Put a rear on a bench, put a "load cell" on the pinion. Measure bearing preload and subtract that from end result.
Put a 3 foot bar (length not really a factor), and a weight on end of bar fasten to axle. Measure effort from 6 to 11 O'clock at cell. Graph it.
Repeat for all rears.
Would you use a "9" if you found it to be within .05% of other rears? How about 1%? What if its within .005%?
I know 3 people personally that traveled long distances to race, only to loose a Dana in time trials. About then they probably would have given 5% up just to race.
Can we talk a magazine into doing this kind of test? I know this all off topic, but somewhat relative anyway.
All parts fail. I've seen my share of 9's fail. 99.9999% of the time is user inflicted. So saying not to use an axle because someone drove somewhere and broke something is silly at best.
Why would anyone want (or even care what any magazine says) a magazine to do a test of anything? I've been reading car, dirt bike, gun and other magazines since I could read. I've never seen a single test I could conclude was done correct. Not one.
Those magazines exist to sell advertising. Period. The LAST entity I want testing anything is a magazine. That includes video magazines that are just as bad.
