Lincoln Locker-how long till axle death?

[EricS76]

I'm seriously thinking about welding my spider gears in the axle up to make it a spool. I'm tired of one wheel spinning all the time, and not willing to spend more money than the truck is worth to put a limited slip in. How long do you think it'll last? About 60/40 dirt to paved road driving. Axle is a 12 bolt.

[Greenlee]

I have seen it done with good results with a 14 bolt full floater (all offroad use). I don't think it would be a good idea with a 12 bolt. What size tires are you running?

[EricS76]

31x10.5 off-brand all terrains. the problem is that I put out hay with this truck, and have almost gotten stuck a dozen times. It only goes to town to get feed and back, 6 mile round trip. i've got a 14 bolt, but i don't have time to change it out, or the money to have it rebuilt. It's out of a one ton single wheel, and i've been told the spring mounts are too far in, and the u-bolts are different.

[454HO]

Not sure of the cost, but you may want to look into this Powertrax

[EricS76]

Not too bad. $265 plus shipping. I was thinking they'd be around $400. Don't have to re-set the gears either, so i can do it myself. Now i've got to save a little money.

[86-C10-V6]

Make sure you have an Open Differential before you order a powertrax, it will not fit in a G80-Locker differential.

[EricS76]

i've got the code list and it doesn't have anything on it about limited slip or anything. Their manual says that some ring gears may be too thick to put the powertrax in without pulling the diff. The truck has got 3.73 gears. Isn't it the higher the gear, the narrower the ring and bigger the pinion. Have any of y'all installed one of these in a 12 bolt?

[SS79chevy]

i have seen meny race cars with welded gears works good for awhile but on a race car after running the **** out of it for months the welds will break (not always some will last forever if you do it right) but never seen eny of them break an axle because of welding the gears

for what you want it for i say weldem up should be fine enless you still want to spend the $$ on the power trax

[KdawgS10]

weld them up. youll get some chiprping on paved corners. and dont evenr try to tow a tralir on pavment. other than that

[RockHQ]

Just buy a spool that replaces the spider gears instead of welding the differential. Then again, you could just forget the spider gears and weld the axle shafts to the carrier. If it were me, and money would be an issue, i would just wait until i could afford a locker.

[EricS76]

Now y'all have got me leaning toward welding it again. If I get some time this weekend, i'm afraid it might happen. Those mini-spools are almost as much as the drop in locker, so i'd rather spend the little bit more to get a locker if I was to spend the money. What usually goes when welded axles break? The shafts or the ring gear? This axle is a factory 3.73 and I don't wanna kill the ring and pinion.

[yoeddie]

pull the spider gears out and weld in the middle of gear in four corners of the gear and while they are still hot wrap them in insulation to let them cool slow i have had some good luck with this combo.