I'm going to be driving around 10 hours round trip to pick up a dana 60 this sunday. its out of a 78 F-250. The guy says its a dana 60, but then again a 60 looks almost like a 44 and 44's also came 8 lug. I had him measure the hubs and he measured 4". Any other way to distinguish apart? BOM cant be read.

If it is a dana 60, ill be :vader2:

Look for the kingpins. 44's are ball joint axles.

X2, make sure it has kingpins, shoudl be if it is a 78-79. Check on the D60 bible on tech some good pictures from billavista showing a coupel easy wasy to spot the 60 and 44 differences. The main thing to look for is teh kingpins. I woudl ask the guy to send a few pictures showing the top of teh knuckles BEFORE you do the drive. WOudls uck to drive 10 hours for a 60 specially ate the current ga$$ prices!

Pinion nut on an open knuckle 60 is 1 5/16", if it's smaller than that it is not a 60.

Gus

Pick it up. If you can it's a D44 ;)

A 60 has "60 F" cast into the (if ford and dodge are the same) lower right webbing near the diff cover. Not something important for fords, but on dodges you have to check and make sure you arent getting a 61, which look pretty much identical except for that number in the casting. Good luck :smokin:

Sam

TELL HIM TO SEND PICS! i did the same thing last year (4 hour one way trip) i looked at the axle and said "thought this was a dodge dana 60" he said "it is" i said "dodge dana 60s dont have balljoints" he said "whats that?".

wasted a whole day, and a bunch of fuel, to look at a rusted dana 44.:mad3:

I should've added this at first, but no pictures are available.. fuck!! i dont want to drive out there for nothing. I asked him if it had king pins and he said he didnt know what they were.. Hes an older man, atleast he sounds like an old man. Im really hopeing its 60, i havent even been able to sleep knowing i might have a 60 in my possesion in a couple of days.

Fuck!! i spoke to guy right now and he says its a 'custom' standard cab f-250 and as far as i know, the 60 only came on 'snofighters' and extended cabs. I don't know what the hell the custom means.. any ideas? custom usually means pin stripe and painted flares :shaking:

I should've added this at first, but no pictures are available.. fuck!! i dont want to drive out there for nothing. I asked him if it had king pins and he said he didnt know what they were.. Hes an older man, atleast he sounds like an old man. Im really hopeing its 60, i havent even been able to sleep knowing i might have a 60 in my possesion in a couple of days.

Can't he take some pictures? Let him know you'd like to be sure before you make the trip, he should understand......:smokin:

60 has 4 inch hubs,dual piston calibers(44?)....look at it this way it's probably not if it's still there...but you might get lucky...tell him where bill of material # is ,get him to clean it up and look for #

he should understand......:smokin:

Oh he understands alright.

I asked him to get a wirebrush and go hunting for the BOM. Turns out I was right the whole time, its a rotten dana 44 :shaking:
He called me an hour or two later to break the news. I'm very disappointed. I guess I'll fork over a grand and buy a 60 at the usual market price. damnit.

plenty out there,keep looking,might find a deal way things are selling.

what he said^ if you take your time, and keep looking you can find a good deal. alot of people know what a dana 60 is worth, but a few dont. the hard part is finding thoes few who dont. a buddy of mine just found a f350 for 200 bucks. we'll pull the 60 out and get more than that for scrap.

Yeah i know what you guys mean, but what makes me more pissed off about this is the guy really thought it was a 60 and he was going to sell it to me for a 100 bucks. When i first called him to ask the price and he said 100, i had the feeling as if i found a gold mine. oh well, guess ill keep looking

Congrats on not driving 10 hours to look at a dana 44 :D. The best deals for front 60s always seem to be someone selling a worn out complete truck for under $1500. Buy the truck, swap the front axle for a 44 and resell it or part it out. You can usually make most of your money back or maybe even get more than you paid for it in the first place if the truck has other good parts. Just a suggestion. Good luck

Sam

Hey, I think I may have been screwed.... The axle I bought, has a 61 on the corner.... not a 60..... Exactly what difference does that make??

61 means youve gotta use a ring gear spacer along with "thick" gears to get a lower(numericly higher) gearset in it,along with using a lunchbox type locker. I've heard the they are making( or going to make) a detroit for a 61, but i have no idea if it is available yet. Having a 61 is not a huge problem though, i have several buddies using them as if they were any other 60. Call up Randy's R&P when your ready to build it. They know all the tricks to get it to fit together.

61 means youve gotta use a ring gear spacer along with "thick" gears to get a lower(numericly higher) gearset in it,along with using a lunchbox type locker. I've heard the they are making( or going to make) a detroit for a 61, but i have no idea if it is available yet. Having a 61 is not a huge problem though, i have several buddies using them as if they were any other 60. Call up Randy's R&P when your ready to build it. They know all the tricks to get it to fit together.

I have a D61 rear axle in my CJ7 and I got all the parts for it from Rieder Racing.
4.88 gears, spacer, and detriot locker.