Bent ford dana 60?

[cwharrington]

maybe someone here can shed some light on this. I now have two 79 ford front 60s that i have bought and both appear to be bent identically. That is, when the shafts are inserted into the detroit locker the shafts just touch the inside front of the tube. the shafts can be pulled back and everything assembled but you can tell when you look down the tubes of the housing that the two outer holes and two inner holes do not line up perfectly. After i purchased the first axle like this i assumed it was bent and broke down and bought a second and like i said, it is identically shaped as the first. it is like the tubes are bent backwards about a half inch. The shafts are centerer in the tubes vertically and there is no other damage to either axle.

are all ford 60's like this? or have i somehow found two 79 front 60s that are bent identically. Has anyone else notice when they put in a locker in the front if their shafts were no centered in the housing? i'd appreciate all opinions.

[ncalegari]

i run a ford 60 from a '79 and didn't notice any bend. straight as an arrow.

if you decide you don't want these axles for any reason i'm looking for spare shafts.

[78Buford]

I believe I just read your question in either Petersen's or Four Wheeler within the last couple days....in the tech question part of the mag. Did you see their response?

[cwharrington]

yeh that was my question 4 months ago about the first axle, and i just got the second axle a few days ago and tore it down last night and seen the same thing as the first. i just can't believe they would both be bent identically, so thats why if nothing else i was curios if anyone else noticed this when they took theirs apart.

the response in four wheeler would ceartainly show if the tubes are off, but i can tell by putting the locker in with the shafts that i am off by half an inch on both side.

[austynn2001]

They're completely worthless now... you might as well send them to me:flipoff2:

[cwharrington]

i appreciate the offer to take the off my hands.

the part that really puzzles me is if the tubes were bent back in a collision of some sort, i would think this would damage the knuckles in some manner, especially where the tie rods bolt in. Crap i don't know, guess i'll get them magnifluxed, straightened, then re-magnifluxed.

[Scot]

I looked at mine and thought the same thing. About the same dimensions as you state. :confused:

[78Buford]

You said the axle is touching the front of the tube. Do you mean that it is unusable the way it is?

[cwharrington]

Scot, have you used yours like this, with any problems? did you leave it as an open diff or put in a locker?

no it is usable, the spindle, hub, and lock out assembly force everything to line up and center properly, however, this will probably cause high wear in the spindle bearing. This is a cheap bearing and not a big deal to replace, but i was asking more out of curousity for what is going on with these housings? Are they sprung, bent, or are they all like this.

My other concern was this would cause premature failure of the detroit locker due to pulling back on the shafts to center them up with the hubs/knuckles. Since if you pull back on the shaft while it is engaged in the locker it is bound to cause some disengagment between the front teeth on the dog clutches.

All this is of no consiquence if running an open diff since the slop between the side and spider gears gives plenty of play to align the shafts to the knuckle/hub assembly.

[Scot]

I do not have the truck street drivable yet. I am running an open diff. True, there is enough play to get everything to line up. There was no undue wear noted on the inner spindle bearings but I know nothing about the history of my axle except it has many miles on it.

Hard to believe there would be a bunch of them out there with the same accidental bend in them.

Buford: what did the article say?