as i said, i did my whole first diff. from a dead standard r31 diff to a diff shortened to standard 1200 diff width with rebuilt brakes for $200. the first axle i ever got done cost me $100, the next one was $110 the one after than was $121

the caliper kits were about $30 and the rest was new wheel bearings and paint. im not counting the time and effort it took to drill the standard welds out and the tubes and then press the whole tube out, shorten it and press is back in again. but that cost me $0

i did a second housing after than for another great investment of $0 and did a diff for my brothers ke20 for about $150

also neither me or him have ever has a problem with using the axles in reverse. both in daily driven turbo cars for over 3 years. are you telling me that if you dump the clutch in reverse that you will break axles?

or say in an irs car with equal length axles will you break them if they accidently go in the opposite sides?

Pigdog, great DIY job.

What was your $200 spent on?
* Welding/aligning the axle housing after you shortened it
* one axle shorten/respline
* new axle bearings

Why not purchase an extra short-side axle from the wreckers? Rather than shortening & re-splining the long-side axle? Should be cheaper that the $160-$240 quotes for shorten/respline that others quoted.

Axles aren't manufactured for a particular direction of rotation. But after years of moving one way, they may develop fatigue when swapped to opposite sides. But that doesn't seem to be a problem in actual use for most axles! Maybe for some other brands...

the new short axle is actually a bit shorter than the original short one, so running 2 short axles would only get you somewhere between 50-100mm decrease in width and its about 250mm that needs to be taken out

as my housing was actually pressed apart and back together again i didnt see the need for aligning it. took about 20ton of pressure to get the axle tube back into the housing to i figured it would be pretty straight. so all the shortening and welding was free as i have to stuff to do that myself

so it was only the cost of getting the axle shortened, new bearings and caliper seal kits. so really i could have done it for about $120 for it to just be shortened and usable
i also went straight to the place that does the resplining rather than going through a diff shop, as i wasn't going to pay an extra $50 just for them to drive the axle out there and back

and the axle fatigue thing, if you are running enough power through them that you think they might break, its probably wise to go all out and just get a pair of billet axles anyway

SO can yu get away with leaveing the short side alone and just cutting the width out of the long side to make it the same size as a standerd datsun 1200 diff. and jst shorten and re-splne the exsisting long axle. would you have problems with the drivetrain being to far out of line?

Like after reading the earlier posts if yu shortend thelong side of the diff and it wasntt short enough the front and rear wheels wouldnt be aligned and the engineer wouldnt touch it. so yu would still have to end up with one side of the diff longer. most likely the un touched side

Thats quality work Wards and cheap!
do you get any 8 inch ford diffs your way?

8inch stuff is becoming popular again but unfortunately most of it was scraped in favor of the 9 inch stuff , I should have kept all the ones I converted to the 9 over the years

One side of the diff can be longer. You just put the leaf spring perches on evenly.

After all, it ran in the R31 with one side longer.

standard the r31 diff has the centre pretty well in the middle of the housing, meaning the pinion is slightly off to one side. when shortening it swapping axles and just cutting down the long axle it ends up with the whole centre off to one side but the pinion is still only slightly off centre, just in the opposite direction to what it started

Cool Piggy. So if i supply a diff how much for your time, materials and parts ?