Project Max Effort Cougar - The Ultimate Track Day 9-Inch

Speedway has really tight tolerances for their housings and to ensure the billet steel ring gear flange is a true 3/8-inch thick without adding unnecessary weight, it's lightened on the backside.

After cooling, the housing heads over for machining to eliminate any warpage from welding, and to ensure the ring is perfectly flat. Amazingly, only a few hundred thousandths are removed-that's why Speedway can say their ring is the thickest and strongest available. Holes will also be drilled in the ring here for the studs.

The housing is then flipped over and a specially configured program for Max Effort's housing cuts perfectly located holes for our drain, fill, vent, and oil cooler bungs.

To rough-in the notches for the axle tubes, a plasma cutter makes quick work of the steel. From here it'll be hand-ground and finished to perfection.

Once the notches are finished, the housing gets line-bored to ensure the axle tubes enter perfectly on centerline.

Our rearend will be using -1 degree of camber and 1/64-inch toe-in per side. It's aggressive, but still perfectly streetable. What we can't show you is the proprietary process by which Speedway dials it in with their snouts. Here Alaniz welds the hubs solid after using a fixture for placement as Brian Kelley turns the housing slowly for him.

ARP studs are pressed into the ring to mount our third member. Then it's checked for trueness with a standard nodular Ford part. It slid on and off like butter. The axle tubes are now tacked into place and double-checked before Alaniz welds them solid in the order of top, bottom, front, then rear, as quickly as possible to minimize warpage

With the axle's tubes welded in, Alaniz moved on to the drain, fill, vent, and oil cooler bungs. Look at those beads. They almost look too perfect to be hand-laid, but they are. From here the housing will move on to its first round of stress relieving.

Rather than the standard NASCAR truck arm or leaf-spring pads Speedway typically uses, Max Effort's rear suspension is of a different breed and requires these massive mounts.