lincoln locked to open diff?

[Robber80]

I recently got my rear diff welded on my 1980 cherokee. Today i didn't notice the chirping so i investigated. I jacked the rear of the vehicle up and spun the tires, and they went in opposite directions. open differential with out any clunks?!! how could the weld break and now function without any problems?

[tc]

That happen to my brothers rig also. We only did one side of the spider gears(1st time didn't know what we were doing)luckly it didn't screw up the diff so we just welded them right the next time. I'm not sure how they worked like normal but the did. Did you weld both sides?

[tc]

"Sides" as in front and back. Sorry

[Robber80]

yeah we welded both sides, the only thing i can think is that the person who welded didn't weld between the gears, and just welded to the case. and the weldes just let go (never clunked or anything, it was just here one minute and gone the next). but i'm gunna pull the cover tomorrow and see whats up. maybe she just doesn't wnat to be welded yet!!!! I might just wait till after winter to do it again.

[scotty]

id definately check it out first. if a weld broke,its like did some kind of damage to the teeth on the spider/side gears. you may find yourself with a broken set of spiders and no rear drive at all one day if you try and make it the winter with damage gears :eek:

your best bet to avoid break down may be to go ahead and reweld it. when gears break,bits and pieces can get lodged in the spinning R&P-the result is the axle could completely lock up,stoping the rear tires from spinning. end result could mean breaking R&P,axleshafts, or possibly skidding off the road if it happened at speed :eek: prolly unlikely,but you can never be too careful,so id defiantely pull the cover and check it out...