Looking at putting Dana 60 in the back of my F150. The rear end that I have is from a F350 4wd. The sping perches are wider by about 1" and it is set up for the wider 3" springs. Is there any application out there which will bolt in without having to relocate the perches and the shock mounts?

Thanks,
Jason

 

78-79 D60s are the closest you will find. Buy a new set of 2 1/2" spring pads (about $25) and weld them in place. That will allow you to bolt up the axle to your original leaf springs. The rest get a little more costly/tricky. Your driveshaft will be need to be shortened by about 3" and I think the Ujoints are larger on the D60. Maybe you still have the original F350 driveshaft. The second problem will be 8 lugs in the rear and 5 in the front which Im sure you already realized. Hope this helps

 

Ok. I figured if there was something that was a direct swap, I would sell this and start looking. I think I'm going to look for something a little more HD since I have to weld on new perches anyways.

I am converting the front to 8 lug. Trying to do it without going to dual piston calipers. May be using GM 44 outers.

Thanks for the help,
Jason

 

a lot of people use 99-04+ Super Duty Sterling 10.25 or 10.5 rears. You get an 8 lug axle that is very strong 35spline (i think) and disk brakes which is a plus. I dont know about swapping the front rotors to match. Maybe someone who has done this would chime in. Or maybe you can ask another question in the forum titled Sterling swap? Good luck

 

the 99+ sterlings are metric bolt pattern so you won't find a direct match front bolt pattern.. they are a 10.5" ring gear versus the 10.25" and the disc brakes are nice.. i swapped one in to my other truck and ran bolt pattern adapters while i tried to find a way to adapt the original pattern to standard. ran it 1 1/2 yrs with no problems but i didn't haul any major weight either.. you can't break a 10.25 or 10.5 in most situations, they have 1.5" axles and are 35 spline, very tough!! they are very big and add lots of weight and inhibit ground clearance... I think i'd just built theheck outta a 9" and oversized the front 44 and not worry about it. 9" parts are cheap and they are proven tough. keep the weight on the truck down and it shouldn't be a problem.. JMO

 

Raceboy,
good idea/point

Crawler,
you can beef up the 9" with gears posi 35spline shafts and the rebuild for $1000-$1200 which is about what you will pay for a complete Sterling. It wouldnt be AS strong but it still would be very strong reliable and most of all easy.

 

Yeah, I've been that route with my Bronco. I have about $2K into the 9" on it Or for about 1/4- 1/2 what it woud cost to build the 9", I can get a early Sterling, D70 or GM 14 bolt that will be stronger right out of the box. I haven't decided yet. I have a couple of other projects ahead of my pickup that need to get done, so I have lots of time.

Jason