First off I HAVE searched!

I havent been able to find any recomendations on any particular Dana 60's to look for or to stay away from. I am building my YJ up for the rocks and want to do it right the first time 'round.

I want to get a set of 60's under her. What should I look for? Is there a perticular year and vehicle that anyone with them already can recomend?

I dont want to cut them down, so none of that "well almost full-size". Are there any front 60's that will fit without out-boarding the springs? I'd like to keep them where they are.

A bit of info on how the Jeep sits now: SOA+2.5", NP231, stock axles.

I also want to keep it drivers side drop, preferably Ford HP, but I will settle for a standard if it'll fit better.

Thanks for the help.

I'm running a D44 out of a 3/4 ton chevy and all i had ot do was to take a die grinder and elongate the hole to the inside on both sides 1/4". I think the springs still had to be streched out just a little but it works great.
And on the rear I just moved the perches in a little

kinda wanted to keep it drivers drop, but I could always upgrade to a D300. Guess I got some searching to do to see what is involved in a D300 swap. It would be nice to have the extra 4" of d-shaft though...

I am not sure what you meant by the "take a die grinder and elongate the hole to the inside on both sides 1/4". What hole is that?

And is the 44 really worth the time and $ to swap in? Kinda stuck on the D60. Trying to only do it once.

Thanks for the info.

I know that a 79 Ford RC 60 will bolt in with a little wallowing of the holes. It is kingpin style. I think that the ball joint ones have a 34" spread on the perch.

Try a Ford F250 and F350

The 77 1/2 - '79 Ford 60 fronts have a 31.5" spring perch center line. The '86 and later are either 36 or 36.5". I think both are 69" WMS to WMS. The 44's would be the same for those years.

My memory is blurry on the YJ but I think it's a 31" spring perch center line.

Anyway it'a almost a direct bolt on very slight ovaling of the spring pin holes.

sounds like you are just stuck on the idea of a 60. before you commit the the front 60, research ctm and warn for a front 44. you get into the same ball park of strength for a little less money, and a whole lot less weight and more clearance. plus, the ford king pin 60s kinda suck in mho. unless your going to run 40's or bigger, i wouldn't run a front 60. the only advantage is the ring gear after you upgrade the 44. hell, look at all the tjs out there running front dana 30s on 38's now, and they are holding up pretty well.

oh, check out the website ( below ) and look for gossamer if you want to see overkill with 2.5 ton avalanche axles. it used to have 60's, but garth kept on breaking them:rolleyes:

Originally posted by aaronlosey
sounds like you are just stuck on the idea of a 60. before you commit the the front 60, research ctm and warn for a front 44. you get into the same ball park of strength for a little less money, and a whole lot less weight and more clearance. plus, the ford king pin 60s kinda suck in mho. unless your going to run 40's or bigger, i wouldn't run a front 60. the only advantage is the ring gear after you upgrade the 44. hell, look at all the tjs out there running front dana 30s on 38's now, and they are holding up pretty well.

I disagree with the "same ball park of strength" for a 60 and a modified 44. The 1480 U joint in the 60 will not fit in a 44. The 297X in the 44 is no where near as strong as a 1480. 44 stub shafts are 27 spline and the 60's are 30 spline.

I personally like the king pin 60's. Cross over steering arms are very easy to fabricate. 44's need to have the knuckles machined and the flat top knuckles are hard to find.

Also, by the time you upgrade the 44 with new inner and out shafts, locker, gear set, high clearance steering arm you'll have more in it than a 60.

As for weight and clearance, yes the 60 loses about 3/4" at the diff and there is no getting around the weight.

Every decision you make on your rig is a compromise. Research all your options before diving in. I put in many hours of cost/benefit ratio analysis to decide on RC 60's. What works for me may not fit your style though.

Are you an economist yjtj? :flipoff2:
Good point though. I'm in the process of buildinga YJ and I'm at the point where i have to decode to go 60 or 44. Big desicon and many factors are involved. I allready have 4.56 gears in my rear and got a 44 carrier with 4.56's. But if I'm gonna get a front end i might as well go 60 the first time around then sink $$ into a 44.

im guessing you are talking to lt1yj not me

crap sorry. it is lt1yj.........:confused:

78-79 F250/350 D60. Its almost a bolt on application. End of argument. You want close to bolt on 60? You want drivers side rev cut? You got one option without custom building. ;)

Ha ha ha!!!!:rolleyes:

No, I'm not an economist. I'm an engineer and I overanalyze everything. I went through the same problem when I had Scout 44's under my YJ with 3.55 ratio and no lockers. I looked at the total cost of building the 44's and the switch to 60's. The difference in cost was minimal and the strength improvement and ease of steering modifications was the deciding factor.

I'm running 39.5 boggers and the difference in cost would be covered quickly in broken stub shafts on the Dana 44's.

Good luck with your decision.

I'm an economist/statistican and i always analyze everything. LOL

I think I'm gonna go with th2 dana 60 up front and i allready have a eaton 12.25 rear end (pre corp 14) with detroit in it from the factory and 4.56 gears.

I just have to find a dana 60 with 4.56 gears easier said than done.

How do you fing running 39.5's? I was looking at running them but though 38.5's would be cheaper? I still haven't made up my mind yet...Desicons desicons.

Post a pic of th 39.5's on your rig so I can get an idea of what they look like. Also how much lift do you have?

I had a 44 with alloy axles been running 39.5 swampers. Ive broken 3 axles in one weekend. in another weekend i went through 3 u-joints. Now i'm building a 60 with 35 outers.
Oh yeah, It is full width with 4-56's and an arb. the 60 will be 513 w/ an arb.. The 44 held up fine with the 36 inch tires, but i think any thing bigger than 38's and you'd be happier with a 60.
MHU:beer:

Okay, first let me thank you all for your help with this. I am amazed with the knowlege I am learning from you guys.

Ok, suk-up time over. :flipoff2:

I think that I know what I am going to do, time to start collecting parts.

Getting 1978-79 F250 or F350 Front and rear Dana 60's. These should measure 69" WMS-WMS. They should be close to bolt-in. There pad-pad width should be very close to the YJ's. As for the rear I can just move the pearches. They are 8 lug and 8x6.5" bolt pattern. That should, if I am not mistaken, allow me to eventualy run Hummer dual beadlocks.

I also plan to grind or cut the pumpkin down a bit for clearance. And for tires and rims I am going to run 38"X12.5"X16.5" and 16.5"X9.75" rims.

This combo of 69" axles and 12.6 wide tires (c.s.) on 9.75" wide rims with 4.75" back spacing will put me at 81.85" wide from the outside of tire to outside of tire. I am currently at 75.7" from outside of tire to outside of tire, thats a diffrence of 6.15" total.

As for DMV...Yes I am going to drive this everyday... I have a 2 choices that I can think of. The first would be to run some extended flares and get a set of rims and tires specificaly for DMV. If I got a set of 16"X7" rims with 4" backspacing and a set of 9"X34"X16" TSL's (9.1" c.s.) that would put the outside of tire to outside of tire measurement at 77.1". With my current set-up at 75.7" thts only a diffrence of 1.4" total. A set of wide flares will cover that and those tires are 33.8" tall so it wont look too "funny" for the DMV guys (there pretty leinient here as long as it dosent look to odd). The second option for getting through DMV is to find a way to cover 82" of overall width with fenders or flares. Maybe tube fenders that run from rocker guards to bumpers??

Well thats what I have come up with so far. I still have to figure in brakes. I figure I'd need discs front and rear with 38" of tire to stop, but with the 16.5" rims I am sure there are plenty of options that will fit, right?? Time to search again!! And steering...

Let me know what you think. I have been brain storming and would appreciate any input.

Later.

TJ Kid,

I don't have any way to post pics right now. I'll email you a couple of poor quality poser pics.

I'm running a 1" body lift, SOA and shackle reversal with ~3" lift springs. Total lift would be about 9". I moved the front axle forward 4" and the rear axle back 2. I need to go 2 more in the rear.

I like the 39's fine for size. I'm running uncut boggers right now and I think they're too slippery on sidehills but man are they nice in the mud. I'm going to cut them to get better sidehill grip and hopefully loosen up the tread a little so it will conform a little better. I think I have my wife talked into a set of 39.5 TSL's and if I get "approval" I'll get the 6 ply tires for a little better tire flex and for driving around town. My neighbors complain about the boggers in the morning.

One major downside to the 39.5's is they suck horsepower. My motor is mostly stock but it just doesn't have the nads to keep those tires spinning in sand, plus it can't make any power over 5200 RPM. I'm about to pull it for some tweaking before spring.

I have one 60 on the market right now but I think it's sold. I run across them from time to time and if I get one in the next few weeks I'll let you know.

Red Wrangler,

I'm running dual piston calipers front and rear and it works GREAT!!!!! I'm using a GM dual diaphram vacuum booster from a G20 van and it's almost a bolt on. You need to open up the mounting holes slightly and modify the stock brake light indicator but otherwise simple.

I bought the master cylinder from JB Conversions. It's a stock GM part but there isn't a part number on it. I paid way too much but using the stock proportioning valve with the MS and it's perfect.

I took front Dana 60 caliper brackets and fabbed a round disk with the same bolt pattern and welded in place of the original brake backing plate bracket on the 14 bolt. I'm sure it would be the same on a 60 though. Only negative is not having a parking brake. You could use brackets from a 3/4 ton 44 also.

One other point. You may want to look into a 14 bolt or an 10.5" ring gear Eaton from '67-72 3/4 or 1 ton Chevy trucks. The pinion length is a little shorter and they are nearly indestructible.

Good luck on the conversion. It's well worth it IMO.

I just picked up a old chevy truck for parts and got a sm465 np205 and the eaton rear end with a detroit in it and a 44 front both with 4.56's. the 44 front sucks big time cause it has the drum brakes and closed knuckles. I figure my best bet is to find a front 60 and build it to match the eaton. I plan on running 38"-39" tires.
BTW that eaton rear end is one big sucker. It's huge!

Originally posted by Red Wrangler
Okay, first let me thank you all for your help with this. I am amazed with the knowlege I am learning from you guys.

Ok, suk-up time over. :flipoff2:

I think that I know what I am going to do, time to start collecting parts.

Getting 1978-79 F250 or F350 Front and rear Dana 60's. These should measure 69" WMS-WMS. They should be close to bolt-in. There pad-pad width should be very close to the YJ's. As for the rear I can just move the pearches. They are 8 lug and 8x6.5" bolt pattern. That should, if I am not mistaken, allow me to eventualy run Hummer dual beadlocks.

I also plan to grind or cut the pumpkin down a bit for clearance. And for tires and rims I am going to run 38"X12.5"X16.5" and 16.5"X9.75" rims.

This combo of 69" axles and 12.6 wide tires (c.s.) on 9.75" wide rims with 4.75" back spacing will put me at 81.85" wide from the outside of tire to outside of tire. I am currently at 75.7" from outside of tire to outside of tire, thats a diffrence of 6.15" total.

As for DMV...Yes I am going to drive this everyday... I have a 2 choices that I can think of. The first would be to run some extended flares and get a set of rims and tires specificaly for DMV. If I got a set of 16"X7" rims with 4" backspacing and a set of 9"X34"X16" TSL's (9.1" c.s.) that would put the outside of tire to outside of tire measurement at 77.1". With my current set-up at 75.7" thts only a diffrence of 1.4" total. A set of wide flares will cover that and those tires are 33.8" tall so it wont look too "funny" for the DMV guys (there pretty leinient here as long as it dosent look to odd). The second option for getting through DMV is to find a way to cover 82" of overall width with fenders or flares. Maybe tube fenders that run from rocker guards to bumpers??

Well thats what I have come up with so far. I still have to figure in brakes. I figure I'd need discs front and rear with 38" of tire to stop, but with the 16.5" rims I am sure there are plenty of options that will fit, right?? Time to search again!! And steering...

Let me know what you think. I have been brain storming and would appreciate any input.

Later.

i got what your looking for for sale....
picture here, http://www.geocities.com/yj3qtr_ton/parts2.html
and located in Pa. there completely rebuilt and not cheap.....
email me if you want to deal....