I recently got back into working on this project truck I've owned for a while now. '75 F-250 4wd "light-duty" w/ 352 FE. It's a project cuz I'm learning as I go (Thanks FTE!) and because - well, it's an old truck that I've owned for only a small fraction of its existence. And it's in pretty rough condition.

So, the truck came to me with a messed up front axle (among Many Other Things). I'm making steady progress on the ignition systems, electrical, etc, but don't know what my next move should be with the front end. It's a closed knuckle Dana 44 setup, which I'm not sure I want to keep forever. It should be good enough to get me through to the point where I can do a full engine overhaul and figure out if I want to keep the axle or upgrade to a better 44 or even a 60. Outside of winter driving on usually plowed roads, I might use it once or twice during hunting season in something like "offroad" situations - and then only if forced to.

I pulled out the driver-side locking hub, seals, bearings, spline+drum, and then pulled the shaft (It's a closed-knuckle 44 design). The short axle was absolutely destroyed at the U-joint. There were metal shavings all over the place, including IN the lower knuckle bearing, which is being replaced with a Timken.

The current plan is to drop the new Timken in, add a gasket I've manufactured to the back side of the knuckle (a hard-to-find oddity on axles with this design), plunk in the ebay-special shaft replacement (assuming the U-joint is in serviceable condition), grease it all up, put humpty together again, and keep my fingers crossed.

Here're two pictures of the axle-end housing with the knuckle hanging off the steering arm at an odd angle:

One
Two

Do I grease and go on this hardware? If not, then what?

 

Those knuckles fill from the 1/2" pipe plug on the back side. The book says 90 wt. but, I mix a haft & haft 90wt/ STP. Suppose to lock hubs about every few months or 3000 miles to lube the upper king bearings plus the u-joints. There is also inner axles seals to king the diff lube from going in to the axle tubes that will leak out and on to the brake lining if you don't fix the inner seals. And they are installed from inside the differential. You'll have to pull the ring gear to get to them.. I'm sure the spindle bushings our gone to brass. They keep the axles from floating in and out end-play..Theres our not cheap. A few yrs ago I replaced my spindles at $137.00 each. Hope this helps...my 2cents
orich

 

First off, thanks for your service. Means a lot.

Second, thanks for the advice. I'm probably gonna choose to leave the diff seals alone since brake job is on my list right after clutch. It's hard to break broke. Plus the chances of there being much diff lube in there ain't good either.

I just haven't settled on how long I want to keep this axle going. I could drop the time and money to make this one just right, but most things I've read have said it's not worth it. Seems like once I get into rebuilding that diff and add new hub locks, rotors, drums (!!!), pads... I may as well just buy a "new" axle that doesn't have the problems (weak u-joint, closed knuckle, expensive maintenance, drum brakes...)