If the best way to find weak links is to break stuff, you might as well have someone else do the suffering for you. That pretty much sums up the history of Moser Engineering, whose decades-long involvement in high-end drag racing has enabled the company to develop some of the best driveline components in the business. Company founder Greg Moser got the bug early, when he started racing a Norton motorcycle as a kid in the mid '60s. After high school, Moser picked up a '70 Camaro and hit the dragstrip before deciding to campaign an Altered dragster in the late '70s. All the while, the inevitable carnage he endured at the track ensured that his customers wouldn't suffer the same fate.
Consequently, his growing business quickly established a name for itself in the industry, and today Moser Engineering is one of the most respected names around. Still a family-owned business that's proud of its small-town roots, the torch was eventually passed down to Greg's son, Rob, and his wife Susan, who are more than happy to carry on the tradition of on-track testing and product development. The company's current crop of in-house race cars includes three Altered dragsters, and third-gen and S-10 street/strip machines that both run 10s.
It hasn't been long since we did our homework on the latest in driveline tech, but in speaking with Rob Moser we were downright stunned at the technological developments that have transpired in only the last few months. Whether you need to beef up the driveline in a race car or a street/strip machine, here's Moser's insightful advice on how to build the ideal rearend for your application.
Company History
"Moser Engineering was founded in 1982 purely out of necessity. My dad, Greg, was building an Altered drag car and needed to narrow the rearend. Aftermarket axles were simply too expensive, so he figured out a way to respline a set of stock axles in our garage. Other racers and street rodders in need of his services soon started bringing their business his way. At the time, Greg was working as the plant manager of the Portland Forge steel mill in Indiana, so my mom, Marianne, would spend her days taking sales calls and answering tech questions. Every night after work, my dad filled orders in our garage, and the business was incorporated in 1986. By 1989, my dad quit his day job to pursue his axle business full-time. On the weekends, he dropped me off at the salvage yards to scour for old Ford 9-inch rears and axles that we would then rework and sell.
"This continued until 1991, which is when we decided to introduce our own line of custom alloy axles to meet the growing demands of the customers and their vehicles. Greg's background in the forging industry was very beneficial when fine-tuning the art of metallurgy and heat treating. It allowed him to develop not only an axle that is great for racing, but also the perfect axle for street/strip and restoration applications.
"The company has since grown to include a wide variety of rearend housings, axles, complete center sections, and virtually all other related rearend components. In the spring of 2003, my parents passed away in a tragic airplane accident along with our plant manager, Jeff Bickel, and his wife Eileen. By then I was already in charge of the day-to-day operations of the company, and we have continued to expand and grow every year since. What was once our family garage is now a full-blown, 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility with over 60 employees."