Mat, I have already thought of rotating the assembly so that the V's will line up with the fuse, but it looks like there will not be enough metal for a strong support, so I tried to remove the plates with a Dremmel. No luck there, just ate up the diamond bits. Hard weld! So I made 4 more Support plates. Just finished them up. Worked all night on them. I will remove much of the old plates with a Saws-all and finish with a side grinder. Then-- I will mount the plates on the V's, which have been mounted on the fuse, and slide the axle tube thru- the new plates- line up properly, and tack weld--- Remove from the V's and finish welding. Sorry to hear that you had the same problem matt. Is there any one else out there that has one of these axles? "Steze" http://community.webtv.net/smlangford/StevesFlyBaby