Hey All!
So, after driving about 2,900 miles on the Jeep, I decided to pull the cover on the rear end. All the bolts on the ring gear were about finger tight. Seems that the ring gear threads were not good enough. Also, I tried to torque a new bolt into the ring gear and it started stripping at about 30 ft-lbs. This is my plan, and I sure many will laugh or shake their heads. I want to torque all the bolts down enough to keep the ring gear seated to the carrier, then weld it to the carrier. There's a beautiful gap to fill in weld. Please, tell me how bad this idea is. I'm adventurous. Bottom line, if I have to replace the ring gear (which I do), I want to upgrade to something bigger. This way I can still use the 8.25 for a while. Thoughts?