[Max-Bilt]

Originally Posted by Duble-it

What's your WMS to WMS measurement?

i believe it was 60 in the rear and 62 up front.... that whole build was a wirlwind, 30 days and little sleep i will double check but i think thats it

[Duble-it]

Originally Posted by Max-Bilt

i believe it was 60 in the rear and 62 up front.... that whole build was a wirlwind, 30 days and little sleep i will double check but i think thats it

Would you change anything or are you happy with the width?

[CSP]

I can't speak for Max-Bilt, but I too have a 4" narrowed Chevy 44. With eight lug outers it's at 65.5" WMS to WMS, which is about perfect for the cab&chassis 14bolt in the rear which is 63.5".

I think the width is perfect. Wide enough for plenty of stability, no need for outboarding the spring hangers, and it fit's between the wheelwells of a 7.5" wide car hauler.

[Duble-it]

Originally Posted by CSP

I can't speak for Max-Bilt, but I too have a 4" narrowed Chevy 44. With eight lug outers it's at 65.5" WMS to WMS, which is about perfect for the cab&chassis 14bolt in the rear which is 63.5".

I think the width is perfect. Wide enough for plenty of stability, no need for outboarding the spring hangers, and it fit's between the wheelwells of a 7.5" wide car hauler.

4" off the short side only? Got Pics?

[CSP]

No, 4" off the long side. This allows the axle to move towards the drivers side 2" to keep it centered and then the passenger side perch lines up with the spring. The driver side perch can be welded wherever it lines up. Any '80-91 Waggie/Grand Waggie long side shaft is also exactly 4" shorter than the Chevy long side shaft, so no need for custom length inner axleshafts.

I have pictures, but my host is down at the moment.

[Duble-it]

Thanks, Sounds easy enough. If you can post pics when your host is back up that'll be cool.

[dawgates]

Duble-it,
If you're going to take this project on as said before, measure, measure, measure.
You'll need to remove the inner "C" first. Draw an alignment line of the inner "C" knuckle on the axle tube back far enough that when you cut the tube off, the marks will line up. Then start grinding the weld off. Get as close to the Inner "C" knuckle as you can. Use a heavy rubber mallit to take it off. DON'T use a steel hammer, you could crack the knuckle (PartsMike.com sells new ones). It will be a tough job because it's pressed on the tube, be persistent! After you get the knuckle off, cut the tube off 4", clean the burr's off the sand down (clean) the tube. Line up the makes on the tube and the knuckle and start to hammer (use heavy mallet again) it back on.
I used a piece of 1" threaded rod with nuts and washers on both end and screwed the knuckle back on. I still needed the mallet to help, but it worked great (homemade press). It also allow the knuckle to go on straighter. Keep in mind to keep watch of the alginment marks. It's a bear to turn the knuckle onces it on the tube. When the tube is flush with the outside of the knuckle, you're there. Use the other knuckle as a comparison as to how far the tube is resting in the knuckle.
Triple check you alignment and measurements. Once that's done and your happy, start welding the knuckle back on. Use a lot of Amps because you're dealing with heavy gage metal and need good penetration.
I can't sterss enough to check and recheck everything. This is your steering and once you weld the inner "C" knuckle back on, it's done! If it's wrong, throw the axle housing in the trash and get another one.

[BESRK]

As CSP mentioned, you really should use an alignment bar and bearing pucks to narrow a rear.

With a front axle, you're dealing with a full float design. The outer stub shafts are "centered" in the spindle/hub assembly. Then, they're attached to the inner axle shaft via the ujoint. Then, the inner shaft splined end rests in the carrier's side gears. That setup allows for a little bit of misalignment.. making it pretty easy to "narrow" a frontend in the garage using basic tools.

With a rear axle, you've got one end of the axle centered in the carrier's side gear. The other end is supported/retained by the housing flange and bearings. If that flange is not true/square, the bearings will probably wear out quicker than normal. For a trail machine, it might not be an issue. However, for a street driven rig, you could eat up axle bearings.

The alignment bar is nothing more than a thick steel bar (almost about the size of a barbell bar). It can be ground to very tight tolerances and then hard chromed. You then purchase/make aluminum pucks that fit in the carrier caps. That bar passes thru the carrier caps and then another set of pucks fit the outer flanges to keep them square with the carrier. You assemble the whole shebang with the bar/pucks and then weld the flanges in place.. nice and square.

[JeepHammer]

I've done a BUNCH of Ford 9" housing for race cars, many with axles shipped back in shoe boxes! (Narrowed a BUNCH!)

Like the guys said, the easy way is to grind out the welds where the formed center section attaches to the tubes,
Remove the tubes and cut off what you don't need,
Then reinstall the tubes and weld back in.

I use an 1.25" thick walled piece of chormemolly tubing for a center alignment bar,
And I use 'Pucks' in the bearing flanges at the ends of the axles to center the bearing flanges with the piece of bar stock,

Then I use 'Pucks' with 1.25" holes in the center in the axle tubes just before the tubes end in the center section.

With centering 'Pucks' in both places on both tubes, the axle housing will weld back together with almost certainty...

If you are only going to done ONE axle, you can turn the 'Pucks' out of wood for expediency and reasonable cost, but DO USE HARDWOOD!
Making the 'Pucks' slightly tapered so they wedge in the axle tubes centered isn't a bad thing, but make sure you use a chop saw that cut the tubes square or that will bite you in the azz...
If you used a grinder or hack saw to chop off the tubes, make your pucks fit TIGHTLY INSIDE the tube, not wedge in as a tapered cone...

If you plan on doing this several times, make sure you use aluminum or mild steel for the 'Pucks',
But keep in mind that Ford used several different thicknesses and diameters of tubes down through the years.

Places like Mark Williams Enterprizes will hack off a set of long axles and re-spline them, plus drilling flanges for your Jeep wheels for about $125,
Or for about $250 you can get a custom made set of forged chromolly shafts made from scratch.

One piece of hard, thick walled DOM tubing,
Two 'Pucks' turned to fit on the bar, but fit INTO the bearing recesses,
Two 'Pucks' turned to fit on the bar, but fit INTO the axle tubes to center them,
And you are off to the races!

Remember to 'Stitch' weld, make about 4 welds about 1/2" long, opposed to each other for 'Tack' welds,
Then weld up the rest of the gaps, but alternate from side to side so you don't warp the housing while welding.

Nothing much to it, smarter people than me figured this out a long time ago...
I picked it up 30 years ago and it's worked every time I've used it since then!
And it works WELL!

[jason m]

front 60 narrowed down to 61 3/4".

i removed 8"s off the long side tube and had the inner shaft cut and resplined. this was for a custemer and its going not a CJ-7.

[jason m]

this was a 9" that i made into a front axle. but for a 9" rear you for sure need a line up bar.

but for a front with 60 outers on it the line up bar was used for the inner axle seals.
i found that 1.5' D-5 dozer hiem joint bodys fit the 9" inner axle tubes perfectly and since the inner body is 1.5" the chrome rod slide's threw.

jason.

[jason m]

one more i promess

my two steering rockwells. i took 7"s off the long side tube. and if any body ever tells you that the rockwell axle tubes are perfecly sqaure there dead wrong. theres a good 1/16" deflection in the side's.

so i was able to use the same 1.5" chrome rod for the 9" axle with the rockwells. i made some inner pucks for the rockwell bearing jurnals, i used the same 1.5" D-5 hiem's.
on the ends i made two smaller pucks that fit the seal retainer plate positions. slid the rod threw and this butted up the ends, beveld them, welded them with a back up strip for a 100% PEN weld. i used a spray setting on my machine.

PIC's

[jason m]

i lied i found a few more.

jason.

[CSP]

Originally Posted by dawgates

Draw an alignment line of the inner "C" knuckle on the axle tube back far enough that when you cut the tube off, the marks will line up.

Excellent advice for something to do in addition to measuring caster both before removing the knuckle.

Then start grinding the weld off. Get as close to the Inner "C" knuckle as you can. Use a heavy rubber mallit to take it off.

I find it much easier to determine where the 4" cutoff point is before removing the knuckle. Then I cut completely through the weld/axle tube with a chop saw or bandsaw. The knuckle and the tube inside of it come off as one piece and then just make a relief cut or two of the tube while it's still in the knuckle. Once those relief cuts are there the tube comes out easily. This method is much faster than trying to grind the weld just enough to pound the inner C off.

Duble-it I'm afraid my photo host may be permamently down. It's been giving errors for a couple of weeks now and it's not a commercial website. Just someone I know with a site that had some space for a few people to place pictures on.

[Exposed]

Back in the late 80's when I was building my Model A, I built a jig to narrow rear ends, especially the 9" Ford since they were easy to find and strong as .......
I found a steel shaft out of a hydraulic cylinder. It was about 1.25"OD x 65" long. Then I made a set of bearing pucks to the size of a 9" bearing out of aluminum. I also cut a 6" round 1/4" plate with a short sleeve with an allen set screw in it to lock on the rod. Had it turned on lathe to square. Drilled the bolt pattern to match the flange where the backing plate mounted. That is all you need to make sure the centerline of the axle is true to the face of the axle flange. I used early 31" spline axles (Mustang) to build my Model A rear end. I used .375" wall tube for housing since I was using 4 bar suspension. Also a 466 CI big block up front, so I wanted to make sure it would survive. The setup was easy. Run the rod through the bearing pucks and snug with caps. Bolt flange plates to the plates that slide on the end of the rod. Use some angle clamps to hold the new axle tube in place and tack weld. Oce tacked on 4 spots, 90 degrees apart, weld out opposite sides to minimize drawing from heat. I built about 6 or 7- 9" rear ends and a couple of the Chevy 12 bolt. Sorry don't have any pictures, I know that makes more sense than what I am writing....By the way... You would think the factory would weld the tubes perfectly with all their high tech equipment.. But, every rear end I worked on, I would set up the rod with bearing caps to see how close it was. I saw some that were probably 1 1/2" out. Another words, way out of centerline. Since there is slop in the splines, many millions of them worked fine. If you are in the Houston area, I could fix you up...