welding the spider gears, but leaving a little play in them is a way bad idea. With the forces involved, it would take no time at all for that little play to grow into a full blown ka-boom! I've seen this happen in 14bff's where the welds weren't sufficient (its common practice to weld only the gears in this axle).

some will weld all 4 spiders to each other (solidly), and call it good there. However, it doesn't take much more effort to plate the center and the extra strength this affords is well worth it IMO.

be careful... if you're wrong with what you do here, you risk trashing your entire R&P with the shrapnel.

-Rob