[signbuilder]

I have a 9" ford that I would like to narrow myself, but not spend the $300-500 for the alignment bars.......anyone have any luck doing it themselves and just having the axles resplined? It all boils down to having the bearing true and straight right? I have good equipment, but want to save cash on my first oddball project(read the 9" ford with 4.11 gears given to me). This isn't going to be a "drag car" although 400 hp and a red light race is not out of the question. Any thoughts?

[OneMoreTime]

Critical thing is having the alignment tool to hold every thing in place when welding the housings..basically it is a straight section of tube with tapered sliding collars to support the housing on the straight and narrow so to speak..

Of course then cutting and resplining the axles is the other thing..

Personally I would consider that to be a PITA unless I was planning to do more that just one..By the time you make up the tooling to do a good job you will understand why the guy charges what he does to do that job..

OMT

[Deuce]

One cost cutting method is to find a factory Ford axle shaft that is shorter than the ones you are using. Fords have a long axle shaft and a short axle shaft.....in almost every rear end they produced. IF.......you keep the spline count the same and the bearing OD the same ...........cheap way to go.

I almost always use the 57 to 59 Ford car 9 inch rears under my projects. I rarely need to narrow one. They are 58 inches wide.....the narrowest 9 inch Ford available from the Ford factory....measured this way.....



BUT.......a 65 - 66 Ford car axle shaft.....the short one......is 1 inch shorter than the 57 long axle shaft........so I get a factory cut axle shaft that is one inch shorter.........without resplining.... So......that leaves the 65 - 66 long axle shaft to have resplined shorter than the 57 short axle shaft......

Moser gets around $100 to narrow a housing and $65 to respline a axle shaft. ....so for less than $200 I can get my 57 Ford ( that was 58 inches ) narrowed down to 55 inches ( which is pretty narrow ) ......or add another $65 for the second axle shaft and be less than $250.....not counting shipping.

....and there are lots of companies that narrow rears....... I just mentioned Moser because they are fairly close to me and I have had good results....

[STATUTORY GRAPE]

$250.00 ??????? I got a quote from someone in my area and it was $500.00 to to narrow the axle and order 2 axle shafts to fit (excluding shipping). Should I be going somehwere else?

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by STATUTORY GRAPE

$250.00 ??????? I got a quote from someone in my area and it was $500.00 to to narrow the axle and order 2 axle shafts to fit (excluding shipping). Should I be going somehwere else?

YES.........

http://www.moserengineering.com/mose...opservices.htm

Scroll down the page and look at the prices.....

[IanRiordan]

As the left axle is 4 inches shorter than the right, find a set up 8 inches narrower than you need and swap axles. then you only have to shorten one.

[enjenjo]

I have a jig, and I still generally have Moser do them. I check them when they come back, and have never had one off enough to matter. The axles are always perfect.