street driving with lunch box lockers

[BPB]

I just bought an 85 xj with factory 4.10 gears the guy before me welded the spiders front and rear. is this thing gonna kill me if I drive it on the black top occasionaly?

 

[old_man]

It will steer like crap and wander on the highway. On wet or slick roads it can be a handful. The worst problem is that on dry roads, it puts a heck of a lot of pressure on the axles and failure is a pretty fair chance. Safety wise, it isn't a good choice, but breakage wise it is a bad choice. If the person welded them correctly, you should be able to just pop the spiders out and replace them. I'm sure there are tons available for cheap.

Also, lunchbox lockers does not refer to welded spiders. Lincoln Lockers are welded spiders. Lunchbox lockers are lockers like the QuickLoc, and several others that simply replace the spider gear assy.

 

[Bender]

I'd agree with Old_Man...you'll get some pretty bad steering unless you have a disconnect front axle and only drive in 2wd. As soon as you put it in 4wd you'll get a lot of funny steering movement from the front end whether your front disco is engaged or not. The driveability will be pretty bad in the winter or on slippery roads and you'll definitely wear out axle components, tranny and t-case components as well.



Old_Man...

What is the correct method of welding the spiders so they can be removed?

I'm having trouble visualizing how you could weld up the spider gears while still allowing them to be removed.

 

[offroadman83]

BTW---Welded spider gears isn't lunchbox lockers. If it is welded Old Man is completely right.-----------Kyle

 

[WrenchMonkey]

What is the correct method of welding the spiders so they can be removed?

I'm having trouble visualizing how you could weld up the spider gears while still allowing them to be removed.

I think if you'd just weld the gears to one another, rather than to the carrier itself, they might pop out together. Then you wouldn't have to blow $300 on a new carrier and gear setup, like I just did in my secondhand D44.

But I'm guessin.

Robert

 

[Bender]

To remove the side gears the spider gears have to be removed first since the side gears have to slide inwards to be removed. To remove the spider gears you have to pull the cross shaft and remove each spider gear seperately. If any of the gears are welded to one another non of this would be possible even if they aren't welded to the carrier.

It seems no matter how you weld your spider/side gears up they will either have to be torched out or the carrier scrapped to remove the setup.

 

[WrenchMonkey]

...the side gears have to slide inwards to be removed...

..or the axles slid out of them?

If you pulled the cross shaft out of the spiders, like you said, then pull the axles themselves out of the side gears, could all four drop out as a welded unit?

Maybe?

 

[Jeepkid8037]

..or the axles slid out of them?

If you pulled the cross shaft out of the spiders, like you said, then pull the axles themselves out of the side gears, could all four drop out as a welded unit?

Maybe?

I dont think they will be able to be pulled out when they are all welded together. You need to slide the shafts out a couple of inches regardeless to pull out the spiders. When i replaced the spiders on my 8.8 w/ an aussie, there was no way the spiders would have came out of they were welded.

 

[NotMatt]

Nope, Bender is right, the side gears have to slide inwards whether the axle shafts are there or not... so if it's all welded up, the only way to undo it is to break out the torch and have a new set of spider gears ready.

As far as the original question, the welded rear won't be too bad on the street, I run a spool in my rig and drive it on the street a lot But, your axle is a D35 if it's out of an '85... welded spider gears and D35 = kaboom. The front is a vacuum disconnect if it's the original 85 axle, no? So other than the front driveshaft spinning all the time (it wouldn't be if the front was open), you won't notice any difference driving it on the pavement because the pass. side axle is disconnected from the carrier. It's going to suck trying to turn in 4wd though... but you can't beat the traction. Carry spare shafts front AND rear, because you'll break them, and you'll break them frequently. Oh yeah, and be prepared to have people pissed at you for breaking stuff all the time too. Heh.

 

[RocksorMud90XJ]

I had f&R lunchbox lockers in my TJ and it wasnt bad at all in 2wd there was some steering drag but notmuch at all and in wet weather if you drove cautiously it wasnt bad at all and that a SWB Jeep

I have F&R lunchbox lockers in my XJ and its totally different my tires chirp a little with tight turns but the front locekr isnt noticable at all in 2wd its so much better than how it was in my TJ

 

[NotMatt]

He's talking about welded diffs, which are a totally different animal than a lunchbox locker...

 

[cwlongshot]

Its not going to be horrible on the street as long as you still have a disconnect front axle. You did only mention OCCASIONAL street driving. You did not mention if you would use 4WD on the street. My comments are ONLY FOR 2WD. If you meant 4WD it will be a hand full as others have described.

Because of the disconnect front, it will be virtully invisable in 2WD. The rear will chirp the tires in tighter turns but it will be entirelly/completely driveable for occasional use!

CW