I have this axel in a 1956 Ford 250 with 456 gears. I want to swap gears for something more highway friendly and better gas mileage. The truck has a Yblock 272 and manual transmission with 16" tires. Searching all the threads, I got the impression its not an option to swap this version of the dana 60 gears without special machining. Has anyone had experience with this being a straight forward swap?

 

The Dana 60 has a "carrier break" between 4.10 and 4.56 ratios. You can re-gear your axle with readily available gear sets, but you will need a different ring gear carrier to get a higher speed ratio. I would look at a 4.10, 3.73, or 3.54 ratio depending on your driving conditions.

 

Thanks 38, I may have located a Dana 70 dually axel out of a 74 Ford Pickup with 410 gears and the emergency brake mounted on the drive shaft. It looks like a perfect donar for swapping out my present axel which requires dually adaptors since its a single axel, and the gear swap from 486 to 3.54-4.10. If it works out I will kill two birds with one stone. Thanks for your input.