I've found a few decent threads on it with a couple pictures but there are still a few things that are unclear.


I've read that people have shaved as much as 1.5" off their 9" housings. Looking at mine I can't see how you can do that. On the flat part of the housing there's only about 1/2" from the bottom of the housing to the lowest carrier stud. Does it end up being more of an angled shave - just taking some meat off the back of the housing?

Anyone have any decent pictures of one?

If you have a low pinion 9" in the rear of your rig most likely the housing is turned up from a "stock" position where the bottom of the housing would be flat. You can gain quite a bit of clearance by shaving on a taper starting at almost nothing on the banjo side of the housing(where the third member bolts on to) and going up quite a bit on the round side of the housing. If you shave about 1/4 up to just behind the banjo surface you can then put 1/4 plate on the bottom of the housing with no lost clearance.

For a more aggressive shave you can loose 1/2" or more even on the banjo side by getting rid of the lowest stud on the housing. Whether or not you can get the housing to seal against the third member after that is up to your fab skills :)

Here's a picture of mine for my front 609.

Perfect! That's exactly the pic I was looking for!

Is it safe to say that it's pretty much a straight line from the banjo side to the pumpkin? In other words did you just cover that opening with a single piece of flat plate?

Have any other pics of the process?

I used a flat piece of 1/4 stock with an inside reinforcing rib. On any future housings I'll use 5/16s at a minimum cause you never know :) You can see more pictures here:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/davidedwardsmiley/album?.dir=/a139

In the photos with a white piece of material that is foam board you get at Staples etc to mock up what shape the steel should be.

I used a long Milwaukee "torch" metal cutting sawsall blade to do the initial cut and then a grinder to true up the opening. You can see where the housing has a double thickness on the round side and I cut a bit more than I should have. If you can leave a double thickness on the housing make sure to do it.

good luck!

Dude, killer! That helps big time! I'm gonna go start marking up the housing for cutting....