Just wanted to warn folks about a problem I've found with the moser spool for a dana. Maybe this is common knowledge, but was a surprise to me. The carrier bearing stops/flats that bearing seats against is so small in diameter that the shims between the bearing, and spool get cut in two like a cookie cutter.

I have had this spool in the car for years, and at lower power, with less gear it wasn't a problem. Now that the car has power, and gear it's destroying shims because the radius under the bearing is almost as wide as the register on the spool. I looked at other spools I had around, and the moser is smaller than the others by a huge margin. The strange is twice as wide, and a mark williams is wider still.

Just a warning for something to check if you're really going to put one of these spools to work. Like I said 1,000hp and a 4.56 it was fine. 1200 and a 4.88 has it cutting shims in two.

I'll take a couple pics tomorrow if anyone wants to see what I'm talking about.

Moser spool


Mark Williams


Strange spool is going in Measures 2.8 wide enough

Cut shims

think I see it... but I'm always up for picts. I have a strange spool, but already has bearings in place so it wouldn't be a good comparison shot.

I need to check my spool from Dr Diff.

that's pretty incredible that there is that much load to do that.... safe to say I'll never have the power to achieve that, but it's good to note and have a look. I'm wondering in doug's post when he mentioned he didn't have any backlash with a set of old gears if this didn't occur.

....actually that won't happen with mine. My S60 has side adjusters, no shims.

Thinking I may need to take closer look at mine. The Dana under my cuda was a complete Moser 60 from 2003. I've had the cover off of it once just a few years ago just to change the oil in it. From what the car has run, I'm close to 1100 hp now and it's only gonna get worse from here on out, lol. At my weight, I'm expecting some issues to pop up.

that shim looks bad ! but i'm in the same deal as j-body. strange spool with bearings installed, and just a cover off look see. are strange spools better [larger diameter] in this area ?

Can't hurt to check the backlash. That's how I caught mine. I was under the car, and grabbed the driveshaft to rotate it, and it felt weird. Had gone from .008 to .017, and the carrier came out by hand. Just pulled the caps, and grabbed the gear, and out it came.

Strange spools are good to use. A friend of mine had the same issue as Darren. Caught it because the backlash was out. Went to a Strange spool now.

On a different note mine made a "clicking" while coasting in neutral. It appears the teeth were moving around. Had zero backlash in spotswhen checked. The pattern that showed up was on every tenth ring gear tooth, then moved one tooth on the 2nd rotation 10/41 teeth. To me it looked like one pinion tooth really moved.
Doug