I hate to read these threads because it makes me rethink my decision to go with a Randy’s Ring and Pinion aluminum rear with a Detroit Locker 4.56 and narrowed back braced housing set up. Granted, I’m not running a trans brake, but I am turning 1.30 60’ times.

That sir is sickening
I remember one of the first rear end that I saw fail at the races was a Ford nodular nine inch rear end in one of the factory 1966 or 1967 (CRS ) SS/E 427 medium riser 425 HP lightweight factory race cars that belong to Ted Wells, it pitch the pinion out on the starting after he let the clutch out around 8200 RPM, wreck the driveshaft, floor boards, tranny output shaft and tail shaft housing and probably a lot more than I know about

My 8.75 experience….. as soon as we went transbrake in the Mirada it got a D60. In the Duster as soon as we saw axle spline twist we went S60. In the time it was like hitting the easy button….. now with parts availability I’d go 9” all day long.

.....if i had to do it all over again it will be a 9"

After my first ring and pinion broke in the 8.75 I went to a Dana. The only thing I've hurt in it since then has been twisted splines on a set of 35 spline axles. Could go 40 spline, but that means new housing ends and brakes.
Wish I'd gone to a 9" back then. Parts for them are everywhere and every ratio imaginable is available.

Random question on the 9” vs. Dana discussion- I remember when going from 8 3/4 to Dana requires a ~1” shorter driveshaft.

Is the 9” the same way, the driveshaft needs to be shortened compared to the 8 3/4?

And if you upgrade the Dana 60 yoke to a Strange billet one later, your D/S will need shortening another 3/4" DAMHIK

going to the dana will be the perfect time to replace my driveshaft.
for my goal with this car, a dana and 3.73 or 4.10 gears [the 8 3/4 has 3.91's] should work out ok. i'm leaning toward the 3.73's, but thinking about going to 29.5 tires instead of the 28.5's that are on it now, so maybe the 4.10's.

Oof! I didn't know the yokes had that much variance in them!

I found a chart that showed the axle centerline to yoke distance for the 8 3/4 and Dana, it confirmed the ~1" difference stock vs. stock. I can't find that dimensions for a 9", but looking at pics a 9" centersection it appears because of the hypoid distance if anything the driveshaft might need to be longer for a 9", or you'd have to experiment with different yokes to get it to the 8 3/4" length.

The new yoke had a shoulder machined in for an 8 magnet collar, since we now use a racepak. I should have compared it to the stock one when apart, the D/S was too long when I got round to putting it all back together. Never assume etc etc

speaking of yokes, as i was perusing billet and other high performance yokes, it seemed that the ones offered had less spline engagement [sometimes by quite a bit] than the factory ones.
is that still the case ?

Not that I noticed, but I wasn't looking for it