New to the Ford Dana 60 axles and wondering what is the best year, if there is , for the full float housing. I know that there was both a semi float and full float housing but not sure what year ford trucks they were installed. Also what spline sets available in full float?
Thanks.

 

I can't help you on the particulars...but food for thought, if it were me, and I were doing a rear end swap, I wouldn't even bother with the 60, I'd either go with the 9", which is damn near as strong and waaaaay more aftermarket support...just gotta worry about the 8 vs. 5 lug difference. Or...my preference would be to bump up to a D70...a little heavier, and needs some shaving, but a much stouter axle IMO. And in all actuality, if you don't care about GM parts under your blue oval, go with a corporate 14 bolt. IMO, price differences are negligible.

 

I have decided to stick with my 9", but I'm getting a bunch of upgraded parts. Evidently Yukon axles (or any good axles, really) are 25% stronger than stock. Yukon also makes a replacement drop-out carrier that's a little beefier. With a truetrac locker and fresh bearings I'm good to go for my purposes.

the 8 to 5 lug was the clincher in my decision. I was going to have to swap the front axle too, and we're stuck with older equipment since the front end has the funky spring perches/control arm mounts. If it would have been a little easier I would have snagged a set of diffs from a newer rig and had discs all the way around..... alas, that job would suck....

 

The best Dana 60 axle to obtain is one from a late model Ford van. Ford continued to use the Dana 60 in vans long after they quit using them in trucks. They are basically a hybrid D60/70, with a 60 center section and D70 spindles. This allows the use of commonly available aftermarket 35 spline shafts without the need to bore the spindles. Other than that, a 60 is a 60.

-Jared

 

Your talking about a Dana 61 which is junk in most cases. Basically it was designed for the lowest gear being a 4:10 as it has a different offset. You wouldn't find a lower gear set to work unless you actually made a ring gear spacer as lower gears have a smaller pinion and would needthe shim to compensate. You would have to get a thick gear as well most likely. Off the top of my head I can't remember what the offset is but the standard 60 is .625, 5/8". It is easily mistaken from a d70 by looks as it does have big d70 axle tubes and your correct on bigger spindles but it still has weak 30 spline axles . My opinion get a SRW d70 as it has 35 spline axles and is very strong. It shares alot of parts with the 60 like carrier bearings(unless a hd 70) diff covers,and yoke spline counts. Some dually rear d70 inner axles can be swapped as well for they have the same lengths and are good spares in case.

Corporate 14 bolt chev rear ends are a very strong reared as well and are cheap to build.
Basicallyif you wanna smash on it all day with no problems get a 14 bolt or 70.
But you will next need a 1ton all 1350 driveshaft as well as that's now your weak link.

 

Actually, I was not referring to a dana 61 at all. Ford has not used the Dana 61 since the mid eighties. The OP was asking what the best Dana 60 housing was, and I responded in kind. All D60's are similar. The units found in late model Ford vans commonly have D70 type spindles. Those big spindles accept bigger axles without the need to overbore. If one were after the "best" Dana 60 axle to start with, that would be the one.

-Jared

 

Ok maybe the later ones do have a larger spindle bore and arn't actually called a d61 that I'm not 100% on but even if it does and you want to upgrade to bigger axles all your trying to do is accomplish what a stock d70 is anyways. I'm just saying why waste time and money on an axle that isn't as good and you'll never gain the strength in gears as the d70 is just much bigger for more contact area and shear size.
Just giving him another option

Question though would those ford van ones be wider than our year trucks original axles. I know I once looked at a Dana 80 and it was at least 3"s wider. My 44's are already 18.5"s wide I didn't need them to stick out any more plus lockers/gears were brutal expensive with no a major strength increase.

 

I agree use a d70 instead of a d60 .I had a d60 in my truck it work ok but the d70 is way stronger.

 

Good point, and I don't know. It would not surprise me if they were wider. I understand that a lot of off road guys go with the 70 as an upgrade. I am more into truck pulling, and the D70 is shunned in our circles. It has the bigger ring gear and 1.5" 35 spline shafts. But the ring gear is rarely the failure point of the 60. It's generally the axle shafts themselves. The pinion itself is the same size as the 60. As soon as you upgrade to the bigger shafts of the 70, the next thing to break is the pinion, and there is no upgrade for that. The D80, 14 bolt, and Sterling 10.25 are all superior for what we do.

-Jared

 

Hmmm... Interesting
Sounds like you have experience in this stuff then. My 70 so far has took alot of abuse with no issues. One thing I wish it had was a pinion support bearing.
I do run a TA performance girdle with main cap supports which is as good as it gets for strength IMO .



I do like how you got the 32 spline np435 in your sig.
Not too many 4x4s got that one and you must know it was limited available in a 2wd f350 or maybe a HD f600 or somethin.
My 28 spline 435 nobody sells a output 1350 yoke for it not even high angle drivelines so to make an ALL 1350 driveline I custom made one from a 1350 9" yoke which I worked with my machinist and machined out splines, took original yoke machined down to just a cylinder tube with just splines remaining, pressed it in the now hollowed out 9" , then welded with preheat , high nickel rod then allowed to slow cool in a bucket of dry sand.
It works great! But I only recently discovered about the 32 spline version that can interchange yokes from a tcase or diff which is easily available.
I know a thing or 2 about thus stuff too..