43longtime

Need some advice,

I was going to make my own 9 inch housing from a junk yard rear end and have it cut and then weld the brackets on for the 4 link I am going to be installing. I am going to run a 350 under the hood to start with, But want to upgrade later when funds become more available.
Would I be better off buying a name brand good rear end housing having them cut it all up to the size I need it?
Would be getting a junk yard housing and having a shop cut it down for me work for what I may want to run?
I want to run as fast as I can in the car would like to shoot for the 7 sec range but that could be a long ways away.

What are some good housing you can get custom cut and have the 4 link welded up on them? Maybe a housing and axle combo wouldn't be to bad.

What to do what to do.

Thanks.
Chris

steves1967

I'm in the same boat right now. I've done the junk yard crawl before and have found that most rearend aren't straight. They all seem to have some bent tubes. The Moser piece seems like a good deal and stronger than the typical 9". If you are looking to run 7's you better step up to a Fab9 or similiar housing and look for 35 or 40 spline axels depending on the weight of your car.

AlkyIROC

Unless you have some good fabrication skills and equipment to straighten the diff, you're far better off ordering exactly what you want from any of the diff suppliers.

When I first narrowed my 9", it was all old school and backyard engineering. I ran it for at least one season before yanking it out to check straightness. I had access to big hydraulic presses so I straightened the tubes. They're not 100% true but they're a whole lot closer than they used to be.

Any welding you do to the diff including welding on a back brace will likely cause it to warp.

Here's a link on building a 9" sheet metal housing. Not something the average person should tackle but you get an idea on what's involved.

http://drr.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/t...2/m/1907043295

Andrew91GT

Racecraft sells a nice unit.

BUT

I'm not sure you need a fab9 for a high 7 second ride.

FOR SURE you want a back brace, and you'll want to run bracing between the 4 link brackets and the center of the housing.

You'll either need to buy a housing end fixture alignment tool to weld on the housing ends (should be last after everything else so you can make sure the axles will be straight) or farm it out. The alignment tool is ballpark $500.

43longtime

Do you happen to have a picture of what I need mine to look like, not sure if I understand where I need all of the braces.

Thanks,
Chris

Andrew91GT

43longtime

Thanks for the picture,
I was wondering if anyone has the dimensions for making my own housing.
Think I might give it a shot.
Thank
Chris

AlkyIROC

Depends on the size of the tires and the rim backspacing. I made mine 45" from axle flange to axle flange. Housing end to housing end is 40". I use 15" wide rims with 5.5" of backspace.

Andrew91GT

If you want to make your own, buy a bare housing, backbrace, 4 link brackets housing ends etc from Bickel, mcamis, rj racecars or another shop like that.

Get the wheels you want to run and set them where you want them to be in the wheel wells. Measure from wheel to wheel and that will give you a brake hat to brake hat rearend width. Based on your brake package you can calculate housing flange to flange width. Decide how much pinion offset you want and get to cutting!

43longtime

My rims are the same size as you are running. What size tire do you have on the rims? how much clearence do you have around your wheel wells and the inside of your tubs?

Thanks,
Chris

AlkyIROC

I currently run 32 x 16 slicks. The outer fenders are trimmed at the rear for clearance. I never bothered to do a proper widening of the opening.

I still have lots of room on the inside. It all depends on where you put the frame rails and how high you install the tubs. I positioned my frame rails on 24" centers and I'm nowhere close to touching the tubs. However, clearance at the front of the tire, right at the rocker area is very close. If I had more room, I would have gone with 33" tall tires. My rockers are tied into the 4-link crossmember so I have extra diagonal bracing, This limits how much I could trim the rockers for tire clearance. There's at least an inch gap to allow for tire growth.

43longtime

I want to run some 16X33 tires. right know I have a set of used slicks that where given to me for mock up that are only 14 inch wide, I have the room for almost any size tire I want to put in there. I ordered my 4 link 24 inchs wide so should have lots of room.