Narrowing a rearend

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Old Iron

Well-known member
Joined
May 19, 2011
Messages
15,254
Location
Willard Mo.
Just thought I would pass this along.
Been narrowing Ford 9" rears for a little while now and had the opportunity to narrow an '72 8 3/4" A Body Dart rear.
Online measurements say they are 57 1/8" but, this rear is 57 3/4" drum to drum. The housing can be shortened 2 full inches on each side and use the original axles by cutting them off to fit because, each axle has 3 3/16 inch of usable spline and only needs 1" for the axle and rear to be fully engaged.
This leaves a drum to drum width of 53 3/4" to be used under a lot of hot rods.
Happy hunting :cool:
 
Question: Is it even necessary to cut the ends of of the axle? Is there room "inside" to just push 'em in a little further? I am thinking that with that much extra spline, there was planned wiggle room for using the same axles in different width housings. Engineers are funny that way. :D
 
Question: Is it even necessary to cut the ends of of the axle? Is there room "inside" to just push 'em in a little further? I am thinking that with that much extra spline, there was planned wiggle room for using the same axles in different width housings. Engineers are funny that way. :D

I think the axle ends butt up against the pinion shaft or are just a few thou away so that aint gonna work.....[S
 
The axles only have a small amount of clearance at the ends so, they absolutely have to be cut to fit.
The axles only slip into the differential gears about an inch. If the splines on the axles are long enough, you can cut as much as you want but, leave enough to fully engage the diff splines.
Note: This can only be done on rearends where the axles are held in the housing with retainers. Spicer style rearends, require the use of C clips to hold the axles in and cannot be cut down without installing C clip eliminators or machining the groove on the end of the axle again.
 
The axles only have a small amount of clearance at the ends so, they absolutely have to be cut to fit.
The axles only slip into the differential gears about an inch. If the splines on the axles are long enough, you can cut as much as you want but, leave enough to fully engage the diff splines.
Note: This can only be done on rearends where the axles are held in the housing with retainers. Spicer style rearends, require the use of C clips to hold the axles in and cannot be cut down without installing C clip eliminators or machining the groove on the end of the axle again.
Got it. Thanks guys.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top