Hi guys,

I just blew up my diff in a handfull of parts and one of those parts made a nice hole in my axle housing... i found the piece that was blown out on the side of my axle

I was wondering if those axle housings are weldable, anybody that has experience in welding axle housings? I think it's made out of cast metal, so it will probably need some special welding rods to get the job done.

And, as you can guess, i will need a new differential, i was thinking about a locker or a limited slip differential, what would be the best option for a truck that allmost never see's dirt or mud roads?

Thanx!

 

the center pumpkin will be cast iron, so its not a shade tree welding project. combined with a gear blowup, the cost of gears and bearings, and welding shop, i'd say the whole rear end assembly is totaled out.

1500 has 9.25, and there's not any selectable lockers for those. there's only the very expensive detroit locker and the 1/2 expensive lunchbox from powertrax.

your sig doesn't say 2wd or 4wd but if 4wd and you want to change gears, then you've got to change both axles, which doubles the cost. oh yeah, you're the guy from belgium.

i was going to say just go to a junkyard and get a complete rear end assy for a 9.25 and swap it out in a few hours. but- are there any junkyards with dodges in them ?

yes it can be patched by welding it up. depending on size and location and stress level, you might could JB Weld or RTV it, but if you sink in a lot of money and the patch fails, its might cost a bundle to start over.

got any pics. you know how we love pics.

edit - ok fess up.... how did you blow up your rear end ?

 

it's a 4x2 allright... and it's the pumpkin that has a hole about an inch in diameter. I allready looked up the lockers, as you said, the only locker i can find is the detroit locker, i would like to combine this with 3.90 gears, that should pump up the acceleration

I'm from Belgium indeed, there aren't many junkyards with american vehicles over here but i just spread the word around that i need one. I will have to wait for reply's.
The funny thing is that i will start working at a dodge dealership within 5 weeks from now, so i will check over there for cheap parts also.
I'm a sheetmetalworker and mechanic so i think i can weld it, but i can't remember if i need special rods for cast iron.
I will take off the axle next week and take out the diff so i can reach the hole to weld it... and by then i will have more answers from the junkyards and dealership about the parts i need.

Thanks for the reply!!

 

i've never tried to weld cast iron. a cold weld seems to be the general idea.
http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9102

 

It's what i thought to do also, i remember it from my schooldays

 

a little update for my rear axle:

I found a complete used axle today and i can pick it up next weekend. It cost me 350€ (475$) so i'm pretty happy. I asked the dealership for a new differential but it was too expensive for me.... 715€ or almost 975 american dollars and that is with my employee discount!

So this weekend it's wrenchtime!!!

Thanx for you input dhvaughan!!

 

so, in Belgium - can you go down to the local dealership and buy a new dodge truck as easy as buying a european car ?

is it more expensive or less expensive than buying a euro-made car ?

suppose its a new 2010 4wd Ram that has a sticker price over here of about $30-35K or so, and dodge gives us $5-10k in rebates.. how much would it cost in Belgium ?

if you buy a euro-made truck, what kind would it be and how much would it cost ?

 

hell if your going through all that trouble... and you want locker... weld it.. lol and youll have the a perm. locked locker... hehe

if you want to up the accel on the truck, buy an SCT tuner for it and youll get a big jump... not to mention the cold air intake, the full exhuast, Roller rockers.. and youd be good forr accel

 

For the moment you can only buy a new ram trough parallel import, but soon we will be able to buy one at the official dealership. The price will be much higher than in the usa, and probably without rebates... if you want a new ram truck for the moment, you have to pay about 30-35000€ wich is about 48000 us dollars.
For that money you can buy a nice toyota pickup full option with the biggest engine and still have money left to modify the truck with aftermarket parts....

i don't think that european car manufacturers make pickup trucks, except maybe a **** poor wannabe pickup made from an existing car wich is cut up. The most common pickup over here is a toyota or other asian brands. An average euro car over here is much smaller than an average us car, usually pretty crappy construction. The best cars are still the japonese cars, they keep on going...
We need smaller cars over her because of the smaller roads, the roads are not very "us car-friendly".

Let's say that for the price of a brand new ram, you can have a nice new mercedes C class or bmw 5 series, or a very nice euro chrysler, dodge or jeep.

@meanwhitemopar: no worry's, i know what to do to pump up my engine, most of it has been done the only thing left is my drivetrain and still a lot of bodywork to do

 

update:

I finally found the time to work on my truck and opened the second hand axle i bought in the weekend. It seems that i was screwed big time by the guy who sold it to me... the ring and pinion gears are shot. I called him back and he said he had received the axle from a guy who needed a dana, but first put this axle under his truck. The only problem is that the gear ratios weren't the same as the front axle so he grinded the theeth of the ring and pinion into bits.
I started to dismantle the whole thing and i can't get the diff out of his casing
I tried prying it out, even with a crowbar, nothing. Does anybody have a solution to get the damned thing out?

I finally know why my old axle died, the previous owner attempted a fix on the diff... he welded the center pin to the center carrier!!! And the welds came loose and broke the center pin in 3, one of the parts made a hole in the pumpkin and all of the gears fell down in the casing... loosening the axles (c-clips fell down also) so that i could take off my wheel-drum-axle in one piece . I'm just lucky it dind't happen while i was driving on the freeway!

It seems that i am doomed with this truck, nothing seems to go as it should... every problem i have had with this truck created more problems along the repair. I'll try again tomorow, maybe it will come loose.