Front axle

[Jay Rayfield]

84 J10- Got a 14bolt coming for the rear, what axle should I be looking for to swap into the front? Don't won't to do a SOA. Looking for a close as possible bolt in. Prefer a D60 or something as beefy.

[Crazy_Jeepman]

As far as I know you will have to grind and fab perches under any Dana 60 you find. Nothing is going to be a bolt in.

[Jay Rayfield]

Originally posted by Crazy_Jeepman:
As far as I know you will have to grind and fab perches under any Dana 60 you find. Nothing is going to be a bolt in.I know I'm gonna have to fab the front, I guess what I'm looking for is what make/years should I be looking for. I'm guessing a Ford F250 maybe mid 80's or so.

[J10Mike]

the only direct bolt in without any mods would be a front d44hd off an 80s J20. anything else, be prepared to modify.

[Stuka]

If you want a D60 you need to look for a 78-79 F350, or a F250HD (snowfighter models, or king cab versions). The 80's have TTB fronts. Starting in 88, the F350 went back to a solid axle, but these have a much wider spring pad setup, and require partially outboarding the front springs.

[Jay Rayfield]

Will the D44 out of a J20 hold up to 37"-38" tires? Also, what years did Dodge or GM make driver drop front axles if ever.

[J10Mike]

i'm running 36s on mine. it does fine. but, i don't abuse it. it all depends on what you want to do with it. if you're going to run it hard, the d44 probably won't hold up to the 37s & 38s.
there are others here that have run those tires sizes with the both the d44s and the amc20s and haven't had any problems. and others have snapped axles.
gm never made a driver side drop front axle. the older dodges were passenger side drop front axles. i'm not sure about the newer dodges.

[Jay Rayfield]

Originally posted by J10Mike:
gm never made a driver side drop front axle. the older dodges were passenger side drop front axles. i'm not sure about the newer dodges.check this out, I found a dana 70 front from a 95 chevy 3500hd phone truck. Its listed as having factory 5.13 gears, 35 spline, 70" wms-wms, and guy says its "Driver Side Drop"! Could it be true? Trying to get pics now. If the price is right it may be going in the truck.

[J10Mike]

that would be a first for me. never seen or heard of that axle. at 70 wms-wms, that will be one wide axle. to match that width, try to find a 14B from a chev or gmc full size van. i believe pre-91, but, not positive. they are approximately 70 inches wms to wms as well. and, the spring perches are right on the money for a j truck.

[Jay Rayfield]

Originally posted by J10Mike:
that would be a first for me. never seen or heard of that axle. at 70 wms-wms, that will be one wide axle. to match that width, try to find a 14B from a chev or gmc full size van. i believe pre-91, but, not positive. they are approximately 70 inches wms to wms as well. and, the spring perches are right on the money for a j truck.yea, I'm gonna buy a 82 chevy 1 ton van this weekend. The engine locked up on the van and the guy wants $100 bucks just to get rid of it. It has a 14 bolt in the rear. I'm gonna buy it, yank out the 14 bolt and put it in the J10. Thus my search for a front axle to go up front to match the beef of the 14 bolt going in the rear. The dana 70 I mentioned before aint cheap but it would be beefy! not crazy about 5.13 gears but what the heck. If its what the guy claims I'm gonna consider it seriously.

[J10Mike]

it could be. i really haven't paid much attention to 88 and later gm axles. i would be concerned about the perches being off. keep us updated on this. i would like to see pics if it is indeed a driver side drop.

[Stuka]

early to mid 90's heavy duty chevy's did use a solid front axle. That phone truck may be a 3500 cab, but the rest of the truck isnt. I didnt know they used D70's, thought they were D60's. The wide WMS is because it will be a DRW axle, so it will have the big hub spacers on it.

[Jay Rayfield]

Originally posted by Stuka:
early to mid 90's heavy duty chevy's did use a solid front axle. That phone truck may be a 3500 cab, but the rest of the truck isnt. I didnt know they used D70's, thought they were D60's. The wide WMS is because it will be a DRW axle, so it will have the big hub spacers on it.Your saying they used a dually axle in the front just put a spacer to take up space?

[Stuka]

The main different bewteen a SRW front axle and a DRW front axle are the hubs. The hubs have the wheel mounting service stuck way out so that you can use a rear wheel on the front if need be. Its not a simple wheel spacer that you can go out and buy, the whole hub is the spacer. Instead of the hub sticking way out like on an SRW (like your stock front axle), the mounting service is cast into the hub way out towards the hub.

[mudslider]

maybe this would help but its not saying anything on the 95 model trucks other than they are 69.5 on the 88-91 k30 crew cabs. i think its time for another update :D :D :D

dana 60 info (http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/60_front/index.html)

[ February 09, 2006, 01:29 PM: Message edited by: mudslider ]

[Rayfield]

Just got some pics of this axle. I'm trying to get them to link but no luck. Anyway, now the guy tells me that this axle is 80" WMS-WMS and 10 lug. He is saying milling the hub could get me to 70" WMS-WMS. Dunno really, sounds like a lot of work.

[Stuka]

Ahh ok, it is the 1 lugger, I ment to ask that last time. It will be a D70 then, the rear axle was most likely a D120 or the like.

[Jay Rayfield]

How could I make this axle work? Would I need to mill the hubs? I have read something about running hummer wheels with dually axles but not sure how that works. Is it possible to change the 10 lug to an 8 lug? Man, too many questions, that tells me I should abandon this axle.

[Stuka]

I dont know about converting it to 8 lug. As for the hummer wheels, they work well with DRW axles because of how much back spacing they have.

[Jay Rayfield]

Ok, I need some more help on this one. I have swapped an axle but all I had to do was move spring and shock mounts. What the guy is telling me to do is confusing me and I really don't get it. The dana 70 is a 10 lug 80" WMS-WMS. Heres what he is suggesting:

it would not be 10 lug if you turned the hubs down. it would be 8 on 6 1/2. the 10 lug hub is just like any other dana 60 dually hub except it is drilled for 10 lugs instead of 8. like i said the rotors have the 8 on 6 1/2 lug pattern which that is where your lug pattern would come from.

Can someone explain that to me? I'm gonna try and post these pics, cant get it to work for some reason.

[ February 10, 2006, 07:10 PM: Message edited by: Jay Rayfield ]

[Jay Rayfield]

Actually, Mudslinger posted a link that explains this pretty good. Seems like to much work and extra cost. I can buy a custom dana 60 at what the cost of this axle coupled with the DRW to SRW conversion would be.

[J10Mike]

Ya...I was just thinking it's going to get expensive. Just keep your eyes open for the right D60.

[Bob Barry]

Originally posted by Jay Rayfield:
Actually, Mudslinger posted a link that explains this pretty good. Seems like to much work and extra cost. I can buy a custom dana 60 at what the cost of this axle coupled with the DRW to SRW conversion would be.Some of the 3500HD trucks used aftermarket conversion 4wd setups, with an almost-centered differential and driver's-side drop transfer-case. You should be able to swap some regular 8-lug SRW hubs to get the proper pattern, and to narrow your wheel-track substantially.

[Jay Rayfield]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Dana -60-HP-Ford-Front-Axle-Housing-Steering-Knuckles_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33728QQitemZ80 37327557QQrdZ1 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Dana-60-HP-Ford-Front-Axle-Housing-Steering-Knuckles_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33728QQitemZ80 37327557QQrdZ1)

what about this? Somehow I've become addicted to this crap and could spend all day looking for upgrades to my truck. lol!

[ February 10, 2006, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Jay Rayfield ]