[moellertime]

Hi y'all, this is a thread for something which I've seen little information on: a dana 60 setup on a lifted ons truck. Most people who have posted on the dana 60 swap assume you've got stock ride height and the few with taller trucks don't seem to post a lot of information on the problems that causes. As you'll probably be able to tell I know a lot less than I should about my truck. The point of this thread is to hopefully have some of y'all who have a similar setup as me post general information about problems and solutions that you have had with your rigs as well as any advice you might have. That way I can learn a little more as well as anyone else with a similar setup. I'll also post information on what happens to my truck going forward in order to contribute to the sharing of information.
I've got a '97 F-250 OBS 7.3l which I had a dana 60 from an F-350 swapped under about a year and a half ago. Its got an 8 inch lift, 35 inch tires, and the springs from the F-350 under it now. Before the swap it already had the lift and that was causing all sorts of problems with the Dana 50 traction beam. Since the swap it has also had a number of problems with ball joints, steering, seals and a few other things that I can't really remember. This summer I'm gonna try to learn as much as I can about the setup I have both by looking at it with my mechanic and by trying to break some stuff off road. My goal is to replace and upgrade the weak points in the setup so that hopefully when I go back to school in the fall I'll have a tough and reliable front end on the truck. My other goal is to gain a working knowledge of the mechanics of the front end so I can hopefully work on it myself. To that end I'm gonna post everything that happens to the truck this summer along with pictures. My first trip into the shop is this afternoon and I'm gonna look at it with my mechanic and get some advice.
If any of y'all have a similar setup, advice, or anything else to say please post with as much detail as possible so a beginner like me can understand. Pictures are also always appreciated.

Keep on trucking!

 

[JSchuricht]

35" tires really aren't that big where you should be having a bunch of failures. That being said, I did build my 60 up before installing it just to make sure I wouldn't have any issues.

The biggest lesson I learned was the importance of the year of the axle because I screwed up and bought a 93 with slide pin calipers and wasn't willing to spend $500 for bolt on knuckles. :doh: Otherwise everything is the same on the balljoint axles.

For my axle I reused the gears, inner shafts, knuckles and spindles. Everything else was replaced. For seals, you have one on the pinion, one on each inner shaft and one at the back of the spindle. The upgrade I did was an extra seal on the inner shaft at the end of the tube to keep out dirt.

The inner shafts are 35 spline and the outters are 30 spline. I went with a mild upgrade to 35 spline cm outters and solid Spicer ujoints. You could go even bigger with 40 spline outers and a variety of expensive joints. You could also upgrade the inner shafts with CM, not sure if 40 spline is a option.

Inside the pumpkin, you can always upgrade the carrier depending on your needs. I went with a ARB locker, stock is a open diff and on the extreme side you could do a spool.

For lockouts, stock is 30 spline either auto or manual. There are several aftermarket options like Warn and Milemarker, I went with Dynatrac. The extreme option would be flanges so you are always locked. Whatever you go with just make sure to match the spline count of the inner shafts.

Balljoints you can get about anywhere. Moog is usually a good choice and is what I used. For heavier duty options, I would either go with Dynatrac rebuildable balljoints or convert to kingpin axles. Whatever you go with torque them down properly or they will wear prematurely.

Steering components are another consideration. Moog is a good brand for stock stuff but at 8" I would be looking into a high steer crossover setup. You can go with considerably larger components and keep them higher up for increased clearance and safety. You can also add in a hydraulic ram to help with large tires.

If you will be off road or any situation where you might come in contact with large obstacles, get a good diff cover. I went with a Crane High Clearance cover but there are many other choices. You can also shave the bottom of the diff some and weld in a flat plate for an extra inch or so of clearance.

The last thing I can think of is bracing the axle. This is more for extreme use but welding all around the tubes so the don't twist and also adding a brace across the tubes and pumpkin to stiffen it up.

There are probably a bunch of other things I can't think of right now but a site like pirate 4x4 would be a great resource for this.