First, I pulled the C-clips out and the axles. Then I removed carrier assembly from the axle housing. I need to weld the spider gears together, but I don't want to get any spatter on the assembly pin so I built a deflector to keep spatter off. I welded it in 8 places to lock the spider gears together.

The reason for doing this is kind of complicated. Since we're going to be in dirt at the derby, if we only had traction to one wheel, we'd get stuck pretty quickly and lose the match. Welding the gears together keeps equal torque to both wheels, so if one wheel gets stuck, the other wheel will get you unstuck. Why would you ever want wheels that could get you stuck in the first place? We'll have to get over to the How Stuff Works page for that. I love those guys!

For my vainity, here's a picture of me in filthy filthy axle grease.