Going to shave the bottom of it while you have it torn down that far?

Gain at least an inch of ground clearance, and can make the new bottom out of thicker steel.

Much of the info I've found is on Pirate, there is good tech there if you don't mind wading through the

Crawler may chime in as his is shaved. You trim off the bottom of the housing and weld a piece of plate in its place. Gain almost an inch of clearance, but lose fluid volume, which probably isn't a big deal.

A Brazilian 9". I'm not sure gaining an inch is within the realm of what I'm necessarily going for, but I'll definitely take a look at what it would take.

Justin is correct, I shaved mine. I went about as far as I could and ended up with about 1.5" of additional clearance. If you think about that number it is the equivalent of going up 3" in overall tire size with the clearance you gain under the lowest part of the axle. So, without getting too technical, I have the equivalent of 40" worth of tire clearance under the lowest part of my differential. I will say it was a pain to do but feel it was worth it for my purposes. I have had it shaved for about 5 years with no ill effects. I don't daily drive mine but not long after shaving it I took my bronco on a 600 mile round trip weekend at mostly highway speeds and never heard a noise or had any noticeable difference in the temperature of the rear end after highway speeds.

When you turn the housing to get a better pinion angle that back edge gets lower where the factory has it kind of square cornered.

(shoot any time I can gain an extra inch I am certainly going to consider it)[/quote]

You're not gaining an inch...You're cutting off an inch so it doesn't hang down as low!!!