I will be purchasing a rear end come income tax time, i have seen prices from 2200 to 3200 shipped. Anyways this is going to be a street car that will see maybe a couple of strips at best. Id really like to save money if possible I do not want to have to rebuild the whole thing, as Ive never even touched an assembly till about a month ago.

Edit: With the purchase of the strange 12 bolt (this is what I am leaning towards), what type driveshaft matches up nicely? Or what should I be looking for in one? Any preferences by experience?

Biggest note, I do not want to take off one day and have to worry about the rear end blowing out. I want something thats gonna last. As well as of now my thoughts are this car will never see over 400hp. Any inputs great input thanks everyone.

 

Your basic choices are a 12 bolt, a 9 inch or an S60. I have seen complaints about the 12 bolt eventually becoming noisy. The S60 may be overkill. Most choose the 9 inch. Keliente prefers the 9 inch, and she knows what she is talking about.

 

So some more info on the 9 Keliente never heard anything of it, where would be a good place to look in getting one?

 

My Strange 12-bolt's 12 years old and its still nice and quiet. Stood up to 6K clutch dumps with a Street Twin, and very sticky tires, and well prepared tracks.

 

Thats what I was looking at as well I saw a couple on summit racing starting at around 2,200 its a lot better price then the one i had wanted originally from hawks third gen...it included the relocation brackets ( welded on ) a direct bolt in setup ( i know they pretty much all are ). Only thing is it was like 3200 and I don't want to spend that much...Id like to be able to get a few other things done to the car...

 

I have a 9" in my car, and am plenty happy with it. If you run aftermarket torque arm though you have to be careful which carrier you get as not all of them will bolt in- I would have had to grind off a bunch of the webbing on to make it fit- kinda defeating the purpose of putting it in.

Either 9" or 12 bolt will be fine if they are properly set up. One advantage to the 9" is being able to set up multiple carriers or if when installing gears being able to just take the center section to your garage vs. the whole car saving money on labor having the gears set up if you don't do it yourself.

 

Well as nice as the center section sounds as far as convenience my biggest thing is definitely gotta be the fact that, once i bolt this sucker in the car I don't want to have to deal with it again ( aside from "oil changes" ).

I found the strange 12 bolt rear end for 2200 on summit not sure if theres a better place to go for prices...and then a moser rear end starting at 1800 but then you have to "build it" on there website build to order and I have no freaking idea where to start.....

 

For the Strange, check to see what it includes. I recommend the "super-duty" Eaton posi. I think its 15-disc (800#), compared to the standard 9-disc clutch pack. The "super-duty" may be included now. ABS is a pricey extra, for 3-channel. When I bought mine, the LPW cast cover with bearing pre-load bolts was standard. Not sure if they still include that. Appears it may be "optional".

http://www.strangeengineering.net/catalog/077.html

It does not come painted. So allow some time for that.



http://www.spohn.net/shop/1993-1997-...-Complete.html

 

Thanks a bunch injuneer, im liking this one its quite a bit better on pricing. As well how would I go about checking how many channels of abs I have?

 

The 9" gives you the option of an aluminum gear case.
I don't know how much weight it saves but it's an option.

 

If you only have ABS (no TCS) you have a 3-channel system. There is a single sensor on each front wheel ( = 2 channels), and a single sensor on top of the differential housing ( = 1 channel, for a total of 3).

If you have ABS and TCS you have a 4-channel system. In addition to the 2 sensors for the front wheel, you have a sensor on the backing plate on each end of the axle, for each rear wheel.

TCS was an option, beginning in 95. You would have a button on the console (Firebird, I think the Camaro has it on the dash) to turn it off, an ugly black box sitting on top of the driver's side valve cover with throttle cabels coming out of it, and RPO "NW9" on the build code tag.

I will caution you - if the Strange has a weakness, its the ABS sensor. Mine lasted a couple years. Then I just gave up on it. You can buy a new one, but you have to buy it from Strange - its not the stock sensor.

I have an install procedure for the Strange:

http://www.injuneer.com/Strange12.html

The 9-inch is a great rear, but it isn't perfect. Compared to the 12-bolt:

-weighs more

-higher power losses (10% for the 9-inch, 7% for the 12-bolt)

-pinion shaft i not centered on the centerline of the car. Offset to the side,
causing some clearance issues with the tunnel and the torque arm

-requires complex torque arm mount

-pinion centerline is dropped 3/4" lower than the 12-bolt, increasing u-joint angles and loads.

-at one point, there was no limited slip rear available above 31 spline axles. You had to run a spool or a locker. They may have something better at this point in time.

The ability to swap out the center section is a possible advantage. At the track, I've done it with a buddy's car, and it took 2 hours because of the interference of the torque arm mount. But, we couldn't even have tried that with a 12-bolt or the S60. But this was on a car running the PRO/Edelbrock Extreme Street series for points and money.

As a rough guideline, I'd say to limit the 12-bolt to about 800HP. Maybe even less if you are going to the track every weekend, and making 10 passes, with a manual trans. Over that look at the S60. If you are reaching huge HP levels, the 9-inch can be built very strong, and very light. But it will cost you. The car I mentioned above was running 1,350HP and I'd estimate he paid over $5,000 for the Moser 9-inch.

 

Overall most def it is going to have to be the 12 bolt. For my application it seems like the way to go, direct bolt it, its going to last, can take a beating and I shouldn't have to touch it again aside from some maintenance. Thank you for all the info, specs, pics etc. All this will def ease my mind come time to purchase.

I did have just another quick one, when the spline is mentioned what parts (connections) are being referred to? Are there any preferences, advantages, disadvantages?

 

The "spline" count is the number of splines on the ends of the axles, that engage the side gears in the differential (or the spool). More is better/stronger. The Strange 12-bolt uses a 33-spline axle/differential. The Moser 9-inch can be bought with 31-spline axles, with option up to 35 spline axles.

 

This can be offset somewhat with alum center sections and lightened axles, but still heavier in the end.

No denying this, they do deliver slightly less HP to the wheels, but when you are needing the strength of a 12 bolt or 9" the loss of 3% isn't huge unless you need those last couple hundredths...

I didn't have any problem with this- even with my tunnel mount torque arm, but every case is different depending on what parts you use. At one point I heard an argument for this saying that having it offset was a GOOD thing because it actually utilized the U-joints more preventing them from seizing up if there were in a straight line. I don't know how much faith I put in that since it isn't a common argument I hear. Besides- suspension travel would also do the same thing as the offset so not sure how that plays out. In addition I think most of us aren't the same type of guys looking to get 50k out of a set of U-joints either.

A bracket that bolts to the housing with 3 bolts I wouldn't consider complex.

Which also increases gear contact area making it stronger- have to decide if the trade-off is worth it, again personal preference.

I have a Detroit with my 35 splines...its not carrier I would recommend for a daily driver. There is no worry about getting traction but it does chatter a couple times in parking lots and tight spaces before it breaks free.

The argument between which is better will continue until the end of time. As a GM guy I hate to admit I have a Ford product in my car but it just happened to be a smoking deal I couldn't pass up-if it was a 12 bolt I would have bought it just the same. Both have their advantages and downsides. Another to add with the 12 bolt is make sure you get c-clip eliminators. Most of your aftermarket companies do it to begin with but something to make sure of. Without them you snap an axle and there is nothing holding it in the housing vs. the 9" with has a 4-bolt flange holding them in so they can't go anywhere.

Some people might say pick up a used one. That is up to you. Personally unless it is a smoking deal I would just spend the extra coin on a new one that you know has a some kind of warranty on it. I happened onto mine- the guy broke the center section and was selling it cheap. By the time it was said and done I had $1500 into a rear-end that would be close to 3 grand new. I know that sounds hypocritical but since I saved $1500 I thought it was worth it.

 

Running a Moser 12 bolt for 7+ years now. Running good behind a 383-D1 MM6 97"SS. I optioned it up a bit to $2700~. I went with a Tru-Trac diff 33 spline unit and 3.73:1 gear. Great torque bias around the corners. Fit up good except for the rear brake line bracket. Did some fab there, but not difficult. Mail ordered from Moser and picked up with the truck @ freight depot.
You need a press to assemble the axle bearings. Or, have it done @ many available shops. Axles go in very easy. No "C" clips for axle removal and maint.
It takes all the abuse I can dish.
B.