Anybody see this before??

So no rear brakes?

What the deal with the two pieces of firewood on the front bumper?

Correct, no rear brakes. The fire wood is for setting the plow on in the winter so the blade doesnt freeze to the ground.

funk a frozen blade is damn hard to get out of the ground sometimes. Iv been there with a tractor more than once.

Yea, thats an easy way to break stuff too when you just want to get it free and start plowing. Frozen wood is easy enough to deal with in comparison.

PlayingWithTBI said:

Nice job but, I don't think you have enough ballast

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No problem: He can fill the CMU blocks with grout for added weight as needed!

I love how this rig looks!

stutaeng said:

No problem: He can fill the CMU blocks with grout for added weight as needed!

I love how this rig looks!

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Actually in previous years, the truck sits lower at the end of the season than going into it, the snow and ice builds up and adds another couple hundred pounds.

For one axle tube to turn like that without the other side moving it had to have broken the welds to the center section on one side. Not necessarily the side that turned.

Randyb2004 said:

For one axle tube to turn like that without the other side moving it had to have broken the welds to the center section on one side. Not necessarily the side that turned.

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Yep, that is precisely what happened to the 8.5" that was in it. I'm surprised that was the failure point on that axle with the amount of abuse that thing took throughout its life.

After I removed it, I took the diff cover off the inspect the gears and everything inside looked surprisingly good. No chipped or broken teeth, and the wear marks on the ring gear looked perfect, like it was a street driven grocery getter its whole life.

I could have easily re-aligned it, welded it back to the diff housing and re-installed it and probably got another few years of heavy abuse out of it. But I had this 10.5 FF sitting there and I had plenty of time this summer to iron out the details involved with that swap. If this would have happened in the winter, I probably would have just aligned it and welded it without even removing it just to get through the winter. Luckily that wasn't the case and I was able to do the right thing with this upgraded axle.

I came across an older thread. On post #2 the guy says the plug welds are weak points on the 10 bolts: https://nastyz28.com/threads/another-ford-9-vs-chevy-10-bolt-dilema.83082/

I didn't read the entire thread, so I don't know if they are talking about the other variations of the 10 bolts (from cars...?)

Then he makes reference to this other article that has a very detailed procedure for make a continuous, all-around weld on the axle tube: https://nastyz28.com/threads/how-to-weld-axle-tubes-on-gm-8-5-10-bolt.18890/ Probably a little too advanced for the DIY guy? Maybe.

Still, a good reference for doing this weld on any other type of axle.

Thanks for those links! I guess that was a known weak link on the original axle.

I did weld the axle tubes to the diff housing on the new 14b FF that is now in it. Very similar to the second link you posted however I used 7018 stick rods. Everything else with pre-heating and wrapping afterward to slow down the cooling process was done successfully. I posted pictures earlier in this thread about that process. I was a little scared about cracking but if you have an IR thermometer and plenty of torches and heat guns you can really keep the heat evenly distributed.