Ya it might have the world famous Dana60 kingpin init. Hard to tell.?

 

Not really. Once you've seen a couple you can pretty much tell a Dana 60 at a glance without any other axles next to it for comparison.
Got a pic of the diff, from the center cover to one of the knuckles?

If you know it's a 60 and just want to know if it's a king-pin version (which is should be, and would be if original) then just look over the top of the front tire down on to the knuckle's pivot points. If you're familiar with where ball-joints are, it's the same place. But instead of pivoting on ball-joints with one large nut on the top, a king-pin bearing 4wd drive axle has a rectangular cap with 4 bolts holding down the bearings.
The end of the axle tube is where the "steering yoke" is welded on (also called the "inner-C" but only in more recent years). Attached to the steering yoke are either ball-joints (a Dana 44 on a truck like yours) or a king-pin bearing (a D60 on a truck like yours) to act as pivoting points for the steering knuckle.

The D60 has larger tubes and a larger center section, even though in shape it's virtually identical to a 44. Same number of bolts holding the cover, but the cover itself is larger to hold the bigger gears.
There is often a "44" or a "60" cast or welded into the webbing of the center section where the tube comes out. That's a giveaway right there, but not all have them. They're supposed to, but I've seen plenty that did not have a visible marking there.

But a pic or a confirmation of king-pin bearings will tell the tale.

Paul
Paul

 

What are the D60's out of the snow fighters worth, I have two out of 78's? (complete trucks for parts, modifieds with 4 speeds, title for one but bodies are shot.) As well as mid 70's with a 44 closed knuckle?

 

No it doesn not have a d60 up front it has the d44

I think my best bet will be finding axles with 3.73 gears and swaping the gears out

Thanks for the help

 

ok i can get a set of 4.11 gears for really cheap so what i would like to know is the 3.73 better than the 4.11s or is there a gear that is better than the others

 

I would just do the rear then you can get it going to see what you have.Theres very little difference between the gears you mentioned.

 

Sorry I missed the earlier statement that you were just looking to do the rear to match the front lakequ. Didn't need more info on the front then after all.

I would not go as tall as anything in the 3's myself. Not if you're going to be running 36" tires. With anything taller than 34" tires I would consider the 4.11 a minimum. Should be a great combination if you have a strong motor and an automatic trans.
And the bonus is that you really only have to do the rear axle at that point, since the front is already there.

My '79 has 4.11 (or is it 4.10?) and 35" tires and it's very comfortable in both acceleration and cruising down the highway.

Paul

 

ok will the gears out of a f150 fit in a f250 i have found a 1978 f150 that has 4.11 gears and am gonna put them in a 1979 f250 will they fit and work??

 

Won,t work.

 

whats the difference between 150 gears and 250 gears??

 

why will f150 gear not fit in a f250 they are the same front axle dana 44 will these gears interchange I know the rear is different the f150 has a 9in rear and my f250 has a dana 60 so i know those will not work but will the front change??

 

I'm sure good to doo was just thinking the same thing most of us likely were, that you were talking about the rear end, like you have been for literally the last week almost.

Since you're now talking about two presumably Dana 44 fronts, original to the '78 and '79 trucks, then yes they will work.
What gear ratio is in the new donor truck?

The scenario is, if they are both reverse rotation/high-pinion/whateveryoucallthem 44's from a Ford (which both the '78 and '79's should be if not swapped), then as long as they are bolted to the correct carrier then they will work.
In other words if changing from a 4.09/4.10 to a 3.50/3.54 (or whatever the 44 ratios are) you would need to use the carrier that the gears came bolted to.
Then they would work.

I believe the carrier cutoff points for a 44 are 3.92 and up, vs 3.73 and down.

Paul

 

well i need to swap both grears out in the front and rear but i found a cheap doner f150 with 4.11 gears so all i need to do is find a rear end with 4.11s whick will be eaiser than the front imo

thanks for the help guys