I just replaced my front ttb Dana 50 with a Dana 60 straight king pin front axel. I also added to the front, an ORU Reverse shackel kit and F350 diesel leafs. I Leveled it out in the back by replacing the 2in blocks with 6in blocks. I am now running 315 75 16s (35in) as well. The truck is a F250 crew 4x (1997) with a 460. I noticed two issues I have questions about.

1) I took it on a long trip and experienced some strong vibration in the front end (comes and goes). It mostly happend in a turn (right but not left) but sometimes while going staright and always at high speed (approx 65-75mph). I noticed a little positive camber (top of tires out) but was told that was normal for a "well" rebuilt D60 with King pins and that it would settle to no camber. I was woundering if I was experiecing the dreaded "Death wobbel" I have read about on this site or maybe the victim of poor tire balacing. It has not been aligned sicne the axel swap (was told by shop it was unnecessary for the dana 60) Is that true? I was considering adding a steering dampener but wanted to hear from the forum first.

2) I feel some buz I believe is coming from the rear drive shaft. The center bearing was lowerd about an inch with some steel rectanular tubing. How should I go about to fix this. Reduce/add spacing of center bearing? Balancing of the shaft ($$$ ouch)?


Thanx for any help...after I fix these problems I am going to start on the engine (exhaust - headers, cat for, cat back).
John

 

since you have the kingpin version of the D60 the death wobble very well may be the culprit. the kingpin springs just need to be tightened up with 1/4" of bumper washers. it took care of it for me!

the buzz in the rear is cause from your u-joint angles. you can use tapered spacers under the springs in the rear.also you might wanna lower your carrier bearing mount another inch or so.

i would segguest doing a shckle flip in the rear and get rid of the ghetto 6" blocks and keep the stocker 2"er's

-cutts-

 

John, finding guys who know how to properly align kingpin 60s is a little tough. It may be that your kingpins simply need to be rebuilt. Or, if your running huge tires its overwhelming the spring and you simply need to shim it with washers as fishy mentioned. Kingpins aren't adjustable in stock form, but Specialty Products has a rebuild kit that makes them adjustable so you can dial them in. A competent alignment shop should have told you this. The fact that they told you not to worry about it tells me they don't want to deal with it and you should find somebody else. Since it mostly happens in a turn I suspect something is out of whack.

Ditto on the rear shackle flip recomendation. Good luck.