Removing a cog from the casette

[BuddhaRoadkill]

I've got a Deore m525 hub with an XT casette, which I would like to remove the smallest cog from. A couple spacers will be placed on the inside to retain width. My concern is that I will lose the little lip that's on the smallest cog, which helps to seal the freebody. The end cap fits perfectly into the 2nd smallest cog, covering the end of the freebody nicely, but again ... it's not same as overlapping metal. Any suggestions? Will it seal worth a damn or will I be running through freehubs left and right?

The reason I'm doing this is to adjust chainline. I've got XTR M752 cranks which makes a chainguide difficult. I'm playing with a Blackspire Stinger and it works well but because it fits on the BB, it pushes the rings out. My ghetto fix will push the casette out and in theory, make everything grand. Suggestions? Ridicule? Laughter? Any other possibilites for fitting a chainguide to M752's on a 03 Enduro?

Thanks.

[Wumpus]

You can't remove the smallest cog as that is what the lockring screws down to.

Why not run a 12-34 cassette and lockout the 34? That would leave you with a 30 in the back. Otherwise, you'll have to remove one of the loose cogs.