8-3/4 spool

a fellow i know wants to run a spool in his 8-3/4 diff -- i told him it will not work with the stock tapered axle bearings ( no thrust block ) -- you have to convert your axles to the Green roller bearing -- i also stated you should not use a spool with stock axles ,,, but again i lost.
so let's here from this forum and i will direct him here to read the replies.
thanks

Well , I'll throw this in first. I don't know how much difference is between the full spool and a mini spool. But installed a mini spool about 15- 20 years ago in my sons D/D turned drag car and back to D/D. With stock axles and bearings.
I'm not recommending it , or going to argue the fact. But we haven't had any problems

With stock tapered axle bearings you will need to use a spacer between them. That is what we did before green bearings. As far as factory axles back in the day the street tires were not as sticky as tires today. When turning the old bias tires had more slip and the car would not shatter around turns as much, Easier on the axles.

One thing I can tell you is that a spool on the street is dangerous. Once the car gets a little loose from any failure at all it is hard to recover. I see many watch cars on the strip lose control and spectators don't understand why they couldn't save it. A spool is not forgiving. My son learned the hard way when he cut a front tire down on the street with a spool. He has been dirt racing since he is 13 yrs old. He told me he could not save it he tried. There was no steering out of it.

here is the consequences of a spool on the street with experience of how quick things go wrong. My son has driven this car many times . There is a [place fo a spool , Not on the street. **** happens.

John9, you are correct that you can't run a spool and use the stock type axle bearings because aftermarket spools don't have the axle spacer in the middle

I ran a spool with the tapered bearings, by fabricating a center spacer to fit. The stock one was too fat, if I remember right.
What a waste of time, tho, cuz I hated that thing on the street. It was only in there from one Saturday to the next.

I've ran spools and Detroit lockers on the street, I'd rather run the spool. But aftermarket axles are required with the green bearings.

Oldiron440 said:

I've ran spools and Detroit lockers on the street, I'd rather run the spool.

Click to expand...

Why exactly? The clunky noises, or unpredictability of lock/unlock, or something else?

DrCharles said:

Why exactly? The clunky noises, or unpredictability of lock/unlock, or something else?

Click to expand...

I think you've got it!