Lets talk about 9" center section

My 3150 pound Mustang has been going 1.25's in the 60ft. Recently I had severe tire shake on launch while the front was in the air. At shutdown the gear howled badly. I stupidly put a Ford factory gear in it after the howling started. It took .020 less pinion shim and the pattern was obscure. Then to the track and on the first hit it blew the teeth off the ring. The center is an aluminum thru bolt Yukon housing. Solid spacer, 28 spline pinion, 33 spline Mosers axles, Strange spool.

Tell me your thoughts on aluminum -vs- iron and the ring/pinion material. The other gears that have worked well were the NASCAR spin offs. I drive this on the street as well so no pro gear even if I drive this only 300 miles/year? I need a complete center section.

Dave De wrote:My 3150 pound Mustang has been going 1.25's in the 60ft. Recently I had severe tire shake on launch while the front was in the air. At shutdown the gear howled badly. I stupidly put a Ford factory gear in it after the howling started. It took .020 less pinion shim and the pattern was obscure. Then to the track and on the first hit it blew the teeth off the ring. The center is an aluminum thru bolt Yukon housing. Solid spacer, 28 spline pinion, 33 spline Mosers axles, Strange spool.

Tell me your thoughts on aluminum -vs- iron and the ring/pinion material. The other gears that have worked well were the NASCAR spin offs. I drive this on the street as well so no pro gear even if I drive this only 300 miles/year? I need a complete center section.

Dave,
Sorry to hear that...fwiw my street/strip car weighs in around 3400# small tires,SB less power/tq but is on the juice. I use a Strange "S" Iron 3.25" Daytona bearing case, 6061 T6 Billet aluminum pinion support, 35 spline 1350 chrome moly pinion, Moser 35 spline Detroit Locker, and 35 SP Moser axles (not gun drilled), I believe the gear is the Richmond Competition (non lightened).

See if you can find one of the Visteon made gear sets which Ford Racing used to sell.

I know a few people with street/strip vehicles using a Motive gear set but, I can not verify their strength.

If it's a drag-only car & you want/need to use an aluminum through-bolt center section, then IMO the only choices are either the Mark Williams pro stuff, or the monster Strange Ultra stuff.

If it's a drag-only car & you want/need to use a cast iron center section, then IMO most any brand drag/heavy duty center section should get the job done.

The cheaper "street/strip/hot rod" iron center sections on the market (like the Strange-S stuff) might be ok on a milder combos. But IMO they have no place on a drag only car/big power car.

And IMO the harder/more brittle 8620 alloy "Street" gears have no place on the average drag only car with big power, or heavy weight, or that have hard launch shock loading. These cars need the softer/more ductile 9310 alloy "drag/pro" gears to stand up to the higher impact loading.

Strange nodular iron w pro gears has served me and my buddies stuff well over the years

Thanks for all the recommendations. I ordered an assembled center section from Moser. Since this is also on the street I am going with the street/strip US Gear. I will need to change this out more frequently. I would have looked closer at Strange but I didnt get the responses until after I ordered.

Most cheaper aluminum housings allow too much movement to keep the gears happy. Plus with their 5 bolt pinion support into weak aluminum it wants to shove the pinion out of the housing.

An iron or a better aluminum center works wonders.

If you're dead-set on using a harder alloy street gear on a drag car you might (might)be able to lessen the launch impact loading the gear sees a little by avoiding a dead-hook launch in favor of giving the car a bunch of wheel-speed/spin at the hit.