When installing a new pair of chromoly rear axle shafts in my D44, I over-torqued one of the studs of the driver rear retainer plate.

It is plenty tight to drive as is.

However, in the future, when I need to remove the nut, I'm going to have to tack weld the stud to the plate from inside or cut the stud off from the nut side from the back.

I could reach in to stick weld it, or I could use my MIG with the wire spooled out far enough.

I am concerned about over-heating the seal and/or splattering in there while doing a tack weld. This leads me to want to wait until I have to pull the shaft.

I am also concerned about being on the trail, busting an axle, and not being able to pull and replace it until I return to somewhere I have access to a welder. This leads me to want to tack weld it now.

Up until now, I have only bent rear chromoly shafts and blown rear ring teeth. I'm thinking that it is less likely that I break a rear shaft on the trail. If I blow ring teeth, I'd pull my rear driveshaft and drive/winch/pull off the trail in front wheel drive. I could then find access to a stick welder to tack it so I could pull the shaft.

Certainly, I'm not the only one who has spun a retainer plate stud.

Who has an opinion other than "bacon" or to just carry some welding sticks and link batteries?


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I'd say tack it now, before you end up in a pickle.

My advice is take the time to fix it right now. Murphy's law dictates if you leave something hanging that can bite you in the ass it will.

Things are alot easier to fix on your time in your shop than on the side of the trail.

So. Stick or MIG? What would you use? The stud head on the plate is kind of hard to reach in there. I don't want to spatter and melt the rubber on the axle seal.


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Anyway to get a wet rag in there? I know its pretty tight, but maybe you could get one in there are a shield to protect the seal.

If you can reach it do a mig, because it does not penetrate like a stick.

Just do a nice tack it should not get hot enough to damage the seal.

Weld it and you wont have any heat issues, you only need two hot tacks I weld the studs on every single JK that I pull the rear shafts out of now cause it seems to happen on every other one.

Weld it now.

K. It's settled.

MIG with the wire spooled out enough to reach in there, wet rags for cover of the other stuff, 2 tacks on the head.

And...next time, go ahead and tack the studs to the retainer plate whenever I have an uninstalled shaft.


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Tack all four on both sides Plan..... I recently broke a rear shaft on the Rubi44 I had back there and when it came time to replace, two of the four studs spun on one side and when I checked the other side, one spun there too.... all from the factory and I had never screwed with that area of the Jeep.

So.... I would do all eight just to be on the safe side.... while getting in there with grinder or Sawsall is possible, they might not be common trail tools and who wants to deal with that if you don't have to.

I didn't realize how common an issue this is. Glad I started the thread.


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If you pull the ebrake shoes it'll make it easier to access/weld.

Can you post some pics so all of us "not so awesome" guys will know what you're talking about. All I've done on my rear axle is brakes/diff cover, lol.

Sure. I'll post a few pics tonight.


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Here are pics of the studs on a retainer plate on an uninstalled rear axle shaft:





Here are pics of the stud that needs to be tack welded to the plate:





Back side:

Good pics PLAN.... show the area perfectly for those in the dark on what we were discussing!

Did you get a chance to tack them?

I was going to look at how to pull the e-brake gear off to be able to reach it more easily.

The wife and I are headed to Cabo San Lucas for a week though, and I won't get around to it until a week from Saturday.


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It looks harder than it is.... there are two retaining pins (look like dog bones to me) to watch out for, but otherwise, I don't recall anything that wasn't straightforward.

It's pretty easy, don't even need one of those funny brake spring tools. I used to hate servicing old drum brakes but without the hydraulics in the e-brake it's several less pieces comparatively.

I used locktight when I put my cromo axles in. No issues yet. But the weld idea is a great idea.

Locktite will do nothing for this issue.... the issue is that the pressed-in stud or backing plate must made from some soft metal and the "threads" strip; thus, you end up with a spinning stud that is useless for anything as there is no head behind it to grab onto.... at that point you are going to have to tack it like PLAN is planning on or cut them off as I had to.

I think the weld method is way better and if I had that ability, I'd have gone that route as well.