I figured this would be a nice place to write up about this.
One of my work trucks is very old and has a weird width Dana 70 rear axle in it. This summer it busted an axleshaft (not abuse, it appeared to have a marble sized manufacturing flaw in the shaft and finally snapped). Much junkyard and internet shopping came up with nothing for a replacement shaft.
The truck is slated to be retired very soon and we didn't want to put any major money into a custom shaft, so I came up with an idea.
I pulled the diff and welded it, as many of you have done before. This prevents the side gears from spinning.
Then I put the drivers side axle shaft back in, being that the drivers side is the side almost always on pavement while driving. Then I took the busted shaft and cut off the shaft section, making a cap for the hub (to keep the gear oil in).
This made the truck a one wheel drive vehicle. I'm not worried about it because it is heavy and is never driven in the winter. With only having one shaft, it is un-noticable that the rear is welded and the truck drives like it has an open diff.
My techs put about 15,000 miles on the old girl this summer with no axle issues. The truck weighs 13,000 lbs loaded.
This got me to thinking. If someone wants to DD a full float rear but has no fat cash for a locker, why not just do what I did, and then swap a pass shaft in when they want to wheel?
I just figured I'd share this idea and let you know how well it worked. I'll probably eventually do this to some low budget rig in the future.
One of my work trucks is very old and has a weird width Dana 70 rear axle in it. This summer it busted an axleshaft (not abuse, it appeared to have a marble sized manufacturing flaw in the shaft and finally snapped). Much junkyard and internet shopping came up with nothing for a replacement shaft.
The truck is slated to be retired very soon and we didn't want to put any major money into a custom shaft, so I came up with an idea.
I pulled the diff and welded it, as many of you have done before. This prevents the side gears from spinning.
Then I put the drivers side axle shaft back in, being that the drivers side is the side almost always on pavement while driving. Then I took the busted shaft and cut off the shaft section, making a cap for the hub (to keep the gear oil in).
This made the truck a one wheel drive vehicle. I'm not worried about it because it is heavy and is never driven in the winter. With only having one shaft, it is un-noticable that the rear is welded and the truck drives like it has an open diff.
My techs put about 15,000 miles on the old girl this summer with no axle issues. The truck weighs 13,000 lbs loaded.
This got me to thinking. If someone wants to DD a full float rear but has no fat cash for a locker, why not just do what I did, and then swap a pass shaft in when they want to wheel?
I just figured I'd share this idea and let you know how well it worked. I'll probably eventually do this to some low budget rig in the future.