Recently purchased a rotisserie restored 67 Dart street car. Has never been driven. Until today that is. Went about 2 blocks and really felt like I was fighting this car to get it rolling. Car has a 526 Stroker so should be no problem. Dana 60 with Strange spool and 4:56 gear set. Brought it home, jacked up the rear. Rear wheels are VERY hard to turn by hand. Should have done this before but.... Checked rear for the obvious...fluid level. Can see that things look like they have a coating of lube but can't feel any with my pinky. My understanding is the Dana 60 takes 3 quarts. I just put 2 in it til it just started to ooze out of the hole. Checked tranny next. 833 4 speed. Also low. Took about 40 oz and again my research shows about 64oz capacity? Pulled wheels and drums. drums adjusted correctly and emergency brake is not hung up. So my question is (and forgive my ignorance, still learning) is a brand new rear with a spool going to be difficult to turn by hand just in general? Will this eventually loosen up after a break in period? Or should I never drive this again until i have this rear checked for proper shimming and bearing clearances before I break something expensive? If I grab the driveshaft by hand and rotate it it seems to spin more free in reverse than forward direction. A friend of mine drove it down the street after I did and said its fine, that's how a spool is. I ain't buying it.

They are tight when hand turning especially when all new. Don't think you hurt anything driving it low on fluids, but drive it around now that it's topped off. The spool is gonna cause a fair amount of resistance on turns and curves.

How far did you drive? How fast did you go?

New rear end set up turns harder than a used one, and they will loosen up with some driving.

You are to drive a little bit and let it cool down, and do it several times before continuous driving. A spool will want to stop the car when turning the steering while
pushing in the staging lanes.

What trans? Torque flights are harder to turn one direction and easier the other direction.

A spool directly connects both axles solidly so you are having to turn everything in the rear end as well as the drive shaft and some trans internals. It will be stiff. It also isn't very street friendly because it makes both tires turn the same speed in corners which will cause wheel hopping. Running a spool on the street is asking for rear end failure. Snapped wheel studs and other untoward results.

How far did you drive? How fast did you go?


Not far. Couple blocks. Not fast. 20mph down my street.

I have seen this before when the housing was bent. Pull one axle out and then try it until you figure out which side it is. When I had 4.56 gears in mine it was hard to turn the wheel. I have seen some slight rust build-up cause the gears to bind.
Pull the cover and look at it
Gus

Just put a brand new strange dana 60 in my Demon with 4.56 gears with spool...and yes it was hard to turn by hand.

a properly set up Dana 60 with any gear ratio and a spool should not turn hard under any street, straight line movement. Jack the car up and put it on jack stands and then try turning one wheel or the other to see how hard it turns forwards and backwards, if it is hard (you need to strain to turn the tire with both hands)then disconnect the driveshaft and try again. If it is easier with it disconnected look at the transmission
If it is still hard you need to find out why before you go any further
Good luck, let us know what you find
BTW, Mopar engineers use to recommend using one quart only of gear grease in both the Dana 60 and one in NP833 for drag racing only In fact we use to run one quart of ATF only in the NP833 for drag racing, that work real well

I just set up a dana 60, 5.38 gears, doesn't turn hard at all!!!I'd pull back cover and measure back lash. also, I was told total shims should measure .103 total on spool. while you are there, check pattern on gears. I assume you have the green axle bearings?

I am going to drop the driveshaft tonight and see if there is any difference. As far as transmission is concerned I know for sure I am going to be spending some time adjusting the linkage. Gears were hard to find during test drive and won't stay in gear unless shifter is held in place. Again, since the car was never driven since built, I figured there would be a few bugs to work out. Just trying not to break something expensive right off the bat. When up on jack stands I must restate that I had to use both hands and quite a bit of force to get the wheels to budge even an inch.

I only run 2 quarts of fluid in Dana 60 rearends. That's all it needs...street or strip.
Running a spool on the street is not asking for failure of any kind...been doing it for years and never had one problem.

It will turn a little harder w/ the spool, but may just be tight b/c of the new bearings.
Unless they set it up way too tight or the housing is bent like Cab said.

Does everyone run their new setup on jack stands for 10 or 15 mins. before running it with a load? That is what my rear end guy always told me to do. You should be able to wiggle the driveshaft or tire back and forth a tiny bit before it starts turning the whole shabang. If it has no backlash I would be a little suspect. I don't see a problem with the spool on the street either. I would imagine you would run some sort of ET tire with it which will slip good enough in parking situations where turning might be tight. Redline shock proof gear oil is your friend, 2 quarts is all it takes.

On jackstands I can rotate the driveshaft a bit back n forth before it catches, Yes.

Car on jackstands
drop driveshaft
Attempt to turn rear tire.

With the car trying to go forward, any small variation in tire diameter will bind up the rear and you'll be having to partially slide one tire while the other rolls. It's just a thought.

R.