Are they all pretty much the same as far as spline count and strength? I need a dodge,or gm pass. drop and was gonna search this weekend.

Stay away from closed knuckle.:D

ball joint

I know i need open knuckle king pin, anything else?

If you get one of the FT DODGE ones with hub blanks you will need to buy hub$

oh yeah you should avoid those HP RR ford axels, i hear they are pieces of shit :flipoff2:

if you happen to find one just pm me so i can take care of it for you

Thanks all.

Make sure you don't get a Dana 62 front.

just out of curiousity,anyone ever put a newer(35 spline) diff and axleshafts into a close knuckle housing? then all youd have to do is make disc brakes(not hard) and the only thing left to haunt you would be the closed knuckles,wich arent so bad IMO...

the older housings have skinny tubes,but its not so hard to build a truss

only real prollem then is funky ups bolt pattern if using axles from an m715 :)

sounds kinda stupid,but if a persons gonna get a locker and moser high strength shafts anyway,and gets a close knuckle 60 cheap or free,is it worth buildin?

ur thots? :smokin:

yeah avoid the newer dodge ones with disconnect (I know that was probably obvious but you never know)
and if you find any cheap let me know

if ya see a disco 60,send it my way.

id weld it,and be able to lock/unlock the one side withthe flip of a vaccum switch. can you say "poor mans ARB"? :flipoff2:

Originally posted by saprobe
if ya see a disco 60,send it my way.

id weld it,and be able to lock/unlock the one side withthe flip of a vaccum switch. can you say "poor mans ARB"? :flipoff2:

yeah, with puny neck-down 30 spline axles!

hmmmm. wasnt aware they came with 30 spline axles,i thot pretty much all fronts had 35.

that being the case,good point,might as well stick with a 44 if its got 30 spline shafts...

From what I know

Avoid- closed knuckle
Avoid- New style Ball joint
Avoid- Dodge disconnect

I got this info from Dynatrac

All Chevy fronts are 35 inner
Pre 1980 had the neck down shafts
81 and after aren’t necked down

Originally posted by cornfedred
From what I know

Avoid- closed knuckle
Avoid- New style Ball joint
Avoid- Dodge disconnect

I got this info from Dynatrac

All Chevy fronts are 35 inner
Pre 1980 had the neck down shafts
81 and after aren’t necked down

That's kinda funny- dynatrac only builds axles with the "new" balljoint style knuckles.

Anyone have a pic of a kingpin vs a balljoint?

here's a kingpin- notice the round, bolted on part on top

Thanks, what does the balljoint one look like. The kingpin is the one i was thinkin i needed but what are the disadvantages.

Originally posted by Brawler
Thanks, what does the balljoint one look like. The kingpin is the one i was thinkin i needed but what are the disadvantages.

I prefer the kingpin style. Both may in some eyes have drawbacks. I don't have a balljoint 60 pic here at work, so somebody else will have to step up. If you've seen a balljoint 44 you can compare and tell them apart. If it's got nuts/cotter pins on the pivots of the steering knuckle-it's balljoint. king pin has the round cover bolted on top and another 4 bolt cover on the bottom. It's smaller than the one on top, and locates the tapered roller bearing.

Originally posted by Aggro


I prefer the kingpin style. Both may in some eyes have drawbacks. I don't have a balljoint 60 pic here at work, so somebody else will have to step up. If you've seen a balljoint 44 you can compare and tell them apart. If it's got nuts/cotter pins on the pivots of the steering knuckle-it's balljoint. king pin has the round cover bolted on top and another 4 bolt cover on the bottom. It's smaller than the one on top, and locates the tapered roller bearing.

Thanks. No wonder these damn things are so hard to find.

Originally posted by saprobe
if ya see a disco 60,send it my way.

id weld it,and be able to lock/unlock the one side withthe flip of a vaccum switch. can you say "poor mans ARB"? :flipoff2:

OK DAN and every time you floor your rig and your vaccum goes to 0" your diff opens , then you let up on the gas and get some vaccum back and whamb bam you break all your sheit! :nuke: :nuke:

don't go for the 60 fronts out of m715s. they are coarse spline (16 or 17 i think). so are the 70 rears, actually.

too bad, cuz i found an m715 the other day :(

i spose if you're in the mood for 35 year old gears, you could gank the 5.87s outta the m715, but that's really all i can think of that would be good from the axles.

ok the disconnect on my dodge front 60 is not vacum. its electric, I don't know if this is normal dodge or because I have the cummins though. I do know the spline count is 30, sucks big but not worth the effort to change on my daily driver.
the unit wheelbearings suck cause you can't repack em gotta buy the whole thing.
I don't see a real problem with balljoints, sure you can't rebuild them but they are plenty big enough to take the abuse.
I'd love to find one really cheap and swap the ends onto my closed knuckle front 70 with 35 spline 60 inners.

Dynatrac has a really expensive kit that does away with the disco and you get 35 spline axles, but no lock-outs I think?:confused:

the Kit is $3200...bwahaha

They'll probably sell some tho.

Originally posted by dirtrod
the Kit is $3200...bwahaha

They'll probably sell some tho.

Some one needs to open up a shop and make these axles that dynocrap sells for so much. They could easily lower the price and put those fawkers out of business. They are the slowest working company on the planet.

Originally posted by Old Scout


OK DAN and every time you floor your rig and your vaccum goes to 0" your diff opens , then you let up on the gas and get some vaccum back and whamb bam you break all your sheit! :nuke: :nuke:

who is dan?

at any rate,it doesnt quite work like that(specially since the newfound info onit being electric) unless you have an s10 blazer,wich is spring loaded. the dana axles use vaccum to pull the coupler apart,so lack of vaccum does not mean it disconnects. i can put my foot on the flor in my xj and the 4wd light does go out,but the frontend stays engaged. it stays engaged if i turn it off,too.no vaccum then.

either wich way, i dont need to put my foot on the floor. i have GEARS. :flipoff2:

whats the advantage of open knuckles,BTW? im planning on leaving my 70 closed.since the u joints had been spinning around in grease all that time, they were real easy to get apart :)

Originally posted by Old Scout


OK DAN and every time you floor your rig and your vaccum goes to 0" your diff opens , then you let up on the gas and get some vaccum back and whamb bam you break all your sheit! :nuke: :nuke:

EASY OS! The vacuum switch is like the YJ one... It is switched to open diff then vacuum circuit changes and is switched to locked. A posi lock does away with the vacuum lines and is selectable. I wouldnt mind the setup stated above but splines suck and junkyards love new parts w/o rust...

Originally posted by mytzlflick
ok the disconnect on my dodge front 60 is not vacum. its electric, I don't know if this is normal dodge or because I have the cummins though.

what year disconnect do you have that is electric???:question: my 95 and my 01 are both vacuum. Both cummins. those little things you think are wires running to the disco are vacuum lines not wires!! I'd like to see pics of this electric disco on a cummins truck.:D

oh yeah? I'll have to check that out, figured it was electric cause it engages faster than I can let the clutch out. I'll scope it out today and let you know.


ok you are right, what I thought was the wiring in that neat wire wrap stuff is actually a pair of vacum lines.