I am pretty set at getting a Dana 60 for my car, but I have been looking for who has broken one of them racing and I haven't seen one story. Just curious if anybody has and just hasn't posted it.

 

These rears are incredibly hard to break. I have one in my third gen. I know 6 speed cars dumping the clutch at 6k and still running stong. Get one and you can throw anything at it.

 

i had a dana 60 rear in my mud truck/rock crawler/play toy with 600hp and never had a problem with it i broke trannys and snapped drive shafts but never had a problem with the rear axle

 

I broke one in my 67 Camaro A/MP, I don't even know if this class still exist, broke the gear set and passenger side axle. Mine was purchased from Strange engineering. I was running a 427 BBC with dual quads and a Doug Nash 5 speed

 

The only ones I have seen broken have been in Rock crawlers with outragous lowrange gearing. Something in the 250:1(or more) range will wreak havoc on allmost any axle when it gets bound up.

 

The Dana 60 has a whopping 9.75" ring gear, so it's a hell of a beefy rear! That's why Mopar used them behind the 426 hemi and 440 powered cars back in the 60's. You'd have to be pretty determined to manage breaking one in a fairly light, street/strip car.

 

The only problem with the dana60/14bolts are the weight but as far as reliability goes, it will take a lot to break one. Me and my old man run them in all our mud bog and rock crawling vehicles (nothing too crazy but they range from 210hp at the crank to just over 400 to the wheels).

 

Yeah I meant to mention the weight difference too. That's the one tradeoff to them. About the only vehicles you see them stock in nowadays are full size vans and big trucks.

 

Yeah, I remember putting the Dana 60 front and 14 bolt rear in the one truck, my god each axle had to weight atleast 700 lbs.

 

I'm not trying to talk badly of the 12 bolt or 9" rear, but I have seen cases where they do break and sometimes it has been behind something more mild than my combo.
I'd rather have a few extra lbs at the rear of my car, than save a few lbs and perhaps 3-7 rwhp and possibly have to replace the rear end.

 

I have a Dana 60 in my drag car. '63 Corvette tube chassis car,weighs 2430 lbs, 632", powerglide trans and one big NOS system. It runs 4.40's @162 in the 1/8. The rear broke ONCE in 6yrs. And we determined that a pinion bearing is what caused the failure. It has a MW spool and 40 spline axles. I don't think there's any way street tire car can break the ring or pinion gears. Maybe a axle or spider gear in a oem type carrier, but I highly doubt it. It's pretty much a bulletproof rear in any street car. As for friction, it's the easiest to turn, strong rear there is. Way easier to turn than a Ford. Negatives are weight, as was mentioned earlier, and proper gear setup takes a while. I would say it takes at least 3 times longer to set up than a Ford. Hope this helps, Dean

 

I had 1 of 4 spider gears that decided to take a hike in mine last season. Before I knew what was going on, the pieces had worked their way into the ring and pinion. The spider gears were NOT the type of parts I wanted or thought were in my axle, but there damn well better be no problems with the detroit locker in there now.

If I did it again, I'd go for the 9" Ford for the simple fact that you can practically buy parts for them at Walmart or one of someones spare chunks for cheap.

 

Hell dude, I don't take offense to that statement at all. As long as you don't mind a little extra weight, you really can't go wrong with the Dana 60. Then again, I've had a 12 bolt in my 69 Camaro for 25 years, with a manual trans. I've beat the snot out of it dumping the clutch from a dead start, and it's never had a single issue. I've grenaded a couple of Muncie 4 speeds over the years, but never had any trouble out of the 12 bolt, other than I cracked the axle tube once where the leaf spring perch is welded to it, and that's an easy cure by welding a couple of gussets to the perches. 12 bolt, 9 inch, or Dana 60, any of them are a good choice for a street/strip car. Even the 8.5" GM 10 bolts are pretty damn strong. We were just cursed with the puny 7.5" 10 bolt in our 3rd gens unfortunately. If Dana 60 is your personal preference, I say go for it!

 

Hey guys so is the Strange s60 Dana 60 fairly easy to install and what parts and such are necessary to get, ie kits and part numbers if possible. I am working on building an '88 IROC-Z with a zz4, pro charger, and a t-56 Tranny built up as is necessary. I plan on running around 600 hp, and use it as a street and track car. Is there a posting that has more details on the swap process and parts needed and such?

 

Why not use ford nine inch, 600 hp will not come close to breaking it, much lighter, easier to change gears and their is a lot of companies that make a drop in replacement for 3rd gen camaro's. I had a ford nine inch behind my 1200 hp A dragster.

 

If I ever was to redo the rear axle, I'd go with a 9" because of the MASSIVE availability of parts and gear ratio options. When I got mine a few years ago Strange didn't have an option for stock drum brake housing ends, but their option for older camaro ends provides for the ability to bolt on LS1 brakes.

 

The difference between the strange S60 and a salvaged D60 from a truck, aside from the bracketry and torque arm provision, is the trucks used much heavier, thicker axle tubes that our cars just don't need. IIRC, truck tubes are at least 0.250", S60 tubes are no more than 0.150".
Plus the OD of the tubes. Probably much smaller for the S60 than a truck.
The Ford 9" can be set up for 35 splines, but only with a spool or a Detroit locker. The S60 comes with 35 splines, and can have a TrueTrac. If you're just drag racing, then you won't care about that. But if you're turning corners under power, then that matters the most.

 

Im thinking GM high tech mag did a story on a stock 10bolt,9" and a dana60. all swapped in a 4thgen an chassis dyno'd them.
I'll have to look it up 4 sure Im sure a few of my facts are wrong but i do kno the Dana 60 took more than the others.
Think this is it..

http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...nds/index.html

 

I like the idea of having some extra weight in the back, under the suspension as opposed to being on top. I think it helps keep the back from coming around in hard corners when I drive.

I'm looking to go this route; I just can't decide whether to mod a truck unit or buy the Strange or Moser bolt in.

 

Downside of modding any rear end to fit in our cars is the torque arm mount. Our 9 bolts and 10 bolts had the mount casted into the pumpkin itself. 9" conversions get around this by having a bracket on the yoke side of the pumpkin off the carrier bolts to the housing (moser style/quick performance/etc) or mounting ears on the housing itself (midwest chassis style). All 12 bolts and Dana 60s I've seen so far aftermarket have used holes casted into the pumpkin.

Rear end choice comes down to what you want, need for your project, and just opinions.

The ford 9" are easier to swap out carriers, meaning if you had the cash you could easily keep a spare around in case of failure since the gear set just drops and bolts in. That would also work well if you're planning on doing 1/8 mile tracks and 1/4 mile tracks as you could keep 2 seperate gear ratios and swap out for that weekend.

The Dana 60 has the largest ring gear and more axle splines as a base option in the aftermarket (35,40 vs the fords 31,33,35,40) that adds to the weight.

Do most people need 9.75" ring gear and 35 splines or 40? Not really, it's some extra weight it has to sling around. I'm pretty sure I've read over on the turbomustang forums guys pushing 1000 RWHP on 35 splines 9" setups. If you want to just get a S-60 and not have to ever worry about it again go for it. Everything I have read once gears ratio is correct and setup there is basically no worry about it again. Which I would guess it's due to the size of the pumpkin and ring gear inside it.

Overall the weight differences for a street car shouldn't even be worried about. For example I carry around 100 lbs of car audio crap in the hatch all the time unless I remove the subwoofer box. I highly doubt the S-60 weighs 100 lbs more than the Ford 9".


http://support.spohn.net/questions/2...hould+I+get%3F

 

Well that settles it for me. I want the S60 then. Does someone have a Strange S60 mounted up in their Third gen that can tell me the parts they bought and what not, so that I can get the right stuff? My Z28 won't be just a drag car but and overall everything type. I want to take it out on courses, running it through corners, taking it out on the strip and seeing what I can do in the 1/4 mile and as well as driving it around in the street. I don't want to have to worry about anything after I change out the rearend. Thanks fireturd350 for that extra explination, that helped me to make my descision.

 

I would suggest going to Strange's website, getting the contact info, and then talking directly to them. They can sell you the rear end 100% ready to go in, with no brakes, and many other options. Many of the third gen suppliers that advertise on this site sell them also. You just need to call them, set all the options you want, and its a done deal. I am looking at them also, you won't have a problem since they are made to just bolt in to all of your stock suspension parts.

 

Ok, thanks. But I have two problems, one I dont know much about rear ends and gears and all that jazz, and second I am currently living in Sao Paulo, SP, Brasil and will be moving up to the states in a few months. So I dont have any way to call them, do they have an email contact as well? I am in need of instructions.

 

I can't speak for everybody around here, but I think these guys can help you:

http://www.spohn.net/contact/

There are some email links about halfway down the page. These guys are a sponsor for these forums and I hear enough good things about them that I will probably get some of my rear end parts from them.

Good luck!

 

Ok, Thanks KrisW. I will check it out.

 

During day you can also chat with people on the live support.