87' axles, 84' trailing arms, custom bearings mishmash

[almarmada]

I'm in the midst of building an e30 turbo car. My brother who does powdercoating and welding used the trailing arms from an early car (before 09/1985) and so the trailing arm hub where the bearing presses into are smaller. Real OEM lists the pre-85 cars as 39X72X37 innerXouterXwidth
post 85 cars as 42X75X37

I have newly rebuilt axles from an 87'IS with the ABS rings removed and it seems like they fit into the trailing arms with no issue. The problem I face is if I go with the smaller bearing into the older trailing arms, the drive flange that then presses into the bearing will not fit since the inside diameter is also smaller. Can anyone verify if the later drive flange will fit into the smaller bearing? I could go to the pick and pull and obtain some drive flanges from an earlier car, but I'd rather not sweat out in the dirt if I dont have to.

I was also thinking of getting a custom bearing made with the smaller outer diameter of 72 with the larger diamter inner of 42 which would allow me to use the drive flanges that I have. Thoughts?

[TobyB]

I thought the later axles would work with earlier trailing arms.

But I haven't tried it myself.

t