1984 Nissan 720 4x4, reinforced divorced transfer, 33" Thornbirds(front), 33" Land Rover Dts(rear), Rebuilt Z24 engine, 4.11 geared, open diffs, soon to come(3"body lift). How hard is it to weld spiders? I want to lock my rear? What all is needed? Can I do it?

Pics are a couple of spaces below.

do yourself a favor and buy a real locker, it'll be cheaper in the long run. Lincoln lockers are scary at best, especially for street use.

Its just a mountain truck. To poor to buy a real locker. So have to settle with the cheapest way out.

Then I wouldn't do it at all....that's the cheapest. I'm not trying to be mean, but there are good odds of tearing stuff up. I ran a welded 9" circle track racing (not much traction, didn't hurt) but I ran it on the street once...my god what a mess. It jerked, shuddered, hopped, and squealed tires like you wouldn't believe. Corners had to be done at about 10 mph, otherwise the thing freaked out. The odds of something breaking, jamming in the gears, or just plain snapping a shaft makes it not worth it, IMHO.

I appreciate the advice.

I was thinking of the lincoln locker, but I was gonna weld the front, that way I would just lock in one hub for all my driving off road until I needed both front wheels and get out and lock the other wheel, get out from where I was stuck and either unlock or if the terrain will allow leave it locked. but that way on the street it wont have any affect(as far as I know)

giving my second opinion.

With all respect. I think those who weld their axles are idiots. I was going to do the same thing to my truck. Until I found out first hand what happens when you weld your diff. On road you'll most likely find yourself in the hospital.

Mechanical side of things. A welded axle puts extreme stress on axle parts. Stress the axle was never engineered to handle. You will brake most of everything. Most of the time you have to re-weld the spider gears. All you'll be able to is re weld the spider gears one. When you go for your 3rd try there will be nothing left of the carrier.

If you want to lock up the rear buy a spool or a locker. A spool is the same thing as a Lincoln locker, just safer. A locker would allow you to drive the truck on road.

ok, but if I hate my IFS, and will do a SAS someday, and I dont drive on the street in 4WD with the hubs locked anyways, then on sthe street my front diff is never turning, right? since Ill junk the IFS in the futre whatever happens to anything internally in the diff oh well. off road on packed dirt I can just drive with only one side locked, so yes if that one wheel gets good traction the only place for the power to go would be that wheel, wouldnt let that wheel stay stationary and spin the other wheel twice as fast as normal as with an open diff, but then again if the front was properly locked that side would get power anyways, of course only half but being the driver Id know if it was a situation where I would need a locker and I can get out and lock in the other hub, now I effectively have a locker and then when I get out of that situation I can get back out and unlock a wheel and be safe again.

to me seems like it would be more time consuming on the trail than a selectable air locker or something as far as getting in/out again and again, but also WAY cheaper, especially if noone supports my front diff.

IF your rig is a Off road only, welding the axles are no issue. it's on pavement when safety is an issue for yourself and other drivers. This is the reason my welding a diff is frowned upon.

I am wondering though, even for street, if you are welding just the front, and you have manual hubs then no problem right, because nothings engaged at all, wheels spin free and diff isnt spinning.

sorry but if i knew i wasnt going to keep the ifs i wouldnt bother messing with it at all
if you weld youre diff and youre out in the wild of it with no welder to fix it youll get a nice long walk out to ask why did i do that

save youre time and buy a straight axle
with a lsd or locker. there are some things in life that dont need a easy button

welding the front is no problem. The hubs wont be locked on the road anyway and if you want it selectable you just unlock one hub.. All it costs you is a couple sticks of nickel rod and you are ready to go.. I'll be welding the front diff in mine, if it breaks all I am out is a carrier and some spiders.. I have my winch to pull me the rest of the way out of the trail..

I will say having a welded rear, or spool blows on the road.. I welded my rear up to make it to the last run and man does it suck, I had to take my turns at about 5mph and even then it wanted to turn over...

hey richard what axles are under your truck now??

welding the front and running an open hub will make it pull HARD. It's also going to take the power that was split between both cv's and divert all of it to one of them now. You're just begging to blow something up. I broke 9 cv's with an open front on my hb, there was no way I was going to weld it.

hey im glad i seen this i dont this it will mater on the front but on the rear its not a good idea drive stock cars at dirt tracks all over nor-cal but anyway this used to be my car 6 years ago before i changed the rear end and with the new 4.11's i took it for a a test run down the street at the dead end i turned around in a bid asfault pad at the dead end (25-30mph) snaped the RR axled and the rearend tube dug in and i fliped....damn that was inbarasing anyway dont do it bro it find on dirt cuz your gettin maby 20% tracion at best but when your tryin to turn around on the street the in-side tire must spin a little bit slower than the outside tire if not it twist the shit out of the out side axle (because thats were the weights at when cornering)..anyway i dont wanna see you loose your truck man i didn't get to race my car for 3 months later when i finally got it fixed haha and thats with a full cage but that my 2- cents but its worth about 5(so i read somwere)

Damn, that was a hard post to read.

Use a period "." inbetween sentences, and develop some sentence structure, please.

Saw a ton of cars just like that out at Manzanita raceway last weekend. Tons of old Fbodys out there.