14 bolt questions

My MJ has a 14 bolt welded rear axle.

I've had a spooled rear in a TJ and an XJ and they were fine driving on the street but the LWB MJ is harder to turn around with it being so much longer...plus my wife drives it periodically to work.

I know the MJ is a much lighter weight and less powered truck than the one the 14 bolt came from...so I am wondering about taking another shaft and cut it down leaving just a few inches and the end to bolt in in place of the driver side complete shaft. Just for street driving. Obviously keep the complete shaft in the toolbox so it's just a couple minutes to change it out should I need to.

I am expecting there to be some torque steer with just one shaft actually driving. I guess my only other real concern is the strength of the welding in the diff. The guy I got it from drove it for a good while before I obtained the truck and I've put close to 3K miles on it in the last 4 months so it seems the welding is good.

Any thoughts?

So you want to run 1 wheel drive? I once bent my housing racing my Jeepspeed which caused the spool to strip out which gave me 1 wheel drive. I didn't know how bad it was bent and that the spool was stripped, but the car got darty and sketchy because of the power being applied to only 1 wheel. You are better off living with the spool's negative aspects on the street than the 1 wheel drive option.

Hope I understood you correctly.

You did understand me correctly.

Those are the things I am concerned about...fixing one drawback by creating more.

It's not that I am upset with it at all...I've had spooled rigs as DD's and I actually like it better than an auto locker due to predictability... but not one with this long of a wheelbase.

I just figured it may help my wife to hate it less since she drives it a fair bit if it was a little easier to turn it around.

that seems like the most haggard thing ever. i've driven my buddy's MJ that has a spooled 14 bolt on the street and it wasnt a huge deal... and it has 37" creepies on it. what gears?

It has 5.13's.

I'm just thinking outloud. I am fully aware of the 'potential' issues...just asking for some opinions.

I think you are better off dealing with it being locked up. I would suggest removing the welded parts and install an open carrier. If you can afford it a detroit works very well in the 14 bolt.

X2 get rid of the welded carrier and get a detroit or Aussie or something like it