locking the Horse

1976 wheel horse for reference......I pulled the trans apart to clean( was filled with water), inspect and lock, and of course the High/Low shift fork has been abused. Thin around the gear area with a crack in it, probably ready to break. So with my brand new Hobart 210 coming tomorrow I'm thinking about a weld fix. I found an alternate but it is $60+. Anyway to the locking procedure, I found that the trans I have has and axle with only 4 pinion gears (5086 tranny). I'm thinking about using the flip gear method to lock it....has anyone had any expirience with this? Is it strong? Should I weld it instead?. Will another axle fit into the trans housing? i.e. 10 pinion?

i've heard mixed reactions to the flipped gear method, some say they are weak and prone to breaking, others say they have used it for yrs without issue, the ones saying they are weak are generally guys who run huge tires and beat the living crap out of their machines on the roughest terrain they can find, the others generally run smaller tires and run more moderate terrain, in my opinion, and take it with a grain of salt, welding is the better choice as it evenly disperses the pressure on all gears where flipping the gears transfers pressure to one set, this is what was recommended to me when i asked about it myself, as for the different axles, that i don't know about, sorry

Well my wheel horse 700 came factory with a 3 speed 4 pinion diff with 1 inch axles. I flipped the gears around and it has held up fine so far. However it does have some play in it which makes me alittle uneasy, I've heard that if you weld it, it doesnt have as much play in it. Alot of people will tell you that flipping the gears is a bad idea with sears axles but wheel horse transaxles are ALOT beefier than the sears transaxles. But that doesnt mean it wont break.

If you are wanting to swap axles/diffs one thing to note is the diameter of your axles. I'm about 95% sure that all 8 pinion and 10 pinion diffs have 1 1/8th inch diameter axles. I do know that that the 10 pinion and 8 pinion diffs are interchangeable however the 10 pinion diff has one short axle and one long axle while the 8 pinion axles are both the same lengths. VinsRJ on YouTube has some good videos explaining the differences.

Also puller guys prefer the 8 pinions over the 10 pinions and 4 pinions because the 8 pinions are stronger. As far as flipping the gears in a 8 pinion I know Creepycrawler has his flipped and it seems to do fine. I guess it really comes down to what your comfortable with doing. I wish I welded mine but I'm not so confident that my welds would have held either.

@darkside0914 appreciate the info

@BlakeGroce I guess I didn't think about axle diameter. I think mostly because the manual I have downloaded shows different axles (i.e. 6 pinion and 10 in the same section.) Probably misread on my part.

@BlakeGroce The play in the axle makes me nervous and curious at the same time. On one hand,.....weld the crap out of it...it will be strong, but on the other hand does that little bit of play take enough stress off it to keep it together?

If the manual shows both you might be able to swap them out. But I really dont know I've only heard guys talk about it and after so long it just gets complicated and I can only take in so much information

If your confident in your welds I'd weld it. Like @darkside0914 said it would disperses the force alot better. Even though the axle housing is stronger it still wouldnt hurt.