ceramic bearings

[Damn Yankee]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lee

I should never say never! Yes, I have seen Dana 60's spit out gears over the years. Nothing is infallible. Of course there's always "the rest of the story" and we'll never know if the parts had a million runs on them, were not set up correctly or the clutch was better suited for a dump truck than a race car. But I'll stick to saying I've seen more broken 9" rears than Dana's.

I looked at PerformanceBearing.com and he has 9" bearings listed but not Dana bearings. They will make any bearing you want if not listed. The 40 spline MW axle bearings are $210 a pair and that would be true if a 9" or Dana.

Door car front wheel bearings are shown as $550 approximate (I think it was $542); that's per pair. Pricing is based on application. My AMX spindle bearings cross reference to '67 (and other year) Mustang bearings. So I'm assuming a pair of wheel bearings will be in that price range for my AMX. I haven't called yet. Lamb spindle kits were around $650.

Finally, I did some research on the net. As I said, I don't follow every theory "just because so and so said so" but here's what Evan Smith apparently found:

Numbers published by Evan Smith in National Dragster show that because of the reduced offset between the pinion shaft axis and the axle centerline, the Dana 60 has LOWER drivetrain losses than either the 12-bolt or the 9-inch:

Dana 60: 5%
GM 12-Bolt: 7%
Ford 9-inch: 10%

And yes, there is as much contradictory evidence as supporting evidence on the web regarding frictional losses.

Putting together a class car where we are restricted to 8.8 or 9" Ford. Well, we can use a 7.5 too but I am really question the strength so I am not even considering it. Most everyone runs the 8.8 as it said to be more efficient than a traditional 9". However, gear ratio choices are limited and there are also no 8.8 pro gears. Have made a few calls to Wayne at Indy Gear, M/W's, and others who believe the 9" is the better route. Question is, can I make the 9" as efficient or better than the 8.8 using ceramic bearings in the pinion support, and in the carrier ?