Rear ends

Is bigger better or is smaller and tighter better? Now that I have your attention, I am talking about vehicle rear ends here. Have a guy on another forum telling me that a 9 inch or 8.8 no matter how built won't live under a 3000-3500 lb vehicle with 700hp and a dana 60 is the way to go. His statements are confusing to me as I know many vehicles out there are running these rear ends all day every day and there is a ton of parts available for them. So what do you guys think, is a d60 what I should be building?

9 inch rear. No back brace, ladder bars.730 HP. Strange 3rd member.ME axles. 60 passes so far.Leaving at 4400 on Tbrake. No problems but I'm hoping to upgrade in the future.

70FB wrote:9 inch rear. No back brace, ladder bars.730 HP. Strange 3rd member.ME axles. 60 passes so far.Leaving at 4400 on Tbrake. No problems but I'm hoping to upgrade in the future.

What are you going to upgrade to?

I ran a bone stock 9" in my truck for a long time with no trouble. Back brace good axles and carrier, and they will handle anything you can throw at them. I'm dropping a T/brake on 850lbs of tq with mine, and I know of several who are putting down way more than that through them.

If you look at and compare stock 31 spline axles the 9 inch axle is larger than a dana 60 stock 30 spline axle. I f you are going to upgrade then aftermarket axles should cost pretty much the same. A nine in crarrier is stronger due to the third bearing on the pinion keeping it from flexing under hard load. Now not all stock cases are up to the task of holding big power or traction of big tires but in my opinion I would run a nine before a 60 and a 60 before the 8.8. In my old mud truck I ran a 9 inch rear with a 9+ center case and daytona pinion support with stock gears and axles until I started twisting the nose off the pinion at the launch at that point I upgraded to a moser 3.25 bearing case, 35 spline pro series gear and support and moser 35 spline axles and a back braced housing.

HorsinAround wrote:

70FB wrote:9 inch rear. No back brace, ladder bars.730 HP. Strange 3rd member.ME axles. 60 passes so far.Leaving at 4400 on Tbrake. No problems but I'm hoping to upgrade in the future.

What are you going to upgrade to?

I'm not sure yet. It will be a ways out.

If the 9 inch couldn't handle 750hp, then why is it the most common axle for high horsepower drag cars? Granted everything in that axle is upgraded, but the design of the 9 inch allows for much better parts to be used in it. Parts are also cheaper, you can find nascar 3rd members for sale cheap, with very good parts in them (got mine for 500). The aftermarket availability is great! I'd do 9 inch, but that's just me. Who hasn't built anything more than something in the 500hp and 600 ft-lbs range, so I'm no expert

If you are starting from scratch the 9 inch is the way to go. Parts are pretty comparable price wise on all three, a 60 is heavier than all of them and plenty strong, but to say an 8.8 won't take the power is bull shit. There are guys running deep into the 7's and putting over 2000 hp through them, if they couldn't take it they wouldn't waste their time with them.

Dang, I saw the title and thought I had landed on that other site.

Im a big butt man.........

Alan the 8.8 is plenty strong for your use. The only down side to the truck 8.8 is nobody makes a c clip eliminate for them so you will have to put a 9" housing end on it. I had ~75 passes on mine at 3550# w/ 696hp and everything looked like new when I upped the power so I left it in and made over a dozen trans brake passes at 4800rpms. I inspected everything before I got rid of the truck and was still all good. If you have doubts though just put a 9" in it.

I have a friend who only uses dana 60's but his reasoning is that the nine takes twelve hp away compared to a dana 60. If that is true or not I don't know.

Alan, You need to talk with keith Blackburn. He runs an 8.8 in his Copperhead BBF lightning.
I don't know what all he has done to the 8.8 but he make it work.

mike

bigblok2000ranger wrote:

I have a friend who only uses dana 60's but his reasoning is that the nine takes twelve hp away compared to a dana 60. If that is true or not I don't know.

You have heard correct ... depending upon the power level, a 9" Ford gear set absorbs about 2% more power going through it than a Dana 60 gear set along with also making a bit more heat; although the slightly extra heat should not be any problem in a drag race type situation.

There is a company out there who manufactures a pig and spool which fits into a 9" Ford housing with Ford 9" axles but, uses a 12 bolt GM gear set just because of this reason.

HorsinAround wrote:Have a guy on another forum telling me that a 9 inch or 8.8 no matter how built won't live under a 3000-3500 lb vehicle with 700hp

Well,.....
This guy is wrong,.......
Plain & simple

Stock,....
It'll break,......but build it correctly, It WILL last.


I had two freinds in Oklahoma running utilizing 8.8's for years in their Lightnings and they were making somewhere north of 1100hp at the wheels.
Both of them ran 8.50's @160+ and weighed 3200+ w/o driver.

I only heard of one failure and this was due to excessive tire shake and it busted the ring & pinion gear.

f250mike wrote:Alan, You need to talk with Keith Blackburn. He runs an 8.8 in his Copperhead BBF Lightning.

The 8.8 "Housing" in my truck is the same one that came from the factory.

When I first went to a BBF, the only mod I did to it was weld up the axle tubes and install a Detroit Locker. I had the stock 31-spline axles & 4.10 gears. My engine was a 514 Ford Racing crate deal making 625hp,........PLUS,.... I was spraying 150-200 of N20 on the launch, off the trans-brake. Truck went 10.40 @131 and weighed 3900 w/ me in it,.....and had several, several passes like that.

I have since changed to a 557 making 840hp, (changing again at the moment to a 598 that should make 950hp) shortened the housing 4.5" on each side, added 35-spline axles, changed the gears to 3.73 (since I'm making more power and running a C-6) and replaced the Detroit locker w/ a spool.

I had Moser build it for me.

bigblok2000ranger wrote:Alan the 8.8 is plenty strong for your use. The only down side to the truck 8.8 is nobody makes a c clip eliminate for them so you will have to put a 9" housing end on it. I had ~75 passes on mine at 3550# w/ 696hp and everything looked like new when I upped the power so I left it in and made over a dozen trans brake passes at 4800rpms. I inspected everything before I got rid of the truck and was still all good. If you have doubts though just put a 9" in it.

Actually, Yukon makes a c clip eliminator kit for the disc brake 8.8 explorer rear end that I am running. Comes with new axles and all. I can post a link if anyone is interested.

Copperhead wrote:

HorsinAround wrote:Have a guy on another forum telling me that a 9 inch or 8.8 no matter how built won't live under a 3000-3500 lb vehicle with 700hp

Well,.....
This guy is wrong,.......
Plain & simple

Stock,....
It'll break,......but build it correctly, It WILL last.


I had two freinds in Oklahoma running utilizing 8.8's for years in their Lightnings and they were making somewhere north of 1100hp at the wheels.
Both of them ran 8.50's @160+ and weighed 3200+ w/o driver.

I only heard of one failure and this was due to excessive tire shake and it busted the ring & pinion gear.

f250mike wrote:Alan, You need to talk with Keith Blackburn. He runs an 8.8 in his Copperhead BBF Lightning.

The 8.8 "Housing" in my truck is the same one that came from the factory.

When I first went to a BBF, the only mod I did to it was weld up the axle tubes and install a Detroit Locker. I had the stock 31-spline axles & 4.10 gears. My engine was a 514 Ford Racing crate deal making 625hp,........PLUS,.... I was spraying 150-200 of N20 on the launch, off the trans-brake. Truck went 10.40 @131 and weighed 3900 w/ me in it,.....and had several, several passes like that.

I have since changed to a 557 making 840hp, (changing again at the moment to a 598 that should make 950hp) shortened the housing 4.5" on each side, added 35-spline axles, changed the gears to 3.73 (since I'm making more power and running a C-6) and replaced the Detroit locker w/ a spool.

I had Moser build it for me.

Thanks for the info Keith. I was pretty certain the dude was wrong about the 9". I already have a spool and stock 3.73 and new 4.10 gears and welded the tubes to the housing. Once I get the Yukon kit, I may go ahead and have Moser make a set of 35spline ones for it.

Alan

Larger aftermarket gear ration selection to choose from with a 9"

Alan you witnessed this w/you own eyes. #4000+ w/1.23 60ft and 1200+ HP. You show this to the guy that says they won't stand up.