Going Rate For Full Width Axles?

[87Warrior]

A lot of good information here! The thread seems more tech oriented now, but that is good!

 

You should be able to trim the cast back without taking off any of the plug welds and then you can lay a bead along the cast and tube just for good measure.

This method seems to be what most folks do and what I will probably end up doing. I do have a question regarding the cast leaf perch. Is there any reason why you would HAVE to run a bead around the tube and the cut portion of the perch casting? As I can tell, each side of the differential cast will have the same amount of material/plug welds around the tube after trimming and from the factory Dana did not weld it. I do understand that welding axle tubes to the housing is common practice to prevent the tubes from rotating or pulling out of the housing.

 

Does anybody have pictures of their chassis side link mounts (3 or 4 link)? I am curious to see what others have done.

[Garvin]

There are a bunch of pictures in my build thread of mine. If I remember when I get home, I'll post them up over in this thread.

 

When wheeling hard, it's not uncommong to break the plug welds and spin the tubes. I've only personally ever seen that happen on competition rigs though. It's added insurance though since you won't be able to get back into that area once you weld all the brackets on and it does strengthen up that area some. I welded the cut portion of mine for the added insurance and because the unheard of things always happen to me it seems. I used to be pretty hard on axles in my Cherokee (destroyed two Dana 44 rears and bent two Dana 30HP housings) so I figured it couldn't hurt.