If you do any bench racing with racers that have been around long enough to get gray hair on their heads, many will tell stories of raiding junkyards for chassis, engines, rearends, and practically anything else they needed to make a race car. And then, they will usually tell you those days are long gone.
They are mostly right. All the good racing stuff has been picked through and bought up long ago. A good Chevelle or metric GM chassis is about as common in a junkyard these days as the proverbial hen's teeth. Today, junkyards are mostly filled with minivans, four-cylinder engines, and automatic transmissions.
Here’s what Cook started with. It’s a center section out of a 9-inch rear from a junkyard. We don’t know what type of vehicle it came out of, the vintage or the mileage. But Cook really only wants the cast iron case, so as long as it isn’t cracked we’re good.
But that doesn't mean you are completely out of luck. Another common find in the modern junkyard is a work truck. They are probably beaten half to death with no chance of ever being serviceable again, but many of the Fords out there are outfitted with the old reliable 9-inch rearend. You can still find 9-inch center sections pretty reliably at most junkyards for a reasonable price. And when you do, you can build yourself a spare center section, or even a new gearset for your 9-inch racing rearend.
The 9-inch rears are the mainstays in any class where a quick-change rear isn't allowed. Heck, because of their efficiency and reduced drag compared to a quick-change, we know many racers who prefer to run a 9-inch even when a quick-change is an option.
1 Switching the two caps can mean trouble. You can mark each cap quickly and easily with a punch to ensure they go right back where they belong.
Transmission and driveline specialist Jim Cook knows all the tricks, so when we noticed what originally looked like a rusty hunk of scrap iron and he told us it was going to be a new center section for a winning Street Stock race team we took notice. We also took our camera out. Along the way Cook shared some excellent tips that will help anyone out when building their own 9-inch center section. Let's get to it.
