I've never been to their shop. But the owner returned a call about 8:00 last night (extremely unusual in itself) from their caller ID. (They had spent the whole afternoon and part of the evening in shipping.) I told him the concerns some forum folks had about drilling to 4.5" from 4".

He said that they had the same reservations when that kind of axle first came in. He said the exact same thing Slantvaliant said. By drilling a smaller hole and tapping it and putting in tight hex head cap screws with loctite the engineering came in within tolerances. (On the front they always include the drum in the drill/tap procedure.) He said none of them have had any problems.

He apparently knows what he is doing. Other machine shops recommend him.

Incidentally I asked him about bolt pattern adapters. He essentially said it's a crap shoot. He said there are some out there made from top grade aluminum that do just fine, but there's no way of knowing in advance if a company truly puts in the metal they say they put in, so he stays away from all of them.

He said he had seen examples in which the stud turned when attempting to REMOVE the lug nuts, making it a major issue merely taking off a wheel.

Apparently aluminum isn't exactly the perfect material for these things. But that will probably change as soon as they perfect the drilling of square holes!

Thanks

My thinker just got around to the fact that I may get a replacement rear end and have redrilling done on the front. Is the rear of more concern than the front in redrilling issues?

Thanks