@Joe XE

My neighbor bent an XD one successfully, just by hand i would bet also. (hollow for horn button)
make sure you are supporting the base part, or you'd just break all the switch part inside. (rare now also)

when he fitted an XE XF steering wheel to an XD . 
I'd say the XD column is shorter, but i've never measured one, and it wouldn't me much, possibly 30mm only . 

Probably just the boss kit for the wheel is different, (its an old thread by the way) I machined a boss kit to fit an XF bench seat in my XA ute, Couldn't get my RRR's in other wise. LOL. Had the bend the indicator stalk with a brake line bender. XA is solid stalk. XD-XF are hollow, so might kink/snap. Find a junk one and apply a small amount of heat, see how it goes.??  

Is this a simple job or are we talking the whole column needs to come out. Or just the blinker section etc. Recently had a couple back ops and jumped back in after about 10weeks and everything feels to close.  Finding it really hard to get comfortable . Cheers Guys 

Yeah it looks like I have the Red speedo cable sender.  I just bought a speedo corrector off ebay that has instructions for the XD/XE.  Just means in the future if I have to change tyre size I can have a perfect speedo. 

if you contact them they might be able to machine the wheel to what you want,but most rear 8 inch wheels would have a 4 inch backspace,you could go a bit more like 4  1/4 or 4.5 on the rear but then you are limited to the size of the tyre ,probly 245 or 255 with 265 being borderline,too me the front backspace is harder to get right if your using a 8 inch wide mag on a xd xe xf,with 4 inch being the biggest i could get on there with a 14inch rim without hitting suspension ,15 inch can go a tad deeper like 4 and 1//4 because its up a bit higher ,i use 15x7 on my xf with 4 and 1/4 backspace but run a 215 and its real close to the suspension ,i run 15x8 12 slots on the rear with a -19 offset which they stick out a bit far but only use a 235 tyre ,your better off just using the performance ford mag the way it comes and stick to its factory backspace,only other way is to get custom offsets and start from scratch but its gunna cost more and is it all really worth it ???? 

if you have the correct speedo sender ( 8 pulse XD XE black, for pre XFs and the 10 pulse red one for XF to AU)

New, reproduction speedo sender gears are available I believe?   I know the brown 20tooth gear, suits 3.27 diff, with 15inch wheels 205/65/15 tyres, or 16 inch wheels with 225/50/16 tyres    

Also, depends which size tyres you have. Larger/smaller circumference tyres push the speed reading out. I always change the speedo gear then drive around with the Missus and get her to run the GPS app on her phone, and write down the actual speedo reading at 60, 80, 100, 120 km/h. Then, get the speedo corrected at a gauge shop.  All good, until you can't get the same brand of tyres again.............

Unsure on XW/XY, there aren't too many members with that model. XA/B/C had 2 different sized bearings, one was twice as fat as the other. 

speeking of axles, does anyone have info on xw xy 9 "diff bearing sizes. I particularly want measurements.