[bugged]

Guys whats your thoughts about welding the rear diff?

[zookster666]

Do you use your zook as a daily driver if so then save for a locker lockrights are cheap and effective.
If not then i cant see too much of a problem but i have seen many welded diffs go bang compared to diifs that have lockers.

[steak_knife]

I have a welded rear hemisphere I'll swap ya!!

I want to keep the R&P tho

[money_killer]

weld if its not a daily and ur a tight ass like me

[want33s]

If you weld it, when it does eventually break it will destroy the whole centre. IMHO you are much better off fitting a mini spool which has the same effect but is removable later if you don't want it locked anymore or you want an air locker.
Mini spool = US$109 from www.Lowrangeoffroad.com

[mrw82]

I have the rear in my LWB welded, on road it handles just the same as it did unlocked. just when doing tight turns (carparks etc.) it lets you know its there.
trying to reverse and turn, forget it. it wants to keep going straight ahead. you learn to get used to it and turn in earlier so its not a real problem.

a welded diff (or mini spool for that matter) will chew your tyres out BADLY. if you have decent tyres then don't do it. it doesn't just waer them down quicker, they chip and feather and the shoulder of the lugs rounds off. this was within a week of driving 20 mins each day to work and back. my tyres were pretty much brand new!!!!! for this reason i'd be going with a lockrite or similar. air locker if you can afford and justify it.

OFF ROAD!!!!!!! BIG DIFFERENCE, gets you much further through the track then you'd get unlocked, although I have found in some situations it will just sit there and spin BOTH rear wheels and still get me nowhere. But I think this is because of the lightweight rear end of the ute.

[bugged]

Thanks for your inputs.

I have just joined the ranks and bought this zook It has the diff welded already. Since it is mainly a daily driver I am going to swap it out as soon as I can find another unwelded centre

cheers

[Gwagensteve]

I'd drive it for a while and see what you think. I don't think the tyre wear with a welded centre is as bad as mrw82 is reporting. We've had a lot of cars running welded/spooled diffs in the club here for ages.

PS welded rears DEFINITELY screw with the handling. Not necessarily in a bad way, but they sure don't handle the same as stock.

Steve.

[Pezooki]

I run a mini-spool in my 91WT SWB Sierra. I am a fan of this setup if you cant afford an Air Locker. I recommend a mini-spool over welded from a reliability (less likely to go bang) point of view (On road/Off road performance is the same either way).

I have been running my spool for a year now and my tyre wear is minimal at the most. I run 31" Maxxis Bighorns on 15x8 rims, and you would struggle to tell the difference between the front and rear tread wear. It has done a few thousand road KM's with the spool.

I agree 100% with Gwagensteve's comments.


Having said all that, I think I have broken a rear axle while out playing last weekend. Its quite strange (scary) how the car behaves on the highway with "one wheel drive". It was a slow trip home... Its not super common to snap rear axles, its just my bad luck I think! haha

I'm looking forward to being covered in diff oil and grease once again!

If anyone in Melb (SE Suburbs preferred) has some spare rear axles then please PM me!

Cheers all,

Pez