Jonathan_JK

You end up going this weekend? If you did you probably saw my JK on the Flatbed we were at one of the primitive sites on the way to Wolf Den

jedg

Nope. Was supposed to be there today, but got stuck in St. Louis. The entire STL airport lost power yesterday afternoon and they cancelled all flights so didn't make it back to Fayetteville until 1pm today.

Jonathan_JK

Were going to go with a used Axle housing. Then were going to heat it up and weld that bad boy up.

karls10jk

I'd like to know what you use to burn in the axles properly. He should be heating it but if I can get away with turning up the heat on the MIG and have it hold then I'll be pursuing that route as cheap insurance.

Maertz

I welded mine with mig and its fine. I believe its cast steel not cast iron. Big difference. I preheated and used 7018. Did the same on my d60s. Ive seen a few d44 tubes twist and id weld them all. Its not going to hurt it imo. Even on older axles that are cast iron i believe you can use hi silicone rod.

SoK66

Question regarding welding the tubes for those whove done it. Did you tear down the axle before welding, or was it possible to do it with the axle assembled?

larry0071

I was a 4x4 sled puller for over 15 years and everyone welded the tubes to the pig on the Dana 80 or 14 bolt GM axles, it was considered standard practice. Most folks preferred to pre-heat, stick weld, heat wrap after. Not everyone had the equipment, some MIG welded, some didn't wrap it after the weld, some didn't pre-heat. Some skipped all of the recommended practices and just burned it in with a mig and drank a beer while it cooled. But, I never saw a welded one tear the tubes free. These were 1,000-1,200 HP trucks at 8,000 LBS that are pulling 28,000 on cut pro-puller tires. I'd say that any sort of weld, even a shitty non pre-heated MIG with no heat wrap is better than nothing by a long shot.

I would drain the rear axle grease so you don't burn and coke it up. Refill it when your done. I think that most of use change axle grease out every couple months anyways, so it's not that inconvenient.

Chuck-The-Ripper

That was my theory when welding my truss to the center section, it has to be better than nothing: and apt of people say it's not even necessary to weld it.
I cranked up the heat on my Lincoln 180 and it seemed to weld real nice. I pinged the weld after and drank beer.

larry0071

Looks good enough for the girls I date.

D_engel

Welding on the rear, I wouldn't disassemble a thing. The rear is semi float so the seals are on the end of the tubes at the axle flange. Melting seals was my concern on the front axle, but I lucked out.