Thread: this one will test you all 9" ford rear end cut

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does anyone know how to cut down the housing of a 9" rear end to set it for tubing if you havent figured it out i am in to doing it my self just need the knowledge to do it!!!
lol

okay mr mustang i would love to sit and chat with you and pick your brain on this sudject because the edsel came with a 9" already in it from the factory and was going to use it as a ginnie pig for a tub and i looked at the lincoln it is about the same size as the edsel need more than that for the tires that are going on it

Originally posted by bigbadwolf
okay mr mustang i would love to sit and chat with you and pick your brain on this sudject because the edsel came with a 9" already in it from the factory and was going to use it as a ginnie pig for a tub and i looked at the lincoln it is about the same size as the edsel need more than that for the tires that are going on it

You need to be sure and weld the housing back together absolutely straight and square. Not impossible, but not so easy either if you've never done it before or don't have the proper equipment. Keeping everything true though the welding process (Heat and Cool) is not easy. You'll need to cut and re-spline the axles or buy new ones. Having said that, I'd say give it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained right????? If it doesn't work you can always scrap it and go order one built to size.

To cut the rear end to the proper width, you will need the tires and wheels you are going to run setting in the tubs where they will be when the car is running. You will also need a fixture to locate the housing ends in alignment with the housing when you weld them back on. Check around with some race car or hot rod fabrication shops in your area and see who cuts, positions, and rewelds the housings. You can buy the fixture to locate the housing ends but to do just one rear end it would not be very cost efficient.

I got tired of hearing "hey I know a guy who does rear ends" only to find out he only does them on leap years in a blue moon cycle. No active phones, no address...all that stuff.
I have my own TIG welder so I just went and bought a Mittler kit. I can do any common rear end now. Since I'll probably do more in the future the second one will make it a wash. The tool is easy to use if you know how to use a tape measure and can cut a straight tube. I have a small power saw so it was easy to hack off the tubes. You can buy new ends for about $65 pluss shipping but why not try to use the old ones unless the bearing is spunn.

The really nice thing is that I was able to install the line up bar and weld on all of the 4 link stuff without distorting the housing.
Once I had everything welded back together I called Moser to find out about resplined axels. I measured mine and wrote down what I wanted and sent the axels out. It took abouta week round tripp and it was done.

By the time you clean up a housing and pack it up for shipping and pay for shipping costs you are money ahead to try to find soneone at home to do it. Or simply buy one from Moser complete with axeles. Shipping cost me about $25 each way for the axeles. Then another $50 to press on the bearings. Tip here is get good bearings not cheap chineese made crap. A 20 ton press couldn't even come close to installing the cheap stuff. ...so I learned the hard way..don't we all.

In the end I have about what it would have cost to just buy a housing and axels from Moser but I now can do it my way. When I want.

Here's a pic of tooling Bent is talking about, pretty typical of what guys who know what they're doing use. If you don't have a power saw, see if you can get a large tubing cutter, a straight cut is essential.

And here's what it looks like set up to use.