Hi, Im new..obviously, and I have general knowledge about my truck (78 f250 4x4 c6 reg cab), but I really dont know much about axles. I think that my truck has a dana 60 in te rear, dana 44 p front. What is dana? Is it an independent brand, or is it a type of ford axle? Is dana the entire axle or the parts contained wthin?

 

Dana (Actually Dana-Spicer) is the name of a company that makes axles for domestic auto makers. You will find Dana axles under Fords, Chevies, and Dodges. Some Dana axles were even used in car applications. Ford just couldn't be bothered to design and manufacture their own axle for all their vehicles, so they outsourced it in some cases. Ford still uses Dana for some axles today (the front axle of the Superduty) but a lot of their axles are now designed and built by Sterling, which is their parts manufacturer.

You're probably right about the axles in your truck.

 

How do I tell what axles I have?

 

The most definitive way is to find the BOM numbers stamped somewhere on the axle tube, then look the numbers up on Dana's website.

 

Does the size (60) of a dana axle refer to a combination of the size of the tube and the guts within or just the guts?

 

DANA is a corp... like GM, or Ford... The corp DANA make chasis components... among other things. Dana Corp has arms ( if you will)

Dana makes axles, DANA Barmatic makes ball joints... They even have a division, that makes Semi tranmissions...

DANA corp, is the holding company... infact they filed for bankruptcy protection, a few years ago, and are now out of it. operating again...

My opinion is, DANA is a good company, that makes quaity parts, and are used by many Auto motive, and medium, and heavy duty vehicle mfg's