With my 8.75 rear not installed, I was doing some measuring and checking. I have a set of Mustang Bullitt wheels (which I love the look of) and mounted them up on the rear while it was on sawhorses. I noticed that the center register didn't clear the wheels (which I sort of expected). Its just barely too small for the axle. Is the way to fix this to grind out the wheel? Or should I take a little off the axle?

If I do this to the wheels, will it be OK to just use a stone head on the end of a drill and remove material? Or do I want to get a machine shop to remove a specific amount so that it will sit flush? Or do I take the axles to a machine shop and have them remove a specific amount?

Just making sure I do this right.

Anyone with a lathe can easily machine the register on the axle to the necessary diameter.

I'd machine the wheels before I'd machine the axles to keep the brake drums hub centric.

Just what I'd do personally.

Grind the wheels. Notice that when you buy aftermarket wheels, 'specially a unilug type wheel, the center does not "register" on the axle.

I agree, do NOT grind on the axle.

I was going to run them on my car until I discovered the offset wasn't in the ballpark of what I needed. I don't like adapters so I am looking at something eles.

Just an FYI before you get too into it.

The wheel register on the axle steps up to the brake drum.

Machine the (outer) wheel register, NOT the (inner) brake drum pilot.

Turn the axles down like Cass suggested and then you'll be all set to run the Mustang rims. You don't need to take much off, just turn it down until you have about 0.005 clearance.

That will give you a bolt together system that will allow you to swap on different Mustang wheels in the future. It is more common to change wheels than axles so it makes more sense to modify the axle.

The brake register for a Ford is 2.525". So, I should be able to turn it down to that and it should work. There is a small lip in the wheels that is likely there to clear the Ford register.

I don't have any 10x2 (or 2.5) drums yet for this. Anyone know how thick the drums are?

The center bore in the Mustang rims should be 2.780. The hub is usually 0.004 or 0.005 less than that.

Mopar wheel register is 2.813 so it is just a tiny bit larger.

the bullit rims have a chamfer on the wheel, some 1/8" spacers will be enough to fit over the mopar rear axle flange w/o any machining...

ease of use, if you can find a small bore ridge reamer (say for a briggs & stratton), you should be able to shave .030" off of the wheel bore to fit the axle....

We've run the Mustang wheels for years by just taking a 2" drum roll sander to the rims. We do the rims so we can interchange them between different cars; doing the axles works, too. I run 16" Pony rims on my Caravan and a friend has 3 Intrepids or 300M's with GT or Bullet rims. The 114.3 metric rims are the same as 4.5" bolt pattern, so you'ld be surprised how many rims actually fit the older cars. Really makes the tire monkeys at Belle Tire scratch their heads, too!

There's a part of me that wonders if I could knock enough off if I just took a metal file to the edge of the axle registers and filed them off evenly instead of taking them to a machine shop. It shouldn't require much material coming off.