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Apr 26th, 2026 | | AD Chevy Trucks  Over 6,000 pictures Brad Allen has an awesome collection of Chevrolet factory pictures that he has set up from film strips. Check them out!
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| | | Joined: Sep 2005 Posts: 99 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Sep 2005 Posts: 99 | I'm thinking of modernizing the drive train in my '36 and I'm wondering how hard it is to narrow a late model diff. The Chevy's look like a one-piece housing while the Ford looks like a pressed together assembly. Is one type better/easier and is this worth doing at all? | | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 29,771 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 29,771 | I've worked with narrowed housings on some racing applications, dragsters, circle track dirt cars, etc. The Dana-type housing with the integral carrier is usually forged steel with tubular steel axle housings pressed in and welded into place. I have used an air-arc to blow out most of the weld and finished off by using a die grinder, removed the axle tubes and shortened them. It's a very labor-intensive operation and it requires a big lathe, a welder, and some pretty precision measurements along the way. Once the housing is narrowed, the axle shafts must be shortened the same distance and re-splined, or new axles must be fabricated.
Yes, it's possible to narrow an axle. No, it's not easy or inexpensive, and if you ever wear out or break an axle shaft, you're out of operation for as long as it takes another custom shaft to be made.
Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
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| | | | | Joined: May 2005 Posts: 8,878 . | | . Joined: May 2005 Posts: 8,878 | http://www.dynatrac.com/ and or some other companies that regularly and professionally build axles from scratch should be able to narrow an axle for you, and re-spline or provide new axle shafts. Won't be cheap, and at that point you may be better off having a new axle made to suit, from the same folks. also try http://www.solidaxle.com/Grigg | | |
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