Stock rear dana 60 axle shafts are not very big. Even the 28 spline axles in my Bronco 9" are bigger. The housing may be stronger but the axle shafts are smaller. Compare it to a 14 bolt or D70 with 1.5" axle shafts.

A Dana 60 front end has 35 spline axles and are huge at the splines but taper down to where it gets to the ujoint. It has much bigger ujoints than the 44 but the outer axle shaft is the same exact size as the 44. Unless you keep blowing ujoints you arent going to gain much but weight out of the D60F. If you want different gears put an ad out on craigslist and see if anyone bites...maybe you can get them to swap axles with you. Or get a set with 4:11's in for quite cheap. Its great having these trucks and all the stockpiles of parts people have of these.

I would not be going through the pain to put a D44 8lug and D60 rear in your F150...just wasting a huge amount of time!

 

it sounds like there are varying opinions on the strength and quality of the rear axles. The truck has 35 inch tires, and i want to be able to pull a goesneck around with power to boot. I have never done ring pinion swaps, but i am going to do my best and then put the hubs on the front, leave the front axle shafts and front drive shaft off, load it onto my trailer and bring it to a shop, so they can double check my work. if these 3/4 ton axles are so much weaker, then why were they used on the heaver rated trucks?

 

Because the axles are only designed to CARRY more weight. Not withstand the stress of high horsepower engines and big tires. The old F-250's only had 150-200 hp engines with 30" tires. 30 spline axles were fine. For comparison, the new F-150 uses a 34 spline axle.....which dwarfs a Dana 60. The 250 uses a 35 spline. And 350's use 37 splines.

Same goes for the front. The axles use the same shafts and universal joints. Only the brakes, bearings, and tubes are bigger. Like I said...designed only to CARRY more weight.

Simply put, the axle shafts are the weak link. 9 inch shafts are stronger than 30 spline Dana 60 shafts. And 5 and 8 lug Dana 44's use the same shafts. There is simply NO ADVANTAGE to the 8 lug axles. Unless you need the axle capacity.

The 9 inch is rated for 3850 pounds. So....if you wanna pull a gooseneck trailer, you should be able to handle a 2000 pound pin weight with the 9 inch. For comparison, the Dana 60 is rated for 5300 pounds. It could handle a 3500 pin weight. Do you REALLY need that capacity??

 

I have a 1979 F-150, it has a 351M and a C6 auto. My rear end is a 3.5 gear ratio, and not sure about my front axle, it is a A on the axle code. I want to convert my truck to a 3/4 ton, but handle a 6bt cummins and probably a ZF-5 tranny, which heavier and more power. I am wondering what kind of axles and what else i need to change to handle the weight and horsepower?