I was reading the current issue of 4 Wheel & Off Road and came accross an article on building up a '99 Superduty for an extreme Mexican excursion.

They indicated the front axle was a Dana 50 (Same as Excursion) and that the Dana 50 axle consisted of a Dana 44 differential in a Dana 60 housing with 30 spline axles.

A little on the weak side for these large trucks... I'm thinking could one swap the differential and axles to make it a Dana 60. I plan to add lockers and new gears at some point however the Dana 44 guts won't hold up with a locker or I may just lock the rear and leave the front open as they did on the Superduty in this article.

 

Doesent the Dana 50 have... ummm... Dana 50 differentials? After all its called a 50 not a 44?

 

They were simply doing a size & strength comparisson. IOW the dana44 locker will not fit the D50 housing. The best solution for this weak set-up is to just go out and buy a D60 from a later EX. or SD. Your 04' EX should have a 60 in it already, and there are plenty of locker options for you. You may consider 35 spline outers for your truck. These are much stronger than the tiny 30 spline units. My SD had a 50 in it, and I had to shell out big dough to install a Pro-rock D60 from Dynatrac. The wifes Excursion has a D60 though, and all I've done to it was install the Dynatrac free-spin kit with unit bearing eliminators, 35 spline chro-mo outers, and Warn hubs, with 4.88:1 gears, and an ARB. Works great.

 

This has been over many times before. Every single 4x4 Excursion produced by Ford came with a Dana 50 there was never any other axle avialible in the Ex--They changed the SD but not the Ex.

 

It was a comparrison... Here's the exact quote "The Dana 50 is a sad axle that has the housing and looks just like a Dana 60, but carries a Dana 44 sized differential."

75F350... 35 Spline, 4:88's and an ARB on the Excursion or the SD?

 

Anybody know if...
ARB makes a locker for the D50?
The D60 diff cover will fit the D50?

 

The one I mentioned was in my wifes Excursion. It was a unit that we removed from an SD that we installed Rockwells under. It already had the good stuff in it, so we bolted it under the wifes rig. As For my SD, it has the Dynatrac Pro-rock 60 with 5.13's and a detroit.
Either way, I am no real fan of the D50 front end. Nor am I a fan of the unit bearings, or the lockouts that come with any of these trucks, heak, I don't even like the whole ESOF system.

XHunter: thanks for the heads up on the 60 deal, thought they changed with the SD's also.

 

75F350, didn't mean to sound like I was jumping on you.

Makes a lot more sense now that you said you swapped it out--and a good decision at that. Never was sure why they put half-*** pieced together axles in in the first place. I don't do that much serious fourwheelin so I'm not worried about it that much. But I agree the D60 with real lockers is much better. Hey, would a D80 out of a F550 fit.....? I think the turning radius is a lot better I know someone has thought of it.

 

3KIDDAD;
I put an ARB locker in my '02 Excursion. It was available off the shelf from ARB. I don't know about the D60 cover.
Michael

 

Did you put a locker in the front? If so has it been reliable?
Thanks

 

I am also interested in lockers for my 01 excursion which I have Yukon 4.10s in front and back

 

Super Duty/Excursion Dana 50 and 60 covers are interchangeable. Some aftermarket covers require clearancing to fit Super Duty/Excursion axles because of interference with the drivers side leaf spring mount. Nothing big just a little grinding will usually make them work.