anyone here put in ford dana 44 and 60?

[kamikaze4x4nj]

my buddy called me saying a kid from his school is junking an older f250 in his yard, said i can have both axles for 100 bucks :eek: front 44 and rear 60? 3/4 ton? anyone ever swapped them in? what to do for steering for front, im guessing its spring over already, will i have to move the front and rear perches? im guessing so and willing to do it, thanks, Matt.

[JeepsAndGuns]

It just kinda depends on the year of the truck, and what shape the axles are in. If the front is closed knuckle and drum brakes I wouldnt bother. But if it is open knuckle and disc brakes then go for it. The front should bolt in SOA. The rear you will have to move the spring mounts and shock mounts.

[Merc69]

The front should bolt up. The rear you will have to weld new spring perches on.

This will be a spring over setup so you will need to look at at least a TT Fab / Riverbeast shackle inversion kit for the rear.

I say go for it.

What Jeeps and Guns says about the closed knuckles is the deciding factor.

[mark32725]

Yep just like he said and for steering you will need to have your passenger side knuckle milled and drilled for a high steer arm and do a crossover or high steer setup, longer brake lines, shocks, and a drop pitman arm...

[kamikaze4x4nj]

whats wrong with the closed knuckle and drum? are theys till better then my 44, btw my 44 is in the garage, needs both axle seals and pinion seals, which is well over 100 bucks

[Headhoncho]

Matt, what year is the truck? There is no sense going from disc to drum brakes. It's a maintenance and a safety issue. You may pay $100 for them but they may also need more than that in work if they haven't been used in a while. Definitely worth it though. If you need help let me know.


JR

[kamikaze4x4nj]

im going to find out within a day or two if they are drum or not, if they are drum then i will not buy them, i hope they are disk, because the guy with the 44 and 20 for 100 bucks says his have the 2.72 or whatever, and mine are the 3.32 or whatever it is, so far i havn't had any luck finding a new 44 to slap in or a whole new set of axles, thanks, Matt

[kamikaze4x4nj]

anyone know what years had drums?

[Headhoncho]

Your 3.31 gears should be fine for tires up to 35's especially with an automatic. All I would do is put a limited slip in the front and go with that since there's already a posi in the rear. Save up for 4" springs and run that for a while. With a limited budget you need to make do with what keeps your truck on the road.


JR

[Headhoncho]

anyone know what years had drums?

I think 75-76 is when disc became standard on ford's but don't hold me to that.

JR

[kamikaze4x4nj]

i think i should be good, my guess is that there from an 80's ford, anyone know were i can get a flattop knuckle for pass side or if they came with flat tops?, j.r., what axles are you running?

[viscacha]

I just bought a ’76 44hp and it has discs. Some ’76 have drums and all ’75 are drums. It doesn’t matter if it has drums since you’ll need to swap the outers to chevy with disc anyway or buy new knuckles to use the ford disc stuff.http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

[Headhoncho]

i think i should be good, my guess is that there from an 80's ford, anyone know were i can get a flattop knuckle for pass side or if they came with flat tops?, j.r., what axles are you running?

My front is a d44 from a 78 f-250. It has a flat top knuckle. Rear is a gm 14bolt.

JR

[kamikaze4x4nj]

did it come with a flat top?

[KaiserMan]

i think i should be good, my guess is that there from an 80's ford

Won't that be a ttb axle? If so, that would be another deal killer.

[scotty]

Won't that be a ttb axle? If so, that would be another deal killer.

i was just gonna say that :)

the 44 you want it is high pinion,with perches for leaf springs. 78 to somewhere early 80s. older than 78 will be low pinion. bronco 44s may be radius arm and coil springs. as mr kaiserman stated,at some point everything is a twin traction beam front,including the f350. i believe if the ford is an 80-86 youll prolly not find a solid axle.

go check it out and report back to us what you find :drivin:

[JeepsAndGuns]

Yep, from the info I have, the 78 and 79 F250 model D44 fronts are the best ones to get. They will have the following: high pinion diff on the driver side, disc brakes with dual piston calipers, flat top knuckles, spring perches that are the correct spaceing for the front or your wag, said spring perches will be SOA. Most will have either 3.54 or 4.11 gears.

Also, 1980 is when they switched to the TTB front, and is not worth hardly anything. I dont know anything about the axles that are 77 or older.

[viscacha]

F250 44 knuckles of certain years are flat top and can only use the 8 lug pattern and only ¾ ton ford brakes. If you’re swapping in a 60 too then that’s what you want. If you don’t want 8 lug you can mod a ford supercab knuckle.

Everything you don’t know is in the url below. The general misconceptions has a good pic of the f250 knuckle and why you have to swap out f150 knuckles.http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

http://77cj.littlekeylime.com/flatop_knucles.html

[jtr]

You can run a 5 on 5.5 pattern on a Ford 3/4 flat top knuckle though. Just have cut a little off the back side of the knuckle to clear the 1/2 Ford brakes. It is possible.

[viscacha]

That would mean taking a desirable ¾ ton knuckle and grind it out like the undesirable ½ ton knuckle to get the 5 x 5 ½.

From what I have researched it is not safe to put a high steer arm on such a weak knuckle. Look at the pic.http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

[mark32725]

80+ axles have the wrong spring perch distance and the drivers side perch is on the diff housing, so without outboarding your front springs I don't think you could put that under your Jeep...