D44 question

[crawlin68]

Crawling what runs did you make at the Hammers???

I did the John Bull trail on Friday and then hit the Jack Hammer trail on Saturday.

[stonecrusherbronco]

Ok. Im goning to put 60's in front and back now. I was already going to put coils all around so i might as well not waste time on these axles with all the fabrication, if you guys have any input on what year 60's are better than certain years that would be great or if you know anyone who has some for sale? So im selling my d44/9", the 9" has the big bearing and 35 spline moser axles with the strange rearend and a detroit. The front has a new detroit and bigger shafts on the passenger side, they have 4.56 gears in them, both axles have only a few trips on them, so if you know anyone interested 1500$ for both or partial trade and some cash for 60's. The 12" extended radius arms can go with all that too.

[crawlin68]

You may want to keep the rear 9 inch. With the 35 spline axle shafts, that's a very strong axle with nice ground clearance.

As far as 60's go, I would look for a full float rear 60 and convert it to 35 spline. These are easy to upgrade to disc brakes too. For the front 60 it will depend on what suspension set up you are planning on. If you're going to do a 3 or 4 link, you can use almost any year front 60. There are ball joint 60's and king pin 60's so you'll need to deside which you want. Some say that the king pin 60's are stronger than ball joints. Now if you are going to run a radius arm front suspension, you will want a 78/79 front 60. These are king pin axles and have the diff set a little further towards the center (I.E. the drivers side axle tube is longer) Any other year front 60 will have the diff shifted over towards the drivers side, leaving about a 3 inch axle tube. Not enough to mount an axle wedge to run radius arms.

[stonecrusherbronco]

I was planning on doing a four link setup in the front, i agree with u on the 9" it would just suck though because of the differnt lug patterns and i dont really want to put huge spacers on the 9". Are the High Pinion 60's anything worth trying to get verses the normal 60 or do you compromise something when you get that extra clearence in the HP? What did the HP60 come in, are they rare?

[stonecrusherbronco]

crawlin did you mean convert the rear to 35 spline or the front or both?Is that really necesary?

[Familyman]

+
Crusher you are looking for a hp60 out of a Ford 77-79 F250-350. Thats the one that Crawling was explaining with the kingpin style steering. Your best bet will be to watch and wait on several boards for a good deal. The avaerage price of a front alone is about $1000 but you can probably get front and back for $1200. You want to make sure the front and rear are 35 spline. The front will be 35 spline on the inners but 30 spline on the outers. Unless someone upgraded the outers to 35 spline . I know the pirate board has lots of info on this swap and I believe you can use the newewr 60's but they are balljoint style (weaker) and will have to be linked but sounds like that is your plan. Let us know what you find. If I were to do it again I would wait for some EB guy to off load his built 60's because he wants rockwells. You will save alot of dough if someone else set them up for you and you just need to link 'em. Hope that helps. FM
Ohh, about the hp vs. reg - Hp gets your driveline up and decreases driveline angle - nice. But the gears I believe roll backward in the case and this is not as strong as if they are in the regular or low pinion design. I think thats right. Basically the hp isn't as strong as the low pinion

[stonecrusherbronco]

Thanks that makes perfect sense, ill let you know what i find.

[crawlin68]

Familyman covered everything very nicely. I was talking about converting the rear to 35 spline. You can pick up a rear low pinion full floating axle for $100 to $200. Most of them are 30 spline stock. If you bore out the outer spindles, you can fit a 35 spline axle shaft in there. That's what I did.

The front will be a High Pinion and as FM said, these are nice because you get your driveline up higher and decrease your driveline angle. These will be 35 spline inner and 30 spline outer. You can convert the outers to 35 spline if you want to. I do believe that the HP axle is stronger than the standard rotation axle though. I could be wrong, but I thought that it was a stronger design because the pinion gear is on the drive side of the ring gear, where as on a low pinion 60 it is on the coast side of the ring gear. I thought I read this somewhere.

[earlybronco72]

What I do know is that a high pinion in the rear runs on the coast side, so I think they all do.

[stonecrusherbronco]

So best to get a normal 60? Or doesnt really matter?

[crawlin68]

What I do know is that a high pinion in the rear runs on the coast side, so I think they all do.

Yeah, a high pinion used as a rear axle runs on the coast side. If run in the front as it was designed to do, it runs on the drive side.

[brocbronc]

Personally, knowing what I know now, I'd go with a D60. I have Warn Shafts, CTM's & an ARB in mine. I could have bought a 60 for what I have into this axle

Mark, that is why I got rid of that axle. I got the 60 under my bronco right now and I was in the same boat. I would have spent almost the same on the Dana 44 and it still wouldnt be as strong as the 60.