transaxle axle question?...

This is probably a different question than that's been asked before. Would it be beneficial to weld the axle spiders to the axles when leaving a rear open? The couple diffs I've had apart have had some spindly little "c" clips or snap rings on them and they don't look long for the world. The reason for my asking is the next couple builds will have fairly big tires and the one in particular won't be driven easily. I see it as a precautionary measure so the axles don't walk out under hard use. Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks in advance.

yep many people weld the spiders to the axles. fearlessfront has been doing it for a long time as a preventive measure. i hate snaprings if you remove them without the proper tool it almost ruins them because they stretch and they become loose. most of the time when i get a transaxle i drill and tap the axles and the input pulley shaft to get rid of all those snaprings. imo snaprings can be really unreliable, thats why i hate them.

Thanks for the reply. I kinda figured as much that being the weak link in an open diff. The build that'll be ran the hardest will have a pto winch, so getting stuck isn't too big of an issue. The other build will have wide enough tires to float over the thick stuff...lol.

Seems like it would work fine, but you wont be able to take the gears off the shaft and if you bust a spider gear then you will have to get new axle shafts as well.

I'm not too worried about it, that's the main reason for leaving them open instead of locked. I figure it'll spin before it gets enough traction to break anything.

an open diff can break too. i was able to snap an axle right off the spider gear with an open diff once without a pulley swap or anything. i have pics on my roper build, it was a foote trans so i guess thats why it broke so easily.

I'll take a look at that build to see.

Sintered steel doesnt weld very well.

Its up to you. Honestly if it used only a single snapring I would weld it, if it had two I would just put new ones on.

I've noticed that Doug, I usually just turn the heat up on the welder so it melts a bit better. Honestly, if there's a good weld on the end of the axle enough to keep it from coming out of the case, it's good for me.