79 F-250's come with a Dana 60 rear end. I have heard that these are 30 spline, is this true? Also, wut diameter are the axle shafts, 1.5"? And are these rearends full floating or semi floating? Can you run 15" rims on these rearends? And lastly how wide are they, wms to wms? Would this be a good rearend for a rockcrawler, with 40" tires, would it handle the abuse or would it have to be upgraded?

Thanks for your help

30 splines, I think they are around 1.3" shafts, Full floater...15's yup,, got them on now. 40" tire, hahahaha , I would not run anything over 38's... Mine is about 65"

Thanks for that information.
Can these be upgraded to 35 spline, 1.5" axle shafts? Would that be able to handle 40" tires? Also, how much is this reardend worth?
Or should I go with a different Dana 60 all together, out of another vehicle, that is already 35 spline, 1.5", full floater?

Again, Thanks for the help!

If you do decide to keep this axle i would look at the yoke and see how big it is. Mine out of a 71 ford f 250 had a small yoke so i swiched it out for a one out of a chevy dana 60. It should be able to handle 40's on a lighter rig but if you weigh alot then no.

depends alot on how you drive and the torque that the axle is going to be subjected to.
i have a buddy who runs a fullfloat 30 spline with 42's. he also has 5.0 cobra motor,atlas 3.8 and 5.88's in the diffs with detroits and hasnt broken a shaft.
just dont mash on it all the time and carry spares

Good luck in finding a d60 with the 35 spline shafts! I have been searching for a couple years. I know they are out there, somewhere. As for the 30 spliner FF's, I get them at the local PNS for $70, all day long.
Good luck!

I have a Dana 60 rear end on my 79 f250 it handles my 16.5 X 12.50 with barley enough clearance to clear the rotor... I have 37's but with the 410 gear ratio it make it the same ratio as a automatic transmission so I have to start in 1st so I don’t kill the clutch

Forget the 60. Go with the 14 bolt.

It is not easy to upgrade that 60 to 35 spline because the hole through the spindles is too small so you will need to bore them out. The axles are 30 spline as are 99% of the 60's out there and are 1.31 dia.

I know, old thread, so flame away. Can you buy spindles to fit 35-spline or 40-spline shafts, rather than bore out the other ones? I can get a FF60 out of a '72 F250 for $100 obo, but it's only worth it if I could upgrade it to 35 or 40 spline shafts. TIA.

I know, old thread, so flame away. Can you buy spindles to fit 35-spline or 40-spline shafts, rather than bore out the other ones? I can get a FF60 out of a '72 F250 for $100 obo, but it's only worth it if I could upgrade it to 35 or 40 spline shafts. TIA.
Even if you could, for the time and money you could find a 10.25, d70 or 14 bolt.

The spindles are not bolted on like fronts. The work would not be worth it.

I was in your same boat when I built my rearend. I had a D60 for $50 and a 14B for free, I wanted a strong rearend that wasnt an ass dragger.
I cut the 14B spindles off about an inch out from the weld and cut my D60 spindles off at the weld. I had a machine shop turn the 14b spindles to fit over the D60 tube and had the D60 tube ends squared up. I bought 7ft of all thread, sucked the spindles onto the tube, did 4 plug and a full weld around it.
I run 35 spline yukon (cut to fit blanks) axles and cheby 3/4t disk brakes (free) with great lakes offroad brackets. My total cost was machine work, shafts, brake brackets, and of course I was doing gears and spool at the same time.

I cut the 14B spindles off about an inch out from the weld and cut my D60 spindles off at the weld. I had a machine shop turn the 14b spindles to fit over the D60 tube and had the D60 tube ends squared up.

I done the same with my HP 60 for the rear of my jeep, worked well and was fairly easy. I ordered 35 spline axles from Moser because I narrowed it to fit under my jeep

If you just want to upgrade to 35-spline axles, I think boring the 60 spindles out to 1.56" is a lot less work.

If you just want to upgrade to 35-spline axles, I think boring the 60 spindles out to 1.56" is a lot less work.

It is... and it isn't...

I debated new spindles over boring mine out and I ended up going the boring way as it was simpler, but by no means 'easy'. There are a few specialized boring tools that can be had for something like $350ish +, but I did mine with about 1/8th that cost with some hole saws and an expansion reamer. Even then it took me several nights of a few hours a piece to finish them.

Here's a link to my write-up on NAXJA:
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=933793

Hope that helps some,
Bill

93 ish ford van d60 already has the spindles bored out for 35 spline. Plus, it is smooth bottom. While at the pick n pull you can pull the axle shafts and get the 35 spline ones out of a d70 van. Axle shafts are longer than reg 79 d60 btw. I have both in the garage if you need measurements.

I swing them in a lathe. It takes about an hour if you take your time to dial them in good. Of course you do have to have a good sized lathe. I put this picture up because from what I've seen and have been told, the 14B and the Dana 70 both have thinner spindle walls stock than the D60 after boring. I'm not saying the D60 is better than either, but the argument for residual wall thickness is largely invalid.
http://pic14.picturetrail.com/VOL526/513809/7144712/93237268.jpg