Hey all

I am thinking of changing out my 9" to a Dana 60 and 8 lug front. What do you think?

 

do you use your truck for a lot of hard wheeling? have you been breaking axle shafts on your front and rear diffs? are you planning on running 40+ inch tires, if not then the upgrade probably isn't needed. the 9 and 44 you have are tough out of the box and can be upgraded to be even tougher still. unless you are building a crawler with huge tires I wouldn't bother but that's just me.

 

I am doing a complete restore. I am building a 6.9 IDI that is all most complete from the machine shop. I want to upgrade my brakes by adding rear disks. go to 35 spline axles and order RCV Performance Ultimate CV Axles. It's not that I am building a crawler, however its always nice to know you have the right stuff when it counts.

 

And it's way more cost effective to swap a Dana 60 than to upgrade the current axles. But for the rear the Ford (Sterling) 10.25 or 10.5 are better choices, the Dana 60 ring size is 9.75 and the Ford axle is plentiful and inexpensive. You can get a Dana 60 for the front, just remember to match the front and rear gearing or you'll mess up the transfer case. Disc brakes are a nice upgrade, but if you're on a budget you might want to do further research or it will get expensive.

 

I say go for it if you want to. I am doing almost the same thing. Mine is because the PO swapped a Dana 60 in the rear already so I decided to swap all of the parts on the front Dana 44 to Dana 44HD outers. I swapped everything from the spindles out to give me the 8 on 6 1/2 bolt pattern and big dual piston caliper disc brakes. I am also using the same brake hardware to put dual piston caliper disc brakes on the rear Dana 60. Big bonus is that I am using all factory Ford parts.
Check out my build thread. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...big-truck.html
The rear disc brake setup link. NORTH COUNTRY SPECIALTIES ®

 

Bigzirb, Very nice job. My Bronco is not so ruff. I will be pulling out my 9" that has 410 gears from Richmond Gears and my ARB air locker. I am in the process of purchasing new Richmond Gears for the Dana 60 Highboy and the ARB to go along with it. I am making this my last vehicle. No plans to sell her for any amount of money. The 6.9 IDI is coming along great and I have 6500 in the rebuild and an other 6K to finish her up. The lowerend I am figuring 6K as well.

 

the toughest choice will be going leafs or coil sprung up front. James Duff has the hardware necessary to go with a coil sprung front setup on a D60, same can be accomplished with BloodyKnuckleGarage (formerly CAGEOFFROAD), you can find them on facebook

going leafs you can pretty much get the mounting brackets for the front/rear of the leaf springs for under $500 which isnt bad. Mounting the front will require some weld/fab but the back is bolt in for the most part.

good luck with the build.

 

One thing you may want to consider for the rear is a GM Corporate 14 bolt. (full-floater 10.5") I had a Dana 60 in a 79 F250 with a mild 460 and 44" Boggers. I broke my 60 on more than one occasion in the nasty stuff. It always broke at at the end of the spline section that enters the carrier. I got a 14 bolt, moved the spring pads and never had a problem again. The 14 bolt has a longer spline section that enters the carrier and MUCH beefier axles. I had noticed that the truck Dana 60 axle shafts aren't that much bigger than the 9" shafts. The 60's also have a hollow roll pin that holds the spider gear shaft and are prone to break. Not saying that the 60's are bad....but they aren't bulletproof. You can do the disc brake swap and drop some pounds off the 14 bolt also. 14 bolt brake drums are HEAVY!! Cool set-up and easy to install. Points to ponder if you're going to go diesel and big tires.

 

The only thing I prefer of the 14 bolt vs. the Sterling is that the pinion has a carrier bearing which prevents breakage.

 

the sterling has a carrier bearing??

I have seen the pinion snap on plenty of 14bolts

 

Yea, I've destroyed a 14 bolt rear running in experimental class mud bog. (broken pinion, ring gear and spun the axle tube in the housing). I went to Tennessee and one of my customers and he broke a 2.5 ton rear rock climbing!!
I believe the 14 bolt has a wider selection of aftermarket parts. I'm not knocking the Sterlings... they have huge spindle bearings, are pretty tough and the aftermarket is growing.
If you go with a Sterling, the 10.25 is 8x6.5 bolt pattern. The 10.5 has 8x170mm and the wheel is hub centered. The Sterling has more ground clearance than the 14 bolt. There is a kit where you can gain about 2'' on the bottom on the 14 bolt. There are disc brake kits out there for the 60, Sterling and the 14 bolt as well as the 9". The 14 bolt has the advantage of almost anyone can set up the backlash for the gears in them.
Whichever you choose, good luck with the build!

 

Everything can fail, but the 14 has a bearing at the head of the pinion, which helps prevent failures. It isn't flawless, just a nice design feature the Sterling lacks.

 

I thought I'd throw this out there since I brought up the 14 bolt rear. Ian Johnson from Powerblock Xtreme 4x4 did a write up in Xtreme 4x4 magazine about converting a 14 bolt rear to a FRONT END!! I read it and thought, "hey, that's pretty cool!". Is it "cool" to have a front end that is tougher than almost anything else out there??? Yea, it's that cool!! Is it $4000.00 cool.....no, it's not that cool!! Not that cool at all!!