Sleeving Axle Tubes / Shorten Axle

I'm working on shortening a D44 out of a '79 F-150. I'm cutting off the cast portions and I'll internally sleeve the tubes and extend them back out. Here's my question. The tube is .250 wall and has an outside diameter of 2.961 and an inside diameter of 2.448. The tubes aren't perfectly clean, but these are fairly accurate #'s. Nobody carries weird tube dimensions like that but they say DOM tubing shouldn't be more than 10 thousandths off either. If I get 2.5" OD DOM can I press fit that into a 2.448 opening? Or will I need to take a little off with the grinder to get it to go in? I'm figuring I'll probably need to massage it with the grinder but if anybody has dealt with this I'd appreciate the knowledge.

PS: After putting the inner c's back on I'll be trussing it for additional strength before the brackets go on, so let's avoid the whole strength question.

I just went out to the shop and checked a piece of 2.5 inch O.D. DOM tubing and it was dead on... 2.496 hope that helps.

xj92 said:

If I get 2.5" OD DOM can I press fit that into a 2.448 opening?

Click to expand...

Not even close.

And NO you wouldnt want to grind it down,it needs to be a precision fit!

If I have somebody turn it down on a lathe, how much interference fit is appropriate?

A few thousandths, nothing more. For that diameter around .002 would be good enough to center things; .004 only if you're going to be able to use heat/cold to shrink things enough.