King pin is always better, but usually more pricey

 

King pins wear less and are less expensive to repair. But you will, get the slide pins for the caliper,

?? what kinda weight are you looking at towing??

 

What year D60's will swap into our trucks??? A friend has one from the mid to late 70's....Will it work? He's got three he said i can have..

 

I believe its 86-97.

 

Steering linkages are different on the 70's trucks.

The link from the steering gear to the steering knuckle moves front to back parallel with the frame on them.

 

If anyone is near NE PA i am getting my hands on a couple oF dana 60s. With all the toppings too

O i can get matching rear axles too!

 

I haven't had any problems with the slide pins before. I Have had problems with the bolt on ones that use the slide bolts that keep the caliper centered in that they seize up and end up wearing down the pad on one side of the disk. The may work good in Arizona but up here in the heart of the rust belt they are problematic. But mine d60 I just put in Is a king pin and had to use the calipers off of it instead of the ones I know worked on the ball joint d50 ttb.

 

A little tip when putting the steering drag link back on the steering box arm, make sure your steering wheel is centered. I didn't think to check now I need to pull it apart to correct.

 

I am the guy who was talking about the springs for the gassers being different than for the diesels... I am in the middle of rebuilding an f350 suspension for a 1 ton swap on my 97250hd. My donor truck was a 93f350 srw gasser. Front springs are 2 leaf full taper packs that sit flat with the gas motor, my current springs are two leaf full taper packs that are negative arc with the diesel motor. I have seen a 3 leaf pack on diesel 350s but have also seen the 2 leaf full taper flat packs as well. I am fairly certain that any springs will work, depending on how you have your rear end set up and if you want the truck to sit level. The springs are basically just supplying ride height unless you go with an aftermarket heavy duty pack that will ride like a brick ****-house on cobblestones... That's my experience with building suspensions (I've built a few) and with the spring manufacturers (deaver, triangle, and king) that I have dealt with, that's what they have guided me with. Get the set of springs that puts your front end at the ride height you desire, and adjust suspension stiffness through shock adjustments. Now if you are looking for heavier duty, then you have to go with an aftermarket heavier duty spring pack that is arced to fit your desired ride height. The only reason that you would need to go with heavier springs in the front though is if you are hauling serious weight with a distribution hitch that is raking your front end.

As for the axle swap, I netted my axle (4.10 to match current ratio), steering, stabilizer bar, panhard rod, front driveshaft (350), front springs, rear springs, rear blocks, and all of the supporting hardware with a roll-a-long package aftermarket bumper thrown in for $1200 total. I tore it all off of the donor truck in under 2 hours, that's considering time to pull a trailer down a hill to the donor truck, load the truck onto the trailer, jack it, pull all the gear off, strap it down, and ready it for transport for the guy I bought it from. (Marine Corps taught me to work hard and fast)

once I got all the gear home, i set to tearing it apart slowly in afterwork hours and some weekends... hub to hub he axle is completely rebuilt now, I disassembled everything, inspected everything, had the gears removed, pinion re-shimed, resealed, reset gears, new inner axle seals, all at a gear shop for about $250. I sandblasted and/or wire wheeled everything to bare metal and repainted it all, spending about 150 at the blasters and about 30 in paint. New ball joints, repacked inner and outer hub bearings, cleaned and repacked the hubs, new slotted powerstop rotors, new raybestos calipers, and new spicer heavy duty greasable axle u joints... all in all I believe I have about... 2-2500 invested in the project with rebuilding the front and rear spring packs with new bushings and friction and separator pads, all of the axle rebuild costs, initial cost, and I had to replace all of the steering... drag link, tie rod, and both ends. I ran out of money on this project and i'm waiting for another good paycheck so I can get some amsoil gear oil to fill up the axle with and get the front driveshaft rebuilt. I could have done a direct swap for 1200, but I figured it's out of the truck now so I might as well make it new before i put it in. Now I have a new trans, new front axle going in soon, new steering, and a great running motor. Next will be a rear axle rebuild, and then going through the motor to fix my up pipe leak, fuel leak, new water pump, aftermarket hpop or 17*, belt, 203* thermostat, and tuning... muhahahaha then it shall be bulletproof. Keep an eye out for it guys, once I can get the project finished with comparisons on the driveshafts for everyone, u joint talk, and all the like, I am going to put together a big ol instructional post with tips and pointers and a bunch of pics to help anyone who's thinking of doing this project. It's been alot of fun, but also a huge PITA to do it all right. It's costly as well, but now I have a brand spankin new dana 60 sitting on jackstands in my garage that makes my pants move everytime I see it. It's all painted semigloss black from hub to hub with big ol shiney slotted rotors and black calipers. I'm super stoked on doing the swap once I get the money to finish the project. I'll be installing the front axle without the driveshaft initially so that i can have it in there before too long. So there ya go!! hope this helps anyone thinking about doing this project... oh an I think it took me... probably 2 weeks of every spare second I had to do the project. but I took alot of time with a wire wheel brushing off old corrosion to save money at the sand blaster.

 

That should look awsome, hope you have some picts.

did you get the yoke from the 350 transfer case? If you did is it the same model tranfer case as your 250. If you have aa 4407 model, the yoke from the 350 needs to be from the same model 4407 or the shaft diameters will not work. And the 250 yoke will not work with the 350 cardon double joint u joint. The u joint is actually narrower for the 350.

 

I actually haven't dealt with that yet. I was told that it is a direct swap from other posters so I didn't know to get the yoke... we'll see what happens when I get there. And yes I took a bunch of pics and researched alot of little tricks to make life easier and explored all of it while I was rebuilding everything.

 

Ooh-Rah! Only problem is you get it done fast and then you sit around and wait for something else to break...

 

I am in that dilemma now. I had bought a yoke from a guy who claimed it would fit but it doesn't on my 4407 transfer case. Some people say spicer makes a replacement but I had a guy try and get one but was told They discontinued. Others have just shortened the 250 shaft which I may do.most people want to sell the whole transfer case and not just the yoke.

 

What is this 4407 t-case you are talking about. never heard of one/ ALL the f250 and f350 i have ever seen have a BorgWarner1356

 

it is the model of the transfer case, should be tag on it that gives a bunch of numbers, not sure what year your truck is but mine is a 96 so my transfer case is a 4407. I forget what the other model is, I think it starts with a 3.