Hi All,

I have an 86 6.9L F250 4X4 and recently noticed some odd tire wear on my front right and found my tie rod end is shot and the ball joints appear to be loose. Looking on Rock Auto for replacements I saw that they have two different Lower Ball Joints, one for a 3850 lb and one for 4500 &4600 lb/4.10 gear ratio. Do these these correspond to either the Dana 44HD TTB or Dana 50 TTB, or is this based off of the front GAWR and gear ratio?

Judging by the axle hub it appears to be the Dana 44HD




My Front GAWR is 4410 lbs and it has a 4.10 gear ratio. The odd thing is the part number on the gear ratio tag, 610254-2, indicates a 86-87 Dana 50, while the part number on the axle arm, 610179-6, is for an 84 Dana 44HD according to Dana's part list.

In the end, are the ball joints compatible in both the Dana 44HD and Dana 50? Thanks for any help.

 

I don't find an '86 F250 in the parts catalog with a 4410 axle, much less with that and a 4.10 gear. Here's what I see:

 

The housing, knuckles, hubs and spindles are 44hd(3850 lb) for sure, you can interchange the differential section of the 50 and 44 so that may be what has happened.
Either way the upper bj is the same 44/50/60, and the lower changes. The 44hd uses the same lower as a F150 44.

 

Ya I had a feeling given the mismatched serial numbers and lack of any info of the previous owner that I was dealing with some part swapping going on. My best guess is given that it is an ext cab diesel camper edition with a 8800 lb GVWR and 4410 lb Font GAWR and the serial code on the axle arm is for an '84, that the original D50 broke and a D44 HD was swapped in and they kept the D50 differential section to mach the rear Sterling 10.25".




So, since this is definitely a D44 HD hub, I must have the D44 HD knuckle and I will need the MOOG K8195T Front Lower 4x4 Ball Joint for the 3850 lb axle and the MOOG K80026 Front Upper, which is used in both D44 HD and D50.

The tie rod ends are also the same irregardless of the axle right?

 

Yes, they are the same between the 44 and 50. I remember there being a production date difference, but that may have been F150 stuff.

 

Thanks for both of your help so far.

I looked into the year change for the tie rods and there was a part change at the beginning of '85. For reference for anyone else the Moog P/N's for the tie rod components are:

'84 - L.I. DS1002, L.O. ES2127L, R.I. DS1001, R.O. ES2126R

'85 and Up - L.I. DS1072, L.O. ES2728L, R.I. DS1069, R.O. ES2727R

My question now is, since the ball and u joints are the same for both the '84 and '86, should I match the tie rod components I purchase to those for my '86 truck? Or is it that the axle length changed between these years and I should get the tie rod components to match the '84 D 44HD axle?

Thanks again