I'll be graduating college in May and will finally be able to work permanently full-time and start to save up some good money to get stuff upgraded/finished on my 75 f100.

My plans for the next few years include rebuilding the 390 and adding a 671 blower to it. A guy I've talked to on the FE forum that has a blown 390 discussed my build and said I should be able to make 500lbs of torque while keeping the engine relatively stock except pistons, cam, etc. My F100 has the HPD44 up front and the 9" in the rear. My question for this forum is, with 36" swampers, should I look in to swapping to a Full-Float Dana 60 for the rear and 60 up front? Or could I build up the 9" to handle that amount of power on that size tire? I don't plan on ever going to a bigger tire, 36" is right where I want to be. This truck will be driven on the street to get to the off-road site, and be used for light-mild mud bogging and some mild trails.

There's a guy in my area with a FF D60 from a 78 F250 he's selling for $100. Figured if I would need it for the power I'll eventually be making, that I'd look in to buying it. Let me know!

 

You can make the rear live, but you would be money ahead to swap a bigger axle into it. The front 44 can survive light wheeling on 36s

 

I just found out that it's got the 30 spline axle shafts. Think it'd still be cheaper to buy it and add chromoly shafts than build the 9"? Would it be stronger?

 

You can make a 9in live if you put some money in it. You are in a bad spot as far as tire size goes. Almost too small for 1tons and almost too big for 1/2 ton if you are going to wheel it. You can make the 9in live with some money, the problem will be the D44. For the money in shafts and such you can find bigger axles. I always side with the go bigger than you need so you can beat it and not break it.

 

Yea I've been reading stuff about Dana 60 and saw that you can bore out the spindles to fit 35 spline shafts so I may go ahead and pick it up this weekend. For $100 why not?

For the front axle I do plan to find a Dana 60 as well although I've read that the one I'd be looking for might cost me some money.

This project will take at least 3-5 years so I'm just gettin started with building up the driveline.

 

my rear axle of choice is a 14 bolt chevy. You can get them cheap and very strong. Only draw back is factory disc brakes on them is rare. A front D60 will usually cost you a few bucks.

 

Think the D60 rear with chromoly 35 spline shafts with an open diff would hold up for my application?

 

You won't have any issues with your D44, just keep an open differential any use quality joints. A lot of the local pstroke guys are still using their factory D44s for pulls and I've yet to see one fail in front of a sled, and they're putting some serious power through em.

I'd swap in a 1 ton rear axle and swap to 8 lug outers on the D44. Any of the popular FF 8 lug axles will have no issues holding up to you planned build in factory form.

 

So a couple things then, can I run 15" wheels on the Dana 60 drums and 8 lug Dana 44 rotors?

So should I just go ahead and but the Dana 60 I found and put some 35 spline shafts in it?

 

With some grinding and a lot of wheel offset you can run 15s. I'd take the money spent on a D60 rear axle and find something superior. Around here you can find Sterlings and 14 bolts for $100-$150.

 

The reason I was looking at the D60 was because it should bolt right up to the leafs with no modifications as far as I know. I'm not a fabricator by any means so I don't know if I'd be able to take the spring perches off an axle tube and relocate them.

Why would you take a 10.25 over a 35 spline D60? I read somewhere that under heavy use the axle tubes can break free and rotate?

 

In my opinion the rear 60 is not really that much stronger than a 9". if i was gonna swap it be to a 14 bolt or a sterling.

 

Alright what year/model trucks do I look for the sterling? How will the width from hub to hub compare to the front D44?

 

Because for less money then a D60 with custom shafts, you could have a Sterling with factory disk brakes.

 

Okay I see what you mean.

Alright one thing for the D44 setup. I can just swap 8 lug hubs/rotors right on to my current axle right? What about the stock caliper, will it work or is the rotor a different size? The truck stops fine so I'm really not all that worried about the 3/4 ton calipers if I don't need to be...