• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Filling Carrier With Lead

codysown

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Nebraska
Situation: Dana 35 rear. POS not worth buying a locker for.

Wheeling terrain: Sand, 2 to 3 feet of river water and quicksand. Dont laugh its what we do. Sometimes its fun othertimes people are nuts. Yes it gets expensive.

Options:
1. Leave open and leave parked in driveway and ride with friends.

2. Lincoln lock it.

3. Fill carrier with lead


Number 3 is why I am asking the question. I have really hesitated on welding the spiders as the heat from the weld weakens the spiders and your going to explode the rear end in a matter of time.

One guy spoke up in the group about an idea he had heard of that was pulling the carrier, smelting lead and filling the entire carrier.

A few of the guys laughed at him, one is a notoriusly pompous ass, (although he has a very nice Jeep). After conversing aobut this idea, it sounds very pluasible. No high heat to make the metal brittle, has a jsut a little bit of give but with it being filled solid nothing would move. If it ever got to the point where it had too much slack all you would have to do is pull the carrier remelt the lead and then reinstall.

I really have been thinking of doing this and I have done some searching but have not seen anything about doing this.

I dont think there would be any enviromental issues as it would be sealed up and its not like its going to create any shavings to get out somehow.

I am just not seeing any negatives with this.


Cody
 
Sounds like some trouble but it would probably work for awhile.
How much is a spool? They cant be more then $50 of so.
 
Option 4, get a C8.25 29 spline from the junkyard. Very cheap. No matter what you do to that D35 carrier, its still a D35. You'll break shafts or something else.
 
codysown said:
Situation: for.

Wheeling terrain: Sand, 2 to 3 feet of river water and quicksand. Dont laugh its what we do. Sometimes its fun othertimes people are nuts. Yes it gets expensive.

Cody

Tread Lightly.:fuse:

Do you fish with hand grenades too?
By no way am I a greenie, but damn.
 
just food for though... If you want to weld the spiders it can be and has been done successfully. When you drain the diff save the fluid in a metal pan or pot. When you weld in between the teeth take the gear and drop it in the pan of gear oil. That is as close as you can get to the original process. Its not fool proof but it helps restore a little of the oils/carbon back to the metal. Ive done it on a few axles and so far so good. Never welded a 35 up but plenty of people have and without sounding like Im pro 35 its the only way I would lock it. Its not worth spending the money and they dont make a spool. When I had my lockright in it and I broke it, instead of buying the rebuild kit I just welded it into a mini spool. Worked fine until I upgraded axles. And I think the guy who has it now still runs it with no problems.
 
If you fill the carrier with lead how are you gonna get the "C" clips in/out. I could see doing that with a semi or full floater.

Get the 29 spline 8.25 out of a junker and never look back, there are plenty of us on here running that rear end with out any major breakage, of course anything can be broken though.
 
As far as getting a JY rear end, I have limited funds and the JY's around here want upwards of $400 for an 8.8 and more for a Dana 44. I have been searching for a reasonable 8.8 or 44, however I am thinking of just buying a new axle that is well built, which is why I dont want to spend any money on this one. I dont care if it blows up in 2 years, I just want it to last one.

Homeowners projects have tied up most of my funds and whats left over is going for some body protection, Winch, on board air, and the $3.60 a gallon it cost to go play.

I ended up getting an XJ for a few reasons:, one being that they are cheap and have a solid axle, and I didn't want an open top like a CJ or YJ. I use this during hunting season and the vehicle needs to seat 4.

As far as tread lightly, What we do and our type of wheeling is not anything that most would understand. Most in our club have CJ's, YJ's and very few TJ's. The river bed that we play in changes evertime it rains. its never the same channel sytem each year. Think of it as a Pismo Beach Dunes or Glamis with water running through it. Some of the guys treat their rigs like submarines and end up trashing a few motors every year. Not what I call fun. High snorkels and having everything RTV sealed and vented high is imperative.

xjtrailrider said:
If you fill the carrier with lead how are you gonna get the "C" clips in/out. I could see doing that with a semi or full floater.
This is what I am looking for in replys'. I have not done this and have not run across any answers to my questions. I know the easy thing to do is save money and buy a new rear end, but meanwhile the rig sits in the driveway while I watch others have fun.

If you would leave the carrier in the rear end what would be the easiest way to fill it with lead. I am thinking that if you duct taped a piece of sheetmetal over the bottom side of the carrier you could fill from the top and then when solid you could remove and trim up the leaks. Any lead that dripped inside the housing shouldnt stick if the inside of the housing has oil residue in it. If it did it would be easy clean up with wire brush and a little heat.

Welding the spiders is not something that I have ruled out if this wont work. I would like to give this an honest thought and give it a shot. If it dont work out I am going to Weld them. In some of my research I have ran across the term "Fozzy lock". I do not know what exactly this is but I thought I would throw it out there as it might ring a bell in someones head. It's my understanding that this is used in Mud Drags and such.



Cody
 
Jnickle & Xjtrailrider aren't talking about a YJ rear axle. There are 3 axles available in the XJ:
Dana 35 - Stock for most applications
Dana 44 - Option available with towing/heavy duty pkg, and apparently on all 4.0 equipped '87s
Crysler 8.25 - available seemingly randomly on almost all years on vehicles without anti-lock brakes. Early mod. had 27 spline axles, late had 29. Not sure what year the break was.
 
tbburg said:
Crysler 8.25 - available seemingly randomly on almost all years on vehicles without anti-lock brakes. Early mod. had 27 spline axles, late had 29. Not sure what year the break was.

The year model break is fuzzy, some 96 models had the 29 spline(my 96 did/does) but all 97+ have the 29 spline.

The 27 spline is stronger than the D-35 allthough marginally.
 
Filling the dif. carrier with lead in place could be quiet a trick. The duct tape trick won't work. When duct tape gets hot, the adhesive melts. The lead would push the metal cover right off'
You could try a sheet metal cover on one side, sealed to the carrier with a thick layer of RTV copper hi temp sealant, let it cure, the rotate the covered side down and brace it up with wood blocking. To fill the carrier, do it in several pours. Only fill 1/2" - 3/4" on the first one, and let it solidify before continuing. If you try to do it all at once, the metal down inside the carrier is going to stay liquid for a long time, giving it more time to burn through the sealant.

If you do this, please take pics and post it up. I think you might have stumbled onto something new. Also, if you've never worked with molten lead. only heat it enough to liquify, and don't overheat to speed things up. Take your time. Get the lead too hot, and it vaporizes. 'Great way to get lead poisoning.
 
Only issue I have with the "lead" idea is if he breaks on the trail there is no way to do a trailside repair. And since the D-35 is not a floater and does not have disc brakes there is no way to limp home. I would "lincoln lock" it and be done. Then you could carry some spare shafts and repair it as needed.

Nothing sucks worse than being on a trail ride having fun then someone breaks something that is going to ruin everyones fun trying to limp him home.

I say fix it so that you can still fix it if it breaks.

My $.02
 
I have to agree with Xjtrailrider on the trail repair aspect, or any repair aspect. Once the lead is in, the whole thing is probably a throw away piece if anything breaks. I can't imagine torch melting lead out of the center section would work well enough to get to the C-clips. I have to admit though: I have never carried a spare axle shaft on any of my rigs, so a broken axle was always a show stopper for me.

I've seen a picture of a spider gear set someone welded up by filling the gear teeth voids on all but 2 teeth on the side gears and all but 4 of the voids on the cross shaft gears. You could try filling the individual teeth with lead, and it would work for a while, allowing disassembly for repair/salvage.
 
I always carry spare shafts, 4 of them. My jeep is a rolling tool box and spare parts chest!:D

spareshaftsnb2.jpg
 
what if you make a mock-c clip that is exessively long so that you basically have a slot like you would in a lunchbox locker.

sounds like you're pretty intent on doing it, and it seems like a cool idea, but isn't the lead going to be too soft and just deform when the spider's try to spin. i have a feeling taking a turn on pavement on the gas would screw it all up. just my .02 but post pics and let us know how it goes!
 
XJtrailrider: Spare UNIT BEARINGS? Two of them? And already on the axles too! Are you well prepared and thinking ahead, or too lazy to pull the nuts off? :D
 
tbburg said:
XJtrailrider: Spare UNIT BEARINGS? Two of them? And already on the axles too! Are you well prepared and thinking ahead, or too lazy to pull the nuts off? :D
Its quicker! I can change a front shaft in a few min. if I can get what is left of the old one out fast, I have tools for that too. A broom stick with a big azz magnet on the end of it! Sometimes you have to pull the diff cover and/or the other shaft and push them through though.

You gotta pull the bearings to get the shaft out anyway.
 
Back
Top