Safe amount to shorten a 9"

[Iron Ranger]

I have aquired a 9'' rear from a mid 70's F-150 and am putting it on my 92 Ranger supercab.

I want to chop 2" off each side of the rear end to make it look and fit tighter, but I am not sure how much is too much.

Can you help me?

Ford 9" 31 spline 61" long +-

 

[Evan]

The backspacing on your wheels and amount of lift play into how much you can safely narrow that 9". When all is done you want your rear wheelbase width to be the same as or wider than stock.

2" on each side sounds quite reasonable to me, since your swapping a full width onto a half width chassis.

 

[blackbronc]

You could shorten the housing right up to the center section with no problems if you wanted to. The probem is all 70s era 9" axles are induction hardened and can't be cut and resplined properly so aftermarket or older axles would be needed. Check with Currie. The truck in my avatar had a 68 Lincoln 9" narrowed to about 54"D-D.

 

[Mac]

Best site to check on 9" info is
http://www.kevinstang.com/Ninecase.htm
What can be shortened and which ones are the good ones are all covered.
Dave

 

[Iron Ranger]

I did the math and for me to shell out $400 for a new pair of axles sounds much more cost effective than spending $$$ for the machine shop to re-spline the axles.

Plus, that saves me $130 for hub adapters for the 5x5.5 to 5x4.5 bolt pattern since the axles from Curry are already 5x4.5

Thanks for the input!!!