How to: Lock a Trans-axle or Differential 

What I've learned from this video: Be careful with your little balls Dump your fluids before go to town Grease your shaft Use a rubber if you can

This is one of the best, if not the best training video I have seen. Excellent explanation as well as detailed warning. Great job!!!!

Thanks man! I do my best, and I like helping people start/build there projects. As of right now, youtube is my only outlet.

Excellent video. You kept it moving without a lot of BS. Lots of information. Thanks Todd.

Man, I love your videos! Ive locked my rearend in my Craftsman by watching your video and installed a gas pedal the same way you have shown in your other video. Its actually as easy as you make it look. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge. Keep up the great work.

Thought I'd add in, as I've "Lincoln-locked" over 20 axles in my lifetime. Never a lawnmower one, but everything from 240sx pumpkins up to 14bolts. As far as welding the backside due to machined surfaces - it doesn't matter, since it's not going to spin anymore. Welding the inside is actually worse, since that center pin is a hardened steel shaft and has now been annealed along the haz (in the weakest possible spot). Place small BOLTS in the meshing gear teeth and weld all the teeth to the bolts, then to the adjacent gear. Then weld anywhere the gears mesh. Avoid the cast iron housing (in this case sun gear), and the pin. Definitely DO NOT weld to the axle shafts. Replace the c-clips, or replace with the other spring style ones (which removes the need to grind the shafts as well).

You know, I've seen a lot of comments over the years by people requesting you do a 4x4 lawn tractor... You really only need a secondary trans-axle and cut the out hub mounts off and put on two u-joints from a Jeep Wrangler steering shaft. Do a flat grind on opposing sides to have your surface and snug down the set screws. You could weld them, but that wastes the axle in the event a joint fails. You can buy heavy duty steering joints for around $16 to $20 and just use a secondary drive belt on your motor. It'll work easily! I may try to make a 4x4 because I'm bored and because our zero turn gets stuck fast... This would make for a great recovery vehicle as well as a great toy!

This really helped me the most because I have the exact same trans axle. The foote 3864. I'm planning on locking mine real soon thanks to this video

I weld the spiders onto the axle because in the past, I have broken those internal c-clips. I had my wheel, hub, and axle slide right out of my transaxle case while I was "side hill-ing" in my back yard. so now I weld them on. I have been running a similar setup in another off road tractor for about 5 years with no problems as of yet. Thanks for the comment!

man what a great instructional video! Thanks so much for making it. Im new to mower modding but i am really enjoying working on these machines :)

I know these videos are old but man is your stuff informative!

Thanks for the how too, I'll definitely be giving it a try to my early 90s model Tory built lawn and garden tractor that has the plow implement system on it.

thanks for the tip, I didn't know they made anything like that. I'll have to find some

I welded mine it was awesome!!! For about 35mins 😂 my whole casing exploded

Dude,u r the man! I once welded a half inch hammer drill main shaft back together . It ran out of balance and shook ,but I got the drilling jobs done before it shit the bed .

I like ur work my son and i are building one also to me it looks like you know what your doing when it comes to welding and building mud mowers

this had worked awesome i tried it and it was the best thing ever. you are a genius.

HEYYY!!! haha i just realized you credited me to the bushing thing in this video, thanks man your the first person that actually gave me credit for something i think

Man thank you for such an informative video im so looking forward to tearing My ride on down and starting a project

I just used your video to lock a Peerless 920 transaxle. I works perfect. Thanks

Greasing your shaft is great

WAIT FOR THE BRAKLEEN TO DRY BEFORE YOU WELD! I am still growing back my eyebrows!

Your awesome at everything fearless. Got my respect

I am just now finding your channel. I enjoyed watching you guys romp in the mud mowers. I have so many questions but, I am going to try everything myself with as little advice as possible. Thanks for sharing how to do this. I was really afraid my tractor would get stuck a lot but now that I saw your video here, I am def gonna try locking my dif. I am already raising the mower 12" higher and so between the lift and the locker, I feel confident I can go anywhere! Next problem, how to swap pulleys so it goes faster lol

if you have oxy-acetylene torches light your acetylene and let them smoke where there making suet which is a black smoke if you run the flame over the steel it forms a coating on the steel when you weld with the mig all the splatter will not stick and saves you going with a screw driver removing the splatter! if you have a piston on like a hydraulic cylinder and your welding around it you can suet the chrome rod do your welding and then just wipe off the black smoke and you won't have any damage to the rod.

Good Video! Also sound advice on how to loosen and tighten the bolts on a cast alu gearbox - not many people heed that.

Sounds good man, it's a lot more fun than it seems like it would be.

Great job and good job explaining everything you're very good at what you do thank you

You can cut down on the weld splatter by spraying the area with WD-40 before welding.

I locked mine and now my tires spin backwards when it is in a forward gear.

Awesome video MR FEARLESS ! very informative

Ive used this video to lock two of my garden tractors. Great information, thank you

lol. "try to use a rubber if you can" good advice

I have been working on mowers for about 3 yrs and I think guy know his shit and that was a Dam good job I will be doing the same thing to my 2 mowers tomorrow thank you for your help.

Hey fearless never commented on ur video before but I saw this bid like 6 months ago and I was so interested now I'm 17 and I would like to do this thanks so much ur the best!!

thanks fearless im in the process of building my own mudding mower right now pulled a trans axle off a donner mower and trying to get it apart your videos have helped alot now hopefuly this fabricator can lock a transaxle. by the way the mower im building is a hydrostat so got to swap her out

hey great video...very professional, but you need some good before and after field-test video in mud, sand, gravel, water, snow, ice....uphill/downhill...itll really show off the improvement, especially with a loaded trailer...they,ll launch a john-boat in a muddy farm-pond after the conversion....still good video tho.

When reassembling a trans-axle that is greased would it hurt as an extra layer of protection to run a think layer of gasket maker around the outside edges to help keep water and other contaminants out?

Dude is a professor! Amazing detail and pointers!

Great vid! Thanks for taking the time to video.I know it's a pain to tape while working.

4:16 "try to use a rubber if you can" ohh hell yeah i always use a rubber!!!

All you need to do is weld closed three teeth on the 🕷️ gear, and than weld the opposing three teeth. Do all for gears.

Very informative video young man very good job would not be afraid to attempt this job after watching this video thank you

best RU-vidr iv ever watched :)

whats this guy doing here? I was searching for blinker fluid reviews

I know this video is old but could I just weld all the spider gears together instead of welding it all separate?

I see. That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing your talents with everybody.

Excellent video, very informative... also note the grease fittings on the case for the axle output shafts

He greased his shafts

oh sure, we don't need no differential, we have vodka

Dude, you do a well illustated video. Very through..clear. Thanks for your time.

Thanks man, locking the rear makes it a lot more fun to ride!

what about a hydro lawn tractor

To bad manufacture's don't just make a button you could push & have instant posi track.

i locked my transaxle using this method, you make it look easy getting the axles and spider gears in! when i did mine i took it to school and used the varsal tank and cleaned all the gears and the case, re greaced averything really good, i packed both sides and i had greace ozzing out putting it back together, i used almost 2 cans of greace! and mine would not spin at all, i thought i had all the bushings aligned but i guess not, but it wore it self in in about 10 mins,

yes you can, I am actually doing one right now. just waiting on gaskets to finish it up. but there will be a video of the process

Can u lock a hydrostatic transmission

not safe to weld anything that has ever had brake cleaner on it. but other wise very informative video

Wow great training video the best I've seen.

I Have done this hack and it works great.

what should u do if the rims dont come off the axle

Is that a Spicer????

Hey Fearless Front - I enjoy your videos. I am in the process of making a side x side True Utility Cart, using a Yardman 18 HP, 14 spd Garden/Lawn Tractor. I hope to put another rear on front & cut axiles ends, add steering U joints, bearings to front for a 4x4. Extend steering shaft, add U joint & bearings, to be able to move steering wheel to right side of cart. Cart frame will go over existing tractor frame, using 1" heavy walled tubing. GREAT GOING!

Just wanted to say Thank You for the throrough and clear Video. I learned a lot today ;) :D

Does this work for cars

We did that to one of my cars long long ago. We just welded the gear teeth, so it didn't weaken any of the shafts. The shop did that to most of the dedicated oval track race cars for various racing classes. They never had any differential related failures. My car was a 1982 Firebird with a 2.8 v6 and 4 speed stick. We upgraded it to a SBC 350 (v8). Stock differential it was open. We just welded the spider gears without disassembling anything other than the cover. I drove and raced that car ("spectator" street car class) for a few more years after that. It was finally sent to the bone yard when the body twisted too much, and the firewall cracked. I was really hard on that car. It was nice that burnouts were always equal length parallel lines. Much better than the one wheel squeal. I can't recommend that anyone does it to a car, because of the obvious wear issues. But it was a lot of fun to drive. There is one thing about doing this. In the car, it was hard to turn in parking lots, and one wheel scuffed through the turn. I sometimes had to bump the gas to turn. On a mower, if you're turning sharp, it will tear up the grass under the wheel that scuffs. But if you're just using it to drive around fields, or you only do wide turns while mowing, it'll work great.

Thanks fearless, I took it apart today and it was easy as hell to lock. The vertical split ones are so much easier let me tell ya. You can pull the whole assembly out in one piece and weld it outside of the case and not get slag all over. The only problem was that I accidentally shifted into a different gear while it was apart and all the gears got out of wack. It took me about 2 hours to get them all back the way they were considering I had no clue where they went and no diagram.

Excellent video. Nice and detaled.

@EricTehRedneck Yup! it's a lincoln weld pack 100, I love it! I don't know what I would do without it!

I love the way You think and act on it. You are truely feerless. It must be a very old transaxel with grease and no oil. Go man go

Thanks Fearless i am locking my diff well my dad is cause hes welding at his shop just wanted to send you a comment that you are doing a great job and i will have some romping vids up soon

im making a 4wd lawn mower and so far its going good but this helped alot

I did this in my drift car years ago. Very easy. I pretty much did the same thing you did just on a car differential lol.

I have locked a few mowers just like this method. Works very well, but just my opinion here. I tend to go mudding more than racing or anything else. I prefer to have the axles not locked so i can "shake" or wiggle back and forth to allow one tire to spin then the other. The belt has a lot more strain with it locked, but dougnuts are FUNN. good video.

hello friend,just wanted to comment on the professional presentation of your video.it was very informative,and entertaining.it is rare to find a young man that is able to orate as clearly about a subject,as you have done.seems like a lot of kids do not take enough time with their words nowadays,seems like every thing is f-this,and f-that. thank you very much,have a nice Christmas. Cheers from Colorado

I have this same type of locker in my offroader, been running it for 4+ years with 20" tires and a pulley swap. In fact, I just swapped out to a new trans, and swapped my old locker into the new trans because it's held up so long

Cool! Mower modding is hella fun!

@Fearlessfront I haven't cracked the trans yet, but I think that's the plan for tomorrow night. As long as the gears are the same, I will do it the exact same way you describe here. I ordered a new engine pulley that will be in at the end of the week. Hopefully by the weekend I can start re-assembly. Thanks man!

Great video. Well spoken. Cool trick to make this happen. Thnx

I did this on my little racing mower an it works like a champ thanks

i did this same thing about 4 years ago on my mower it makes a world of diffrence. when i had mine apart i drilled and tapped drain and fill holes replaced the grease with 80/90 made for much smoother operation

i just locked my transaxle, already got my pulleys swapped . i have a craftsman lt1000 with the msd 206 transaxle. i still have to put oil in it ,thanks for all the how to videos.

Great job thanks 👍😎 excellent job explaining the job.

Good job! Very good video!

Thank you for your feedback & insight. Small city backyard, I have to be able to turn extremely tight. Will try weight, tire studs & an electric winch leaving the spider weld for last as it's a no going back solution. But if I have to, I have to. More reading led me to find out this process is called a 'Lincoln Lock' after Lincoln welders. Best Regards -Craig

I love it. Thank you so much for showing us

absoulty enjoy ur channels fearless one video I have not seen on ur how to is cleaning carbs the older one peace and the newer style 2 peace that u seen on ohv and some of the newer flathead engines thanks and keep the videos comin cant wait to see the sears completely done and on its first romp!

wow this was way easier..i was going to try to machine a full shaft and final gear for my tractor..just finished this today using your method and will test it out tomorrow with some bashing through the woods..

Great video brother....

Took mine apart last night, forgot about those two little hidden bolts in the center that were on the bottom. Good thing I remembered you mentioning it, or I would have been out a transmission!

Thanks! trying to think ahead, much easier to grease that way!

Great video pal, you got a new subscriber !

@wadekissam22 thats the beauty of doing it this way, if the weld does break, then its not the end of the whole rear axle setup.

Very informative. Thanks man.

feerless i love ur tips and tricks thank u so much

You did a very good job explaining how to do that I'm going to get out my welder and take my transaxle apart and do that thank you very much

Todd, I use a spray with my cheap mig welder when I am worried about slag sticking. You just spray it on everything you don't want it to stick to and after you are done welding the cleanup is a lot easier. Nothing sticks. Its the same stuff you spray in you migs nozzel. It might have come with you welder when you bought it. I also you argon gas with mine. If that makes a difference. I don't know. Very nice video. Excellant.

I miss my 04 Impala SS. It was my favorite of all the cara I have had. Super fun and pretty as hell.

Great video!

I like using a harmonic balancer puller. they work awesome