Thanks for the input. My quest for a Dana begins

A spool. Many will disagree , but I've done it for years and never had a problem.
Regarding the " wet road ' stories that this post is sure to generate , I don't drive my car when it is raining.
There are certainly things you need to be aware of , but for a toy car , it is an easy choice.

I agree.........

I had a spool in my 8 3/4 for one summer on the street. 3900#car + manual steering + spool = a b**** going around corners.

I was hesitant to have a spool installed in my S-60 when I ordered it. The only time I can tell it's in there is turning tight into a parking spot which I try to avoid. On the street it shows no ill handling characteristics, even the few times I've been caught out and it rained.

spools are only a prob when you're trying to parallel park or push the car by yourself.

Nothing wrong w/ a spool on the street...even in the rain.

Don't listen to these guys....The weakest part of an 8.75 rear is the stupid adjusters which is a bolt in the center of the cap.
The billet caps from MW will make your 8.75 a much better piece and it's more the Enough strength for 90% of the mopars out there.

really not even close to being the real problem with an 8- 3/4

Not sure exactly what "bolt" you're talking about? The adjusters, which are threaded discs on either side of the carrier don't change a bit moving to steel maincaps, and they certainly are not the weak link in an 8-3/4. The steel maincap (really needed on the driver side only) certainly do make the 8-3/4 a better piece, but still not applicable to a 500-cube, 4-speed, B-Body (IMO).

How about a 3200 lb 700 horse 470 BB w/stock caps and w/60 ft`s in 1.36`s.......?

Me think you mean the stupid boss for the retainer bolt for the adjuster, yes? The left(driver side) cap usually breaks at that boss first which destroy a bunch of other parts, been there, done that The last 8 3/4 I built and raced ended up bending the housing bad enough on the passenger side to rip the ladder bar mounts off it during a run at the starting line, NOT GOOD OP, if you do decide, or anyone else who wants to drag race a 8 3/4, do what ThumperDart did, add a backbrace before starting to race it

four speed car deserves a D60.

Your just as well off to take that billet cap money and light it on fire..........does about as much good. The cap is NOT the weak link

You will NEVER fix what is wrong with an 8.75. It flexes the case, which causes ring gear to move away from the pinion and shells teeth.......THEN, when all that carnage gets going in there running over itself, it breaks the cap. When it is trying to turn with gear teeth piled up on top of itself, SOMETHING has to give........it's usually the cap. So yeah, you can put a cap on it, and when it DOES shell the teeth, which it WILL, you still have a bunch of broken parts, in a rear with some really pretty, expensive caps

To fix something, you have to know what is actually happening..........seems a few, actually many, have no clue.......LOL!!!

700 HP are those CAB 700HP?

cost was a factor for me. i just bought a strange driveshaft, trans and pinion yoke to replace in my '74 challenger. when i got my clutch issues straightened out, first pass, this happened. i didn't even have the driveshaft and yokes in the car yet either. the car hooked like it never hooked before. i couldn't just toss the stuff i just bought and switch to a dana so i went with the MW caps, crush sleeve eliminator, and all new parts and case. it wasn't hard to machine the caps to fit the housing.

Yes, we share the same dyno and I drive to Oregon every sunday to dyno my stuff.

First, let me say that the car in question would be better suited with a dana.
I don't agree with the forensic explanation by Monte though, and here's why.
I was breaking ringgear side caps on mine(3 times), and also seeing chipped teeth. Had I stopped there, I would have agreed with Monte's explanation.
I went with a heavily gusseted housing, and added cap support load bolts. Still using the factory caps. I no longer broke caps, or chipped teeth. The failure at that point was pinion shaft shear. After 2 episodes of that, I went with a strange ultra case 9 with 35 spline pinion. Never even had to think about the rear end again.
8 3/4 has its place. But it's not under the car in question.

Housing flex is hard on the caps. There are also diffrent thickness housings, some are heavy duty and some are flimsy. But at the end of the day after you make it as strong as you can. You will shuck pinion teeth.

I would think long and hard on a Dana.

thats what I thought . 700 CAB HP is around 600 real HP. to give you an example my challenger at 3100#s made 468hp to the wheels and ran 10.40 @ 130mph and thats with a tight converter and 16x32 steam rollers. car would run easy 10.20s range with those corrected. if you think you are making 700hp you are only fooling yourself.