Possibly Welding a rear diff casing...Big fire risk?

[lightweight-love]

Haven't investigated yet but when i remove the diff guard i suspect i will find a crack in the diff casing(caused by putting a diff guard on a bent diff casing  )
So if i do could i drain the oil(whats left) and weld up the casing without too great a fire risk?

My logic: there wouldn't be an airflow inside the differential so if a fire did catch it would quickly go out? Oil can't catch that easy anyway right?

[TDi90]

yes you can weld it.

but it may be very thin!

R

[burgerman]

 I put a patch on one of mine and welded it up ok,  Although mine was missing a section after a diff jumped out the casing, I simply removed what was left of the diff, drianed the oil and cleaned the inner casing also,
   Dunno if this is the right answer but worked for me   :D

[dxmedia]

Make sure you drain the oil before - i wouldn't worry about the residue catching fire when welding. Give a quick wash with some solvent after everything has cooled to get the burnt oil out and you'll be fine.

Don't do as recommended on one of the jeep forums of welding in situe and full of oil. Bad bad bad idea.

[lightweight-love]

Cheers for advice people! As i suspected putting the Diff guard on caused a 2 mm hole, all patched up now tho so fingers crossed as the welding didn't go great. 

[Saffy]

Although it's not as cost effective as a good quick patch, you can get  heavy/standard duty replacement pans which I believe are easier to weld on because there is actually some meat on the edges to weld with.  My series truck has had a pan welding on at some point and it's very good.

[Range Rover Blues]

I've had holes a damned site bigger than that in mine (caused by the remains of a diff bearing being left in ther eby a certain well-known LR "specialist") and I've been able to weld it up succesfully.  If there is any oil on the metal you are welding it might not heat up enough to get a good weld but it will thin out and run away well before it reaches it's auto-ignition temp and you shouldn't be getting any sparks inside the alxes casing to light it otherwise.