Hi Bill, Thank you for your input. I have since torn the tranny down and learned more about it.
Yes the support is dead weight, but it also serves as the alignment "dowel" for the tail housing.
My best bet is to get a light weight bearing support.
It's funny you suggested a 1.82 gear set for less rotating mass. Upon teardown the gear set was straight cut so I'm
pleased I have a good gear set. That's just great until I see the input shaft with a TCI part number that turns out to
be an input shaft for a 1.82 gear set. The more I looked and compared I finally realized I have a 1.82 carrier
with straight cut gears.
About the rear gear, It's a 9 inch strange setup. 4.30 gearset and light weight spool.
You talked about horsepower. I have no idea. Best pass as of now is 1.12 60, 5.09, 133 @1536 lbs. NE2 around here is 5.00 1/8 mile.
When I bought the car I weighed it in the front and it was 220. A friend with a FED told me it was about 100 lbs light so I built a
weight box and added 125 lbs to the front and took weight out as I learned more about it.