutting there is no going back.

Drawing lines for the cuts:





Red line shows the final cut; white line shows how much ground clearance we are gaining:

 

The "pumpkin" of an axle is cast steel (Not cast iron) and is very weldable. You just need to use a high nickel rod/wire. This will allow the mild steel to bond to the cast steel without the risk of the welds cracking due to the metals mixing.

And yes, there is a plate that goes on the bottom of the housing that will fill in that void.

 

Starting the rough cut:





Rough cut finished:



Test fitting the bottom plate:





And test fitting with the new diff cover and bottom plate together:

 

Jim figuring out where he needs to trim down the rough cut:





Grinding down:





All done:







Jim says the bottom plate gets welded on tomorrow, and then they will start the shave on the front 60. I also took some video today, and if I have time, I will post it up.