those are typical dana 60 prices, the 44s usually run 500 to about a grand even with east coast pricing.... find a 76-79 4x4 with a rotted out body and steal the axle and prop valve. or if you insist on paying 1000 or better hunt down a d60 they are out there you just have to sniff them out.

tell you what where are you located i'll do some sniffing on your behalf ( I like hunting for parts)

 

call tony's truck parts in Portland.. the closed knuckle really isn't worth the hassle as they are weaker by far than the open knuckle 44s and most of the "kits" i found when i was looking at the same thing for my 74 were sketchy at best. one required you to get 1/8 machined off the diameter of you hub another required you to run modified spindles and another yet required you to run custom "adapter" bearings and races only offered by that company. and they all costed an exorbitant amount of money. not trying to tell you not to or that you shouldn't ( it's your truck do as you please) but merely sharing empirical facts.

also another thing to consider is finding of parts open knuckle 44s are by far easier to find parts for than the closed knuckles

 

It's funny, back in the 80's we used to hammer those close knuckle front ends and never had a problem with any of them. Even the drum brakes seemed fine.

 

That's kinda what I was thinking. My truck sees very minimal 4x4 use, and all I tow is a 12ft vintage trailer. I'm thinking I'll just fix the front axle and drive it. It's lasted 40 years so far.

 

I still don't get how it broke both axles at the same time if it was a open diff? I also do agree they aren't as weak as people make them out to be. I grew up around the one the one I took out. It was used hard on the farm and saw plenty of snow plowing. As much jumping as it did it was never apart. I only took it out because the turning radius was terrible and did the whole ps and hp 60 swap. It also leaked too much from pitted knuckles.

 

Here is a link to a youtube video for Ram man
They offer a closed knuckle big ball Dana 44 disc brake conversion kit. I will be saving my money for this one.
If anyone is interested.

 

https://prddesign.com/product/prd-de...e-upgrade-kit/

These guys make a pretty fancy kit. For $2k I’d just find a different axle myself. I’m sure I can find one for $500 or less around here.

 

Thats a nice looking kit, but its for an open knuckle axle. It not hard to convert those, tons of places offer kits for those.

 

My bad, I thought he had the option for both.

 

Just asking, I was told here in the forum that disc brakes were optional in 1975 and standard in 1976.
If that's true did Ford install the open knuckle 44HD if they ordered disc brakes in 1975?
Or were disc brakes not an option in 1975??

 

As far as I know open knuckles were not offered until 1976, At any rate open knuckles convert easily to disc brakes. There are 2 sizes in the closed knuckle variants, the small ball 8 bolt, and the big ball 12 bolt. The small ball 8 bolt is also easily converted to disc brakes as well. The big ball 12 bolt Is hard to convert,
the knuckle is so bulky it doesn't leave much room for the caliper.
I converted my big ball dana 44 shortly after starting this thread. I got a custom made kit, it uses a dodge rotor and dodge 2 piston calipers from a newer truck.
The kit I found above is the 1st off the shelf kit I've come across. I looked long and hard, and I thought there must be other people who would want to know about it.

 

Very interesting - thanks for posting - I was looking at mine (44HD) the other day when I rebuilt it and thinking of options for that. I'm good with drums for my application, but those thoughts always cross my mind.