what all is involved in making a rear 60 a steering front? is it just new tubes and knuckles? i assume you would neet to either machine an axle seal surface into the tube, or buy a set of thoe trick ones that go by the knuckle.

am i missing anything?

axle shafts, plus removing the old tubes and getting new ones pressed in, putting on some kind of mounting brackets for leaf springs or whatever suspension you decide to go with. Might save you a few hundred bucks, but time is money and its definitely alot more time to do that than buy a front 60! :)

And would the pinions turn the same way front and rear? Seems like it wouldnt be good to have the axle driving forward by spinning in reverse? Somebody could probably answer these questions too, and btw, that's a pretty important distinction! :D

Sam

well i know that regular low pinion fronts do just that "drive in reverse" which is why hi pinions are stronger.

i am getting a free 60 rear from a friend which is why i was thinking about it in the first plce. i know i would need to source shafts, knuckles and such like that, but was more worried about the technical hurdles that i may run into.

oh, and i can do most, if not all of the work myself which saves $$$$

What kind of suspension are you going to be running?

I was either going to modify the wedges on my D44 w/radius arms to fit the larger d60 tube, or pony up for a 3 link in the front

I actually always figured this was the way I was going to do a D60 by the time I got around to it.

Just start with a rear end that people will literally give you just to get out of their yards, retube it with aftermarket C's and knuckles, put aftermarket shafts in it, and then put D44 wedges on it to run coils and RA's.

While it may not be any cheaper in the end than buying a steering D60, you've bypassed all the breaking stuff BS and have an axle you'll never have to worry about.

I'm willing to bet doing it like this will cost about the same as starting with a steering D60 and doing a complete stock rebuild.

And you don't have to modify the wedges off of the D44 to fit the 60. The easier, but not as clean way is to use about a 3/4" spacer between the radius arm and the cap.

Justin

The biggest issue with using a rear housing in the front is inner axle seals. Figure that out and its the same as narrowing any front 60. I dont believe that the seals that fit on the outer end of the axle were meant to be inner axle seals. Those are secondary seals to keep the junk out of the axle tube.

inner seals aren't that big of a deal. get the stock inner seals then get a piece of tubing that they fit in and has the same (or close) OD as the ID of the axle tube. Shove it in there and tack it in place.

Justin