Installing Moser 60 Rearend Axles - A New Rear For Your Mopar - First Look At The New Moser 60

With the pinion seal and the inner-and-outer-pinion bearing-races installed, the pinion gear is shoved in the hole.

The yoke threads are lubed, the yoke is then installed, and the nut tightened to a "turn it till it almost breaks and then stop" torque reading. This translates to 250-270 lb-ft.

Next, the ring gear is bolted to the spool, and the side shims and spool bearings are installed. What makes the 60 different from other rearends that are similar, is the shims used on the spool to adjust the backlash are placed between the bearing and the spool, instead of the bearing and the housing. This also requires a try-as-you-go process, like the pinion gear shims, and is usually time consuming.

After the final backlash is adjusted, the bearing caps are put in place and torqued. After the caps are installed, Moser again checks the backlash to make sure it is still within spec.

Although a stock-style cover can be used, we wanted to try and break the Moser 60, so a rear cover with bearing supports was installed. The cover is tightened to the housing, and then the bearing-cap support bolts are torqued. The support bolts, when torqued, are in place to keep the bearing caps from flexing under extreme conditions.

The Moser 60 is put in place, and the ladder bars are installed on the mounts. Before connecting the bars, each bar is adjusted to the center of its travel.

Although we have been trying to get Dave to convert to disc brakes for safety reasons, he still insists the drum brakes work fine.

With the brakes slid into place, the axles can then be installed. Our brake drums needed turned, and the wheel stud holes enlarged. We took them to Harrel's Automotive in Lakeland, Florida, and Lonny set us up.

Here is the Moser rear ready to ship. Moser can even powder coat your rear, but since we would be welding the ladder-bar mounts to it, we opted to have it shipped bare.

Twisting off the wheel studs at any speed is a major bummer. To make sure that is not a problem, Moser sent these 5/8-inch thread-in studs with spacers and nuts.

With the car on the lift at Inline Performance Specialist, Todd Struck made sure the rearend is centered in the car and wheel opening before the welding begins.

The axle vent just happened to be in the exact location where the bar brackets needed to be welded. We installed a plug, ground it smooth with the housing, and then welded the bracket over it. This means we need to install a breather elsewhere.

After everything has been measured and found to be square with the car, welding can begin. When you are welding, make sure to not weld in one location for a long period of time. This will twist and bend the housing, and the rearend will no longer be straight.

Before the car could be driven, installation instructions require the car be jacked up and ran thru the gears a couple times. Let's just say a freewheeling, 500-inch wedge sounds awesome.

We thought the ladder-bar mounts would make a good place to mount the shocks. We thought wrong. With the mounts squared to the frame, the shocks were angled more than we liked. So we ordered a pair of shock mounts from Competition Engineering.

With the rear in place, it was time to weigh the car and set the bars close to where we needed them.

Once the pinion angle was set, it was time to set the preload. With a four-link setup, the lower bars set the wheel base, and the top bars are for adjustments. The upper-left bar is to adjust the pinion angle, and the upper-right bar is to adjust preload. Our left bar was set, and the right bar was adjusted to add a small amount of weight to the nose of the car to balance it out.

We tried to break the rear. We threw everything we could at it. The car was spinning the tires a bit, but still managed 1.4 60-foot times. Even with the car spinning at the line, we still managed to get some respectable eighth-mile times. Eighth-mile was consistently high 6.5s, and this equates to quarter-mile times in the high 9.6s. Once we get the bars adjusted a little better low 9s will be had.