Chip, sounds like a plan, that was what I planned to do when I put the dana in my car, made it the same width as my 8 3/4, but the axles would not work, I had a set of strange in mine, and they are broached on the ends, the strange brand cannot be cut and resplined, most other ones can be if they are not a broached set of axles, if you have moser, or some other brand, they can be cut and resplined, that's what I put back in mine was a moser, cut the housing, put new ends on, had all the brackets welded, new spool, gears, bearings, wound up with just a smidge under a grand invested in it, go for it, you csan'tgo wrong, by the way it picked my car up, .005, in the 1/8. go figure, and there is only a 27 lbs, difference in wt., at least that's what mine was. Thanks Dave