is there any easy way to tell the difference between the dana 60 & dana 61 rear axles? trying to id mine, and no luck getting #s from it. have cleaned/ wire brushed the whole thing and still can't seem to find the #s that are supposed to be stamped on the axle tube. the tag on the diff. cover is missing also. i know it is the original rear axle. the tag on the driver's side door pillar says the rear axle is 4660 GAWR and the build sheet says 4:11 gears. truck is a 77 hiboy with a 400 and c6 (build date 12-76).

i have posted this in the drivetrain forum and got very little info. have searched the 73-79 forum, drivetrain forum and this forum for info on the dana 61 also. there seems to be many fragmented and often conflicting posts regarding the dana 61 rear axle. i originally wanted to know if there was an easy way to distinguish between the dana 60/61 without the #s stamped on the axle tube, but at this point i am willing to settle for ANY way.

some of the info i have read so far:

d60/61 are identical in appearance. also not identical.

d60 has 3.25" axle tubes. d61 has 3.25" & 3.5" tubes.

d61 was called the "mileage maker" axle by ford and did not come with 4:11 gears for this reason. another user claims to have one with 4:11 gears.

d61 is stronger than d60 because of the thicker axle tubes, although the d61 also came with 3.25" tubes also.

d61 was only a semi floating axle. was only a full floating axle.

now do you see why i'm confused? does anyone really know the differences between these axles? and why is the d61 no good for offroad use?

 

1) yes
2) yes
3) no
4) yes, if it has 3.5" tubes
5) not sure, the ones i've seen are full floating, although it very possible to have a SF axle.

The Dana 61 can have 3.08s, 3.54s, 4.11s, and 4.56s. It might have higher ones, but I am not really sure. Some (rare), have a thick 4.56 ring gear, but don't expect to find one. At least in 80s fords, if it is a 3/4 ton and have 3.54 gears, I'll bet it is a 61 if its a Dana axles (when Ford started using Sterlings, there wasn't a real need for a 61 any more).

3.54s seem pretty common, but 4.11s have shown up in E series vans...

More Dana 61s have 3.5" tubes than not, so that is probably the easiest way to tell. 61s also have a lot more webbing than 60s, and the rear cover doesn't cover up the entire diff like it does on the 60 (a couple parts of the lip stick out, but not as much as a 70).

The best way to pick a 60 (at least IMHO), is pull the axle (FF) and check the spindle bore. if it measures 1.600", it is probably (95% chance) a 61, and at least it'll be easy to swap in 35 spline axles. if it is smaller, it could be either, but almost _all_ rear FF Dana 60s have small spindle bores (And seemly a lot of 61s have 1.600" spindle bores. I thinking if they have 3.5" tubes, it has a big spindle since they more than likely grabbed the tubes and spindles from the big brother Dana 70 when being built).

The first reason why Dana 61s suck for offroading is the gear selection. As you have seen, you have either 3.54s or 4.11s (there are two Dana 61 carriers [that i know of], one takes standard 60 gears [3.54 or 4.11] and one takes the higher gears [3.08 and down]. However, the big boog-a-boo is that they might have 'thick' 3.54 or 4.11 gears [long since discontinued by Spicer] instead of the normal ones.).

The second reason is locker selection. TracTech makes a Detroit Softlocker for a 61 in 2 or 3 different carrier types (IIRC). One takes 4.56+ gears (up to 7.17) and another takes 4.30 and higher gears. It is a fine solution if you run 30 spline shafts. However, the whole reason to run a 3/4-1 ton axle is for beefy (35 spline) shafts. I believe you can swap out the side gears on a detroit with side gears from a front 60 detroit, but I am not a 100% sure.

You can run any Dana 60 locker with a ring gear spacer, but the reliability is question because of the spacer size.

You can use a thin spacer by using a regular 4.11 Dana 61 carrier and 4.56+ gears without a problem. However, locker choices would be either a LockRight (a 35spline front *should* work) or welding it solid with 35spline side gears.

This is a long post but this is all the information I have reaped since I realized my rear axle was a 61. BTW, if you pull an axle, and it is a 35 spliner (and has a 3.5" tube, that is a Dana 70. Dana 70=good!).

Also note that a regular 30 spline 60 doesn't have much advantage over a Ford 9", so that is why you want to cheaply step upto 35 spline axles.

 

In the FWIW department, I could not find my numbers either. It came down to scrapping down the axle to bare metal with a chisel, then taking PB Blaster, a rag, and rubbing down the axle tube to pull up numbers.

On my Dana 61 (ran the numbers on the Dana site), the numbers (looking from the back bumper) were on the right hand side, about 12 inches from the pumpkin, near the top of the tube.

I have a Dana 61, with 3.25 tubes, 4.11 gears, limited slip. I don't know the spline count yet.

 

The D61 in my 78 came out of an 86 E350. 4.11 gears and a LS with 3.5" tubes. Stock spline count is 30. As far as I have gathered, the front dana 60 and rear dana 60 carriers are the same, and since it seems that the internals of the carriers are the same for 60/61's, then yes you can use the 35 spline 60 side gears from a front 60 in the rear 61 and install 35 spline axles. As soon as I get a few extra bucks, I will be doing this and will know 100%. Using that same logic, internal style lockers for D60 carriers should be viable for 61's.

There is no way a sane person could mistake a D61 for any other axle out there I'll put up a few pictures of mine so you can see. The tubes are much bigger, the chunk is bigger, the webbing is THICK.

 

> There is no way a sane person could mistake a D61 for any other axle out there

Yea, that was my original problem. When looking under F-250s that had Dana 60s, my axle just looked too different even though it was a 10 bolt cover.

 

I know exactly what you mean. I had no idea what a D61 even was when I went axle hunting

 

according to a reider racing catalog i have-

DANA 60's came in
f250-front-73-76
f250-rear-68-85
f350-rear-79-85
e250,e300,e350-rear-68-present

Dana 60 Reverse came in
F250/350-front-92-present
f450-front-85-96

Dana 61's came in
E250-rear-74-84
F250-rear(2wd only)-75 1/2-87

the only thing i could tell diffrent between the 3 is the (in the pictures and the measured specs, bolts, covers) was the first dana 60 the drain hole was lower than the others
they were all on the right side but the 60R and the 61 were over the center of the pan oppsed to below the center

for more info go to reiderraccin.com

 

> Dana 61's came in
> E250-rear-74-84

Mine is a 1985 E-250, I believe original because of the Ford E5UA tag number. Reider said I could use a normal Dana 60 Detroit when I gave him my BOM numbers. Just goes to show, when you have a Ford the only way to be certain of axles is to run the code AND take the cover off.

 

Mine came in an F250 4x4, so all bets are off.

 

Yes, matter of fact, the F-250 4x4 they based my 73-79 Haynes manual teardown and rebuild on has a Dana 61 rear. It is a 1976 "Hi-Boy". . .go figure