Welding differential housing?

Good heavens, Mon, I've never seen an axle housing wasted like that, did an axle break? I had track bars welded to my WS/Peterbilt axles and never had a problem.

 

Never broke the axle shaft just got all busted up under the spring seat….iirc they were 34k Rockwells and probably considerably over loaded. Cracking under the springs is fairly common but that’s by far the worst I have seen to.

 

I had issues doing that. Maybe you are a better welder? After having issues I started grinding the top flat, after what you have done and welding a 1/4 inch plate over the top of that. The dowel pin for alignment is gone. After the u bolts are torqued started welding the saddle under the spring to the axle. An inch on each side is good. Then retorque it later. Never pulled any axles. Always ground to the housing. Do what ever you have to do for the seat to sit equally on the axle first.

 

I think welding the saddle to the housing is the way to solve the problem… I usually do or I weld up the ears of the saddle and carefully grind them down until they are a snug fit on the housing.
I’ve had good success both ways. On the particular one in the picture I full on welded the saddle to the housing cause that thing was anything but flat….