hey, i have a 67 f-250 with a pretty built 360 and borg warner 4 speed and my friend has a ford 9 inch just laying around at his house and it would basically be a steal but i was wondering if they make that much of a differance weightwise or takeoffwise i know the dana 60 will take alot more abuse than the 9 inch but dont f-100s have 9 inches? only concern is changing from 8 bolt wheels to 5, thanks andy

 

You will need a longer rear driveshaft, new spring plates and u-bolts, but it will fit. There were several variations on the 9", some of the carriers they used actually can handle more power than the D60. If the axle has necked down tubes going into the backing plates, I'd pass on it.

 

Andy, It can be done. What are you wanting to acheive? They are two very different animals, that both will bolt up to the chassis in the same holes.

John

 

If its a 3/4 ton truck, why would you put a 1/2 rear in it?

 

well my dana 60 only has like 2 lockers ever built for a 16 spline dana 60, which is a detroit locker $$$$ and something like warn ive found on ebay, i figured itd be much easier to find a locker for a 9 inch, but didnt know if the axles and springs were the only differance between 1/2-3/4 ton??

 

A built 360? why? If the 9" is from a 67-72 Ford it will bolt in , but it's only a 28spline and will probably cost you many axle shafts with a locker! I use a later 9" (31spline) in a 1972 4x4 F250 but I had to cut off the spring pads and weld on the older pads. The only reason I did this was because I was swapping in a 5bolt dana 44 front axle. Good luck with your swap. You can make anything fit if you are a good fabricator.

 

A 9" from a 68-72 4x4 usually is a 31spline, some even had a detroit locker from the factory.
You can replace the axleshafts in your D60, the side gears for the D60 and 35spline D70 were the same aside from shaft diameters and spline count. Just keep in mind that the 67-72 D60 is a fairly narrow piece, so you may have to order the axles, or if you swap in a later D60 those use the same length axles as the D70 dually axle.

 

Hold up brothers. There were no 9" rears installed in F250s that I am aware of. The 9" first with 28 spline and later 31 spline were only installed in F100 and F150 pickups. The Ford 9" can be torn up, anything can, but generally will stand up to most any street app. that they are used in. Nascar runs a version of the 9" in all of the cars that you see on the track today. If you are building your truck for drag racing you may want to beef up your rear for the torque that will be dilivered to it.

The Dana rears 60s & 70s are built to carry heavier loads, not to stand up to harder twisting engines. Please don't confuse the two.

Parts from the 9" and the Danas will not interchange. They are two different animals.

John

 

Nine inchers are great for racing, but I wouldn't want one in a 3/4 ton truck. These trucks are built to haul therefore the full-floating design of the 60 is the ticket (no weight on the axle shaft). If it's drag racing I'm doing, I'd buy a F100 and use a nine inch. I have a 72 F100 with a 77 Trak-Lok 31 spline 9-inch. Will be drag racing as soon I can swap the darned 360 for a 390!

Jeff

 

I have never seen a 9" installed in an F250 stock. But I have seen many dana 44s and dana 60s factory built with factory 5/5.5 axles and brakes. The only benefit to 9" diff is the pinion support bearing, helps keep same tooth contact under load.
I have seen more than one pinion shaft snap in half in a truck with 35s and 38s, but never saw dana 60 or dana 70 snap one . Did see a few broken Dana 60 axleshafts but only on 42s I have a dana 60 semifloat that comes with 35spline shafts, but they have weaklinks to. There are lots of choices, If you are going to load it up or heavy offroad, stick with the full floating axle, if no load carrying and only soft offroad, put in the 9" more stuff available .
To match the front with 5/5.5 wheels you wil need a front axle from a 77-79 F150 supercab 4x4 (dana 44 reverse cut) .
After some thought, you may be able to swap in newer dana 60 internals/shafts? somebody here may have tried this already.

 

Hmmm, Interesting. I knew there were some Dana 44 setups on half ton trucks, what Ford truck were the Dana 60s installed with a 5 on 5 1/2 bolt pattern??

I have only known them to be on F250s & 350s with the 8 lug pattern.

John

 

44s were in 73-79era had 4 all between 76 and 78 but I'm not sure if they were heavy duty, they had a small strap/spacer welded to the housing to increase the tube diameter.
The 60's that I had with 5bolt were 1963/4 , 1968, and 1972, But the only ones I found has "powerlock?" bolted together diff carrier, they were very heavy duty unit. The 63/64 I got the guy had been hauling firewood for many year and he stopped driving it when the driveshaft broke. When I cut up the truck, I found the axle tubes had bent enough for the Rside axle to rub on the inside of the tube. That is abuse, but the axles/ring/pinion/carrier were all fine.

 

I have seen quite a few F100`s with factory equipped Dana 60`s with the 5x5 1/2" bolt pattern. Every truck with the 5 lug Dana 60 I`ve seen was equipped with a limited slip unit, so my thinking was that perhaps , if a F100 was ordered with a limited slip diff, a Dana 60 was supplied. Until 1968, the only limited slip Ford had for the 9" was the crappy "Equa Lock" unit, which had very few clutch plates, and did not hold up very well. The later Traction Locks were better, but still not as good as a GM or MoPar posi unit, in my opinion, due to the fact that the 9"`s rear pinion bearing support only allowed enough room to put clutch plates on one side only, where most other limited slip units use clutches on both sides. Plus, the side covers on 9" Traction Locks are common to split where the inside was machined to provide sufficent room for the clutch plates they could cram in there. A 9" in normal "non performance" configuration is not all that strong. Sure, a Nodular case, 31 spline axles and a Detroit Locker is great, but 90% of 9"`s are plain cases with an open diff and 28 spline axles. Replacing a Dana 60 with a 9" seems like a step backwards to me. Especially in a F250.

 

Rory428: Have you had any "personal experience with GM limited slip?
I did quite a bit of 4wheeling, and the GM cookoo clocks were the worst of any limited slip diff that saw a mud hole or even a snow covered road. I saw many parts dent the rear cover on 10bolt and 12 bolt GM pickup rear diffs. They were the running joke when we went out wheeling to bet on who would break theirs first. Inever saw a 9" limited slip explode, tear up clutches yes, crack the carrier yes, but always make it home under its own power. When the GMs explode they would sometimes push the carrier pinion into the main housing and lock up the rear. after a few tries/tows, most of the GM guys used the 3/4ton full floating diffs and put in lockers. Afriend of mine blew up a 10bolt posi pulling onto the road from gravel to wet pavement rear locked up and dropped driveshaft etc.
I did see a 79 Bronco with 39.5 " superswampers, shear of a 9" pinion shaft inside the outer pinion bearing. That was on a steep rockface and the driveshaft was removed and the truck limped home the 150mile 3hr trip, on the front axle drive. And the 31spline posi was not broken inside .
As for dodge posis only experience I have is with Dana 60/70s.

 

Years ago when I was a punk kid, I redlined my 300HD straight 6 79 F150 with 35" tires and dumped the clutch in granny gear while "cruising the gut" one night in Klamath Falls, Ore. The pinion went right through the side of the case. I remember telling my Dad "I don't know" when he asked me what happened. Remember, Chrysler used Dana 60's with a 5-4.5 bolt pattern in it's Hemi cars so even though I've never seen one, I don't doubt that Dana 60's with 5-5.5 bolt patterns exist.