ANOTHER rear end thread

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I guess rear-end pics are the "in" thing this month.  I am swapping a Ford 8.8 into my Frankenstein Turbo 6 cylinder Volvo wagon. The stocker is a Dana 30 and they pretty much die real easy. The diff is from a '99 ford explorer, so you get a clutch type posi and rear discs. One axle/axle tube is 2-15/16"  longer than the other, so I narrowed the long side so I can use two of the shorter axles and have a centered pumpkin. The tube is held into the housing with plugs- drilled the plugs out. Heated up the housing, pulled the tube out. Cut 2-15/16" off of it, pressed it back in (this was not as easy as I'd hoped ). Then I chopped the brackets off of my old diff (after measuring everything of course including how the locate radially on the axle tube), modded them to fit the bigger tube, tigged them on. I welded the tubes to the housing (weak link on 8.8's, they spin)  with 309L as well. Then I sprayed it black.  Let me know what you guys think. The welds aren't my best but I'm still pretty new to this and welding around tubes is still a bit awkward for me. there are a ton of pics so I'll just put a link to the thumbnails if that's ok.http://www.pbase.com/capnbondo/88_swap
Reply:The welds look excellent to me. Years ago in installed a 1951 Mercury Spicer rear end into my 1941 Ford Convertible. I had to change position on the spring mounting tabs. When finished, I discovered that the tubes had warped just enough so that the axles wouldn't go back in. I had to take the axle housing to a shop that did flame straightening. Ha. The main issue when welding on axle housings is the potential for warpage. Good luck.Miller Millermatic 252Miller Syncrowave 200Liincoln AC-DC 225Victor O-A Set
Reply:Thanks!Re: Warpage. From what I can tell I can get a fairly reasonable idea how warped a tube is by installing an axle without the wheelbearing installed, you can move the hub end around in the tube- if you can move it in a circle that is pretty much centered in the tube, you're good. At least you can tell if when you center the axle in the tube, it should still be "floating" in the splines. I don't know if that makes sense. Anyways one is out by about 3/16" and one is out by 1/8". The axles go in nice and easy and neither is out enough that the axle is forced against the bearing, so hopefully I'm good!
Reply:Nice job on the ol' Family truckster!!Welds look good to me.  Any pics of the whole car? - Paulhttp://all-a-cart.comWelding Cart Kits and accessories
Reply:Originally Posted by CapnbondoThanks!Re: Warpage. From what I can tell I can get a fairly reasonable idea how warped a tube is by installing an axle without the wheelbearing installed, you can move the hub end around in the tube- if you can move it in a circle that is pretty much centered in the tube, you're good. At least you can tell if when you center the axle in the tube, it should still be "floating" in the splines. I don't know if that makes sense. Anyways one is out by about 3/16" and one is out by 1/8". The axles go in nice and easy and neither is out enough that the axle is forced against the bearing, so hopefully I'm good!
Reply:Seems great!My Babies: HF Drill pressHF Pipe Bender3   4.5" Black and Decker angle grindersLincoln Electric PROMIG 175that´s it!