[Mike C]

There are no newly manufactured HO52 gears. There used to be some 3.90's but they have not produced another run, and that was at least 10 years ago.

Usually when a rear axle is narrowed, the tube is cut somewhere in the middle and sectioned and just welded back together. I have a housing jig made by Strange with multiple housing end pucks to re-align, and most racecar shops can handle that for flanged axles but not full floaters. I re-read your first post and am not sure about what you were talking about on the re-boring to fit the axle?

If the rear is pretty straight, the tube itself can be used to align the ends. Sleeve it with a slight interference fit tube then weld penetrating into the sleeve.

You can buy cut to length full floater axles, just not sure if you can get them splined far enough in for a 60" WMS.

It looks like the Jeep J20 (or older J4000) full floaters were 65" WMS and is another option that is at least a little narrower.