oh no, is this 8.75 housing too bad?

pishta said

Here is what you can do. Install the axles and measure them they may be straight after all. IF they are not, ie toed in our out or whatever, cut the ends and let them float on the axles: get the axles where you want them, ie straight as you want them and then tack the ends back on using the axles as the guides. remove the axles and take it to a welder and have him finish the job. You said they are set up for green axles? NEver used them so this may not work. Hope is not lost. Its just metal. Cone SG are fine, how many times do you really rebuild the clutch style?

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It's tapered bearings. Proper length axles for an a-body, but with LBP. I believe they are the ones from Moser or similar, where they are right for a SBP a-body brake but LBP. The current brake setup is the 10" 1.75 backing plates with redrilled 10" bell drums for LBP. There is no way I will get a seal into the axle tube the way it is currently, so even if the axle tubes are fine, the end has to come off. It sounds like my best bet is to grind off the sh*tty welds, float it like you said with the axles installed and checking with some kind of straight edge, and tack it up and get it welded. It's very unfortunate that I am doing all this to go see the wife. She is a journeyman boilermaker, and a certified welding inspector. She did leave the miller rig here though, so I can manage a tack, even though I can't weld glue to piece of paper. If she were here she probably would have taken one look at the welds on this rear end and told me to redo it all any how. I'm starting to think I should just try to make it to Oklahoma with the 7.25, put the 8.75 and the miller rig in the trunk, and let her help me deal with all of this. What a mess. I'm just worried the 7.25 will seize on the highway on the way there. It makes weird noises when I make slow turns, and when I first got it it made a very large bang noise after slipping a little pulling away from an intersection.