Hey guys, after i got done mudding last night i looked at truck to see how bad it was. well it was bad on passenger side and rear driver side. Thinking my Hub wasn't locked completely on driver side i made sure and went at it again, continually checking to see if that tire was spinning... i got nothing. So that old dana 44 pile of crap is getting ripped out.. My grandfather has a 99 superduty that he replaced the old dana 60. Now Ive heard guys say get a f-350 axle out of a 88 model, or the 92-97. what would you guys recommend for someone who will be mudding/ pulling in future? thanks for the help

 

what would be better for pulling king pin or high(ball) pin

 

I'll be doing a solid axle swap before too long, so I'm here to learn on this one.

 

Dana 50 on our trucks. =)
not 44.

 

Get a king pin 60 out of 86 to 91 F-350. king pin axles hold up much better to the weight of the diesel especially with big tires and mudding.

 

I wants a king pin.

 

Did you get that spindle fixed yet?

 

Different rim bolt pattern on a 99,.....metric vs SAE on our rigs

 

If your askin me I ran into some technical difficulties. had to get a hub... but it should be alive this weekend.

 

I put a d60 from a 91 which has the king pin. I lost some turning radius unfortunately. From what I have been told here the kp has a slightly worse turning raduis then the bj version. Get all the brackets also, ubolt brackets and cross member brackets and steering drag links. And don't even consider using the f250 springs, horrible ride. I tried it from last fall until last weekend and it will almost bounce your head off the roof when you hit big bumps, and the small bumps feel like big ones. About as compliant as riding in a radio flyer wagon. I finally put the f350 springs in that I also got from the 91, which was a 460 standard cab, and the ride is much better.

Here is a shot of the of the spring thickness, top is the 350 spring, bottom 250. the 250 is almost twice as thick


here it shows the curve of each, agian the top is the 350 bottom 250. Even with the bigger arch in the 350, it only raised my front up .5".


your next decision is to either use the 250 drive shaft of the 350. Some say if you use the 250, as long as you don't jack the truck up you will probably be fine with the single u joint. Also you may need to shorten the shaft slightly.

If you use the 350 shaft, you will need to change the yoke on the case because they have a different bolt pattern. Finding that yoke is almost impossible because it is not made anymore. Some guys end up buying a whole 350 T case because the seller won't sell the yoke seperate, or get a special shaft made up. I was able to find a place that sells a yoke that is pretty close, has the right bolt pattern but needed some mods done to it, nothing real complicated but a machine shop, or someone with a lathe could do. And you need to be aware of which transfer case you get a yoke from. Our PS f250 and 350 came with I think a BW 1470 which has the larger output shaft. other gas powered trucks came with the BW 1356 which is a smaller shaft.

the yoke on the left is from a f350 with the 1356 Tcase too small ID for the shaft, bottom right is the f250 yoke you can see the difference in the bolt pattern, and the top right is the new yoke that has the correct bolt pattern and ID but the splines are not cut correctly. As you can see the splines in the new one are V cut, while the original have vertical sides and 90* corners. Some guys say they have machined the tip of splines down in the yoke and been able to slide it on half way and then use the nut or large hammer to force it the rest. I didn't like that idea so I had the inner ID machined to match the original 250, then I had a thick metal cutting sawzall blade and I cut between each peak to give it the 90* corners. It was just trial and cut/file until I got it so I could easily slide it on and off. Also the new yoke is a little shorter than the 250, in the spline area, so I had a collar made that slide over the shaft first and the yoke would butt up against it. I was also able to get the dust shield off the old yoke easily but had to have the new yoke machined down slightly in that part of the neck to get the dust shield to slide over. I have more picts if interested to follow the book I just wrote. Sounds worse than it really is now that I have been through this once.

 

this pict shows the hight difference. yoke on right is the new one with the spacer set on top of it

 

this pict shows the difference in the spline cut.

 

I'm pretty sure this what the splines looked like after I modified them on the new yoke.

 

if the 92-97 is the same as 83-94's then hes got a 44. regular cabs came d44HD, xcab came d50 and f350's all came d60.

and as far as the OP, go d60 kingpin high pinion if you can find one. balljoint works fine, just not the best for hard core wheeling or if you plan on running stupid big tires like my truck. you would even be fine if you wanted to run a d50 straight axle from a 99+ f250 and run the sterling 10.50 rear. that would give you 4 wheel disc

 

plus the 99+ are auto lockers (vacuum activated) or you can get out and solidly lock em in. great for a quick drive though a soft spot or heavy wheelin