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As far as I know, the 4wd locking hub is larger than most. It is kinda hard to explain, you just kinda know. Also, as far as I know, they only came on Highboys. Could be wrong.
I was led to believe the standard duty "44" axle had conventional press in ball joints; the HD "60" axle had bolted caps where the ball joints were. Other than that, I would hate to mislead anyone. Hope this helps.
The HD dana 44 in the F-250 has what is called an 'external locking hub'. The regular hub is retained by 6 small socket head cap screws. the threads of these screws is about 10-32-UNF. the HD hub is held in place by six large Socket head cap screws. these threads are about 3/8-16-UNC. this a big two-piece assembly. the HD hub is about 4 1/2" in diameter while the standerd one is only about 2 5/8". Hope this helps some.
Eric
Proud owner of a '73 F-250 4x4 High Boy, 460 V8, NP435, NP205, Dana 60 rear w/Detroit Locker
And a '68 Bronco 289 v8 , NP435 , Dana 20
If you find out you don't have one, don't be sad. make yourself happy and get the king of front axles, a dana 60. but be forwarned, on the subject of heavy 44's some of the early to mid-70's crew cabs had a dana 60 3rd member with 44 axles and tubes and large closed steering knuckles. be sure to steer clear of these.
You're partially correct. I have a '76 Dana60 front with the parts as you described, but it has OPEN knuckles. Sneaky. I bought this before I really knew how to spot the good 78/79 d60's and obviously was disappointed with the d44 axles.
Thanks for the information. My hubs are auto-locking, so I'm not sure if those were available in HD form. My front axle code is: J.
Thanks again for all the responses!
This is for the guy with the 76 dana 60. I must ask if it has the large king pin caps, or the small ball joints like the 44. Is it reverse rotation? Once I saw a Ford (left hand side diff) front end that had disc brakes, open knuckles, but had standard gear rotation and wondered what the hell it was. Maybe it was what you have?
It is a kingpin frontend, open knuckle, 19 spline outers, and it is NOT reverse rotation. Very weird. Oh well, live and learn. I picked it up for $400 so it wasn't too bad. In '76 they put these frontends in Crew Cabs. Warn actually still makes hubs for them, I had to get a pair. The hubs are sort of cone shaped with six bolts holding the locking hub to the hub body. Not the same as the big ones used on later HD 44's and d60's.
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