If you are cheap like me and these pictures look familiar then read on.
I saw something on the internet 5-6 years ago about welding your u-joint caps to your axle ears and was leery of trying it. The downfall as I saw it
• Changing joints nearly impossible on the trail.
• Make it much more time consuming in the shop.
• Boiling out the grease since I run non greasable joints.
I spent the next couple years grabbing and using every spare axle I get my hands on until I ran low on spares I decided I had nothing to lose since 99% of the time all of the parts are destroyed when any one fails, and if you’re lucky it stops there…. if not you can easily destroy ball joints.
You can see in this picture welded joints are far less likely to come apart and destroy other parts.
If you look closely you will notice that part of the cap is gone, some of the needle bearings have gone AWOL, the ears have hit and the welds have cracked but I was able to drive on this until I found a good spot to change it, still having 4wd. I later re-used the inner and outer shafts with a new joint and it’s as good as new, well a great trail spare anyway.
It’s not that hard if you have the Ford Dana 44 brakes because the hole to stuff the axle in is huge but if you have a Chevy conversion then you must chamfer the axle ear for the weld and grind the outside to allow it to fit.
• Get out your manual and remove the front axel per the instructions
• Install a new U-joint, if you have gone to the work of pulling the shaft you might as well
• Prep the area that you are about to weld, a 4 ½” grinder works well
• Take a shop rag and soak it in water then roll it up. Stuff it around the u-joint and axle as shown
• Before you get to excited and start laying a huge bead remember that you want to keep the heat down as much as possible to keep the grease in the joint. There are many ways to weld the cap to the axle and the best would be TIG it, but I MIG weld mine because it saves time. Make sure you keep the ground on the side you are welding so you don’t damage the needle bearings in the joint.
• First tack four spots on one cap, then move to the opposite ear and putting four tacks on that cap, then swap the ground to the inner or outer axle (which ever you did not already weld) continue on with four tack welds per cap rotating to keep the heat down until finished. Install per the manual and go wheeling!
• You could use a greasable joint and when the welding is done you can lube it up but I like the non-greasable joints due the fact the cross is solid and stronger.
I don’t have any numbers saying it’s 48% stronger or anything like that but it’s worked well for me. Changing a joint now involves a grinder and a bit of patience, but it is worth it to me to spend more time wheeling and less time repairing on the trail.
Remember to follow safe shop practices when doing this or any other modification and wear your safety glasses, if not it’s about $500 to have a sliver of metal removed from your eye!
