Moser 8 3/4 Housing... anyone use one ?

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mbaird

mbaird

mbaird
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Has anyone used Mosers 8 3/4 stamped housing ? I like the factory look and the
gear change capability of a Banjo style axle.

How much stronger are they? What kind of power can they handle ?

It will be going behind a W2 Stroker 4speed
 
But the ability to swap gears quickly is a big plus for a street/strip car.
 
I have one of the Moser Fab 875 housing in a 71 Duster. Nice piece, will not fit with a stock gas tank.
 
I am looking at the stamped stock appearing unit. Trying to keep a stock
look.
They have been out for since 2010ish but I cant find any feedback in a google search. Their website just says its stronger....
 
W2 stroker 4 speed = D60
if "looks" determine the rearend there will be trouble likely
or be like me and start with a 7 1/4 and through that away.
put in cheap 8 1/4 witch worked great til the day I sold it to build a 8 3/4 489 case. Called dr.dif - bought new 410 gears, bearings, and spool. Took it to a dif only shop for proper setup. About 20 passes BOOM!!
My 410 stroker 4 speed has crappola heads.
after all that time and money
I built a dana 60 and I'm done...
20151014_104921.jpg
20160426_160911.jpg
 
I'm sure your not worried someone is going to look under your car and call you out on an un oe rearend ?
 
mbaird said:
But the ability to swap gears quickly is a big plus for a street/strip car.
Click to expand...


There are two things about this, as I said the same thing in 1980.

1. Most guys never change between street gears and drag gears. 99.9% of the time, guys end up leaving the street gears in.
B. It's a pain in the *** to change out a third member. It's a messy, heavy job. On a good day, I could do a swap in about 1.25 hours. It wasn't worth it. I left the 4.56's in and sold the street gears.



Consider the 60 long and hard. I have an 8.75 and I'm going to swap it for a 60. It isnt worth tearing **** up.
 
No question the D60 is stronger.... and looks super cool ( mean !) under there.
But I am looking to build a sleeper and a Dana is a dead giveaway. Thats why I went with W2s and a M1 Dual plane. Too keep it stock looking at a glance....
I might race it 2 or 3 times a year and would build a 4.30ish spool setup with a nodular housing for those occasions. I have swapped pumkins before racing many times and its not a big deal.
I once drove to Spokane to race with 2.9s and swapped 4.10s in front of my sisters house where I was staying ..... the guy accross the street had a few GTOs and couldnt believe I was swapping gears when he asked me what I was doing.... it took less than an hour... he was in awe ! Im sure he was picturing his 10 bolt process....lol

So if that 8 3/4 housing is stout enough I figured I might go that direction....
 
mbaird said:
No question the D60 is stronger.... and looks super cool ( mean !) under there.
But I am looking to build a sleeper and a Dana is a dead giveaway. Thats why I went with W2s and a M1 Dual plane. Too keep it stock looking at a glance....
I might race it 2 or 3 times a year and would build a 4.30ish spool setup with a nodular housing for those occasions. I have swapped pumkins before racing many times and its not a big deal.
I once drove to Spokane to race with 2.9s and swapped 4.10s in front of my sisters house where I was staying ..... the guy accross the street had a few GTOs and couldnt believe I was swapping gears when he asked me what I was doing.... it took less than an hour... he was in awe ! Im sure he was picturing his 10 bolt process....lol

So if that 8 3/4 housing is stout enough I figured I might go that direction....
Click to expand...

IMO forget the sleeper idea, no one will be fooled. The only true sleepers nowadays are modern daily driver looking cars that no one would ever expect to be fast. An older Mopar with a built v8 will NEVER be a sleeper. This is a sleeper:

 
I am currently waiting for the UPS truck to deliver a Strange D60 from Doctor Diff....this one goes in 71 Demon....
 
If it was a dedicated Drag car I would definitely go D60... But since I have it stuck in my head to go as stock looking as possible I want to try the Moser 8 3/4 .

If I find that the Moser unit is only marginally better than stock I will go D60.
 
mbaird said:
If it was a dedicated Drag car I would definitely go D60... But since I have it stuck in my head to go as stock looking as possible I want to try the Moser 8 3/4 .

If I find that the Moser unit is only marginally better than stock I will go D60.
Click to expand...

It isn't the housing that fails on an 8 3/4, it's the caps or the ring and pinion. Spend the money once and forget it, go D60.
 
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The way I understand it the ring and pinion fail partly due to housing flex and partly due to ring gear trying to pull away from housing because of cast iron cap... A nodular case and Mark Williams caps with the spool case for racing should fix that.
And I have heard of guys twisting the stock housings if they dont use a backbrace. And if I use a backbrace I might as well go D60.
The expense is not the issue (within reason)
The point of the thread was to see if anyone had real world experience with this housing.
 
mbaird said:
The way I understand it the ring and pinion fail partly due to housing flex and partly due to ring gear trying to pull away from housing because of cast iron cap... A nodular case and Mark Williams caps with the spool case for racing should fix that.
And I have heard of guys twisting the stock housings if they dont use a backbrace. And if I use a backbrace I might as well go D60.
The expense is not the issue (within reason)
The point of the thread was to see if anyone had real world experience with this housing.
Click to expand...



Just like the picture jPar posted...the caps usually fail first. The exception to this is when you get lower than a 5.13 gear. IIRC (and I don't want to look it up but I'm pretty sure I'm correct) when you go to a 5.38 or lower, you lose another tooth on the pinion gear and then it fails. That said, at today's power levels you may have an issue at lower than 4.88 because I think it has one less tooth on the pinion than a 4.56, again, going from memory.

That's really the two issues you get with the 8.75 axle. Cap failure and not enough teeth on the R&P.
And, the fact you can't get a Pro gear for it anymore.

For what you want, the Moser housing is plenty good. Just build the very best 3rd member you can.


EDIT: as for twisting the housing...I've seen it but they were pretty heavy stick cars. They had ladder bars, which made the issue worse. And 14 inch slicks. We are talking about a B body with a BB running in B or C/Gas back inn the day. Also seen the same guy twist a D60 housing too. He was beating the **** out of it with the clutch.
 
Thanks for the feed back.... that is what I was thinking. Build a bullet proof 3rd member for racing and normal ones for street use. I don't plan on sidestepping the clutch on the street . Besides street tires will just spin so there wont be much stress on the gears.
 
I had a BB DartSport with a 9" rear and a '69 Dart with a Dana, both cars were raced a lot. My current car is a BB Duster that I cruise a lot but I'm hoping to make a few passes this year finally, it has an 8 3/4 rearend with 3.23 gears.

Buy the 489 nodular case that Webby is selling for $250 shipped in the mechanical parts for sale section on this website. I was gonna buy it but found a little better deal elsewhere, they can also be found on ebay. It's a stronger case and it has forged or nodular caps. Doctordiff also sells them for around $300.

I'm gonna run the nodular case with Moser 35 spline axles and spool and 3.23 factory gears. I'm not gonna mess with a back brace although I should. I think it might be ok since I'm footbraking with a small tire, 3.23's, and a 9.5" converter. Hoping to run 10.90's though.
 
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I recently bought the Moser stamped 8 3/4. It is based on the Ford 9" with a 489 case flange. I called Moser directly and they thought the stamped housing would be fine for my combo. I have a 408 stroker making 525 hp with a tko 5 speed. This is in a car that will be street driven 99% of the time. They said if it was a drag car with slicks he would probably recommend stepping up to the Fab 8.75. Give them a call and they will let you know if it will work with what you want to do. This is a link to an article about the Moser 8 3/4 stamped housing. Tech Install: Custom Ordering Moser's 8-3/4-Inch Rearend On Line - Street Muscle
 
I called them today and the tech seemed more concerned with which axles I was going to use than the housing.
He said the housing will be more than strong enough. But nothing about running slicks or not...
I am surprised they don't have some performance parameters for it online.
 
I broke a fresh 742, 4.30 8 3/4 the second time my 408 hooked up. The housing is not the issue, it's the case flexing and the pinion gear trying to climb the ring gear. On mine the caps were fine, it broke teeth off the ring and pinion. At the time my Dart weighed 3260# and went 1.38-9 60' in race trim. I rebuilt and sold the entire rear end and bought a Strange S-60. A nodular case may have been fine but I didn't want to take a chance on breaking it and have to pull the transmission apart again.
 
Just received a new Strange D60 for a clients car. Very nice quality piece and if you plan on making power it is the way to go. Unfortunately it took over 3 months for them to deliver it to me. His other car a W2 340 7.24 1/8th broke a 4.10 489 just like J pars within a week. I've seen many 8 3/4's come in my shop looking like that. I built him a 4.30 and 4.88 to swap between street and brackets. Changing them out was no big deal but besides a slight increase in mph it was not worth the effort. Moral to the story.. unless you are making a huge gear change it may not be worth it in cost and performance. Most people these days can't tell the difference between a 8 3/4 or dana anyway...lol. Do it once and don't look back.
 
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