Just wandering if anybody has ever welded the rear diff on a 94' for a locker. This rig is meant for off road only and not really wanting to spend 500 on a detroit locker or 1000 on an air locker? Just curious what guys are doing and the proper procedure on how to do it. Thanks

 

Pretty sure its like this.

 

Fish u b hilarious lol

 

yep, pretty funny stuff right there.

 

I'm not sure why, but asking this question in the Rover world never gets a decent answer. I personally don't like it much and can't see why it's so popular on a lot of other brands. But I'm procrastinating at work so here is my experience with it.

I did it a few years back because I was bored and had a bunch of stock diffs laying around. I never actually ran it in my truck but I gave it to a buddy to test out. He ran it on several wheeling trips and was not easy on the skinny pedal. It definitely worked. We had bets on what would break first the diff or an axle. Turns out it was the hub bolts. He sheered all 5 bolts off the hub. I thought for sure the axle would have gone first.

Anyway:
Pro's it's cheap and can be fun to do if you have the spare parts and a welder.

Con's, it's rough on everything else on your truck. If you hit pavement at all avoid making turns. It will chirp the tires while turning on pavement, and put a lot of stress on the axles and hub bolts.

Personally, I would hesitate to do it even on a pure trailer queen. If you drive to and from the trail. You might want to consider cutting the flange off an old axle and using it while on the road then swapping it out for a full axle before you hit the trail.

As far as welding the diff. I welded the utter snot out of it. I cut two pieces of 1/4" plate to fit in between the spider gears. Then perimeter welded the plate to the gears. Then I welded the gears to the casing. I removed the diff from the housing and covered the ring gear with aluminum duct tape while welding to help limit splatter on the gears. I still ended up getting some on the splines inside the diff. But that cleaned up pretty well.

If you have the time and a spare diff give it a shot. Worst case, you just break more stuff while wheeling.

 

I've decided to go ahead and weld it up. I have another 04 discovery I'll spend the money on and get a locker for it. I won't be driven on blacktop or roads with the 94 and a few of my buddies are welded up on there jeeps and seem to hold up. We'll see what happens. Thanks for the info Buddy Lee.