Dana 60 question

In my endless search for a replacement for my low pinion dana 30 front I have somehow come to the conclusoin that I should be able to chop a full width dana 60 out of a 3/4 ton ford. Granted I have littlt fabrication experience but am hoping that I can get by with access to good halp and a little common sence. The only thing that worries me is that if it was possible I would be able to find someone who has done it or is trying to sell one. so if I am totally missing something PLEASE let me know before I waste alot of money.

My thinking is that I could take a dana 60 front axle out of a ford F250 strip all the perches off cut the welds of of the casters slide the casters off, cut the housing to the proper width, slide the casters back on and weld with the proper angles for my 6.5" lift. next I could buy a truss from TNT with the UCA mounts and coil spring mounts already attached. and purchase some LCA mounts from clayton and weld them on. after that everything else should go in prety easy(i think). I would need to order some custom axle shafts to fit my new width and would somehow like to keep my stock 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern.

Im not a axle expert but the big problem that I can see is getting the casters off especially if they are cast in the housing. I have herd of people just cuting the welds off of the caster/housing and using a big ass wrench to free the casters from the housing. Another thing that I am unclear about is how hard it will be to get some axle shafts made to fit this set up. anyhow if there is some major issue that I am missing please let me know. I have looked at multiple options and all of them involve at least $1500 so if im going to try to build an axle I want to build something big. I also figure that if I do get in over my I can find a good shop that will help me out.

so there is my master plan let me know what you think or problems that I might have or whether to forget it all together.

Seems like youve got the main idea of everything. You can forget about keeping a 5x4.5 pattern, stick with 8 lug or drop coin for 6x5.5/5x5.5 hubs/rotors.


Check out my 60 thread for some good info on chopping a 60 down

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1016682

Im still getting into the off road/rock crawling and I dont want to have to upgrade all my steering components. is going to a dana 60 up front going to require all the upgrades. I just want a solid bace for my 4.56's detroit and 33"X 12.50's. I didn't want to waste any money in a low pinion dana 30

if your just geting into the start of things just swap in a hp 30 housing, it will easily handle 33's run stock shafts with spicer 760 joints, 60's get expensive real quick

You don't want a D60 for 33" tires, too much weight, work and too little ground clearance. You also can't run your existing steering, it will need to be custom, and the coil buckets probably won't fit so you'll need to make the whole thing wider or go with coilovers. And, you won't be able to keep the 5 on 4.5" blt pattern so it will mean new rear axles and new wheels.

To me, it doesn't look like you need a D60.

2000maroonxj said:

4.56's detroit and 33"X 12.50's

Click to expand...

Yup, you want a HP30. Add a little truss and new mounts and it'll be golden :thumbup: