1G After Welded center diff.

[YoYo_4G63]

My car is extremely hard to push, on flat land and you can forget about pushing it on a slight incline :/ Wasn't like that before the center weld job, brakes are free so isn't a caliper. I've heard that is normal after a center diff. weld mod ???

 

[bastarddsm]

Yep. The slighest difference in tire diameter puts the whole system in a bind.

 

[Critic4Du3ce]

Damn now I'm afraid to weld mine in my auto

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

Totally normal behavior with a welded center diff. Just stay out of the drive-throughs & avoid U-turns and you'll be fine. In the 6+ years that I've had a welded center installed, I've only killed one front axle in my auto.

 

[boost97gst]

Its the same as if you take an expedition, for example, put it in 4low and drive in a parking lot. Even straight, with all the tires in similar condition and inflated to the same psi you will feel a drag and binding.

I'm leary of welding my CD but i figure the axles can take some reasonable amount of strain. Thanks for the insight boostedtalonTS, good to hear real world experience. 6 years is perfectly fine in my book. That would be maybe 20k miles for me.

 

[yoder]

i had the same thought of wanting to weld mine cause even with good tread its hard for me to get traction on wet roads but after reading into it. it wouldnt be the best option for me cause i live in the mountains of south eastern kentucky with alot of curvey roads

 

[bastarddsm]

I ran a welded cd on my car for a while, and broke 2 transfercases, 3 axles, and 1 ring&pinion, all while running low 11's on street tires. I went to an open center diff, and now I run mid 10's and haven't broke anything.

The welded cd was fun on the street cause it would rip 4wd burnouts, now it just hazes the fronts. Oh well.

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

yeah I hear you on the mileage Boost97gst, I'm in the same boat myself, with around a 100-120 miles-to-tank (when it runs anyways) on E85.

I'm sure some of the hole-shots might have weakened it prior, but I was literally in a drive-through when I snapped the outer CV ends inner race. Not a violent death as one would expect, but rather just a simple 'clunk' and it was toast.

Aside from avoiding tight radius turns (and lets face it, the 1G AWD turning radius sucked to begin with), running a welded center diff on the street is totally doable IMO. -If I'm coming out of a turn, the car almost wants to straighten itself out whenever I'm in the throttle. It also helps considerably with torque-steer out of the hole and/or at the onset of boost.

I also grenaded a transfer case once but I attribute that more to the 30psi launch that killed it, rather than the welded center diff... Now that was VIOLENT:

 

[donniekak]

What open diff are you running? More specifically, what cross shaft? The last time I stripped 3rd in my car, I was going through it to see what parts were usable, and the cross shaft was broke in half.

 

[bastarddsm]

Donnie,

I have one of tim's 4 spider shafts. When I put it together it was severly galled, and I cleaned it and the gears up with a sanding drum. I also welded oil scoops on the housing this time. I'll see how it looks all too soon I suspect. .

 

[kchaazz]

Ive got a 4 spider from TRE, it utilizes the same cross shaft and its supposedly unbreakable. I noticed that some people are mentioning that with a welded dif, you get crappy fuel economy, which is understandable. Im experiencing similar fuel economy, exept Ive got an open/vc center, Kaaz front and Evo rear dif. Kinda wondering if the front is causing it? Transmission is set up tight too. I get 15mpg in town, 26+ on the hwy...

 

[GST with PSI]

I'm running a welded diff, and I f***ing hate it. It completely ruins the drivability of the car IMO. It would be fine for a track car or whatever, but if you plan to drive it in real life it blows.

I'm going to pull my trans this winter just to swap back to the weak ass factory diff if that gives you an idea of how much it sucks. My .02

 

[yoder]

im glad im not getting mine done now after hearing all of the crap that goes on with the welded diff

 

[miliman13]

yes its normal for it to be hard to push!
yes it sucks for tight turns.

But you drive a car not push it! and if you do; it just makes you stronger "puts hair on your chest"!!
honestly for regular driving its just fine, except in tight tight turns, which is uncommon depending on individual experiences.
Benefits? : the obvious!

 

[yoder]

it wouldnt do me a bit of good driving on the curvey roads of the mountains around here

 

[boost97gst]

I think by "tight turns" people are referring to low speed parking lot type turns. Sweeping turns at speed wont bind the system bad at all. Unless you're going around hairpin turns on those mountain roads at like 3 to 5mph then i wouldn't worry about it.

But from hearing all the replies the open diff seems better, even for a weekend warrior car. The 4 spider seems the best of both worlds but add in more $ vs stock open or welded.

 

[YoYo_4G63]

Thanks to all