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My newest crazy project, turning a D50 ttb into a D60

40K views 78 replies 41 participants last post by  bobbywalter 
#1 ·
Well, here we go... I talked about this on here a few weeks ago, just wanted to say I am making progress. I started the other day. I have the D50 TTB apart and verified that the D60 shafts do indeed fit inside...



It is pretty close to the inner knuckle, but I have about .25".



clearance between the lower BJ and the yoke, about .25"



Clearance between the upper BJ and yoke, about .75"



Dana 50 shaft top, D60 shaft bottom. It is hard to tell in the picture, but the D60 stub is about 3/8" longer as I suspected, this is due to the D50 haveing cast caliper mounts, and the D60 has a removeable plate caliper mount. I will probably just cut them down as the splin length is the same. If I end up taking the snap ring grove, I will have it remachined into the shaft...

I didn't take a picture, but the ID of the TTB tube, measured with calipers is 3.6x 3.5. This is almost going to be a perfect fit to sleeve the D61 rear tube I am useing for a donor pig.

More pics later as I progress.

Later,
Jason
 
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#2 ·
Made a little more progress today, there have been a few snags, but this is going to work. Here are some more pictures...



I had to cut the knuckle for a little bit more joint clearance, once I had the knuckle on the tube, and the d60 shaft in it, it bound on the inner knuckle, and was going to be bad when turning...



So I cut it for clearance, and then plated it with 3/8th inch steel to get the strength I lost back.



New modified plated knuckle on the diff and axle shaft in place...



Front close up view, I put the rolled edge back on the inner knuckle, again for strength. Had to grind the 3/8ths a bit on the bottom because of contact w/ the outer knuckle. I should not have plated it so far forward...



Back close up view, I have to take it apart again and grind a little bit of the inner knucles lower half of the opening. The factory roled edge was at an angle, and my replacement piece was not. The reason it was at an angle... The shaft yoke binds when turned all of the way right.

All in all it has not been a bad project so far. I have had the damn knuckle on and off about 50 times, I am getting tired of swinging the sledge hammer :D

Later,
Jason
 
#4 ·
I highly doubt I will have much money into the actual axle build. I need to get gears for the D61 because the ones that were in it were shelled, I need to get 35 spline side gears for my carrier, and I am going to put new balljoints in the knuckles and new ujoints in the shafts. So far I am useing parts I have around, and steel I have around. The only reason I am useing the D61 instead of a rear d60 is it has the bigger tube (3.56") so it is a better fit in the TTb knuckles, also I do not need excesively low gearing as this is going in my new bronco and it is going to be a DD light trail and tow rig. I figure by the time I am done building the axle, rebuilding all of the wear items that need changed anyhow on a junk yard axle, I may come in under $500. I may be able to do it much cheaper than that if I am patient and keep shopping classified and ebay for parts I need.

Which reminds me, I know this isn't the wanted forum, but I am looking for 35 spline d60 trac-lock side gears, if you have some, PM me :)

Later,
Jason
 
#5 · (Edited)
Oh, and BTW, I made a sleave for the inner axle seals to go in by honeing out a piece of 2.75x.120 wall drive shaft tubeing with a cylinder hone. Perfect fit for the seals, it is going to require 4 18 gauge shims to center it in the D61 tube, and I intend to plug weld it or epoxy it in, probably epoxy...

Later,
Jason
 
#7 ·
I'm glad your doing it and posting pics, I daydream about this everytime I see a row of F250s at a junkyard. I think this would be a badass solution for a trail truck, but I'm interested to see how it works on the street. I think that you would have camber issues "flattening out" a ttb. Arent ttb trucks supposed to sit with the axleshafts unparralell to the ground? You could probably set the camber with shims behind the spindle, but with the offset of the balljoints, I think that the camber (caster too?) would change dramatically through the steering arc.
What from a 60 fits into a 61 diff?
Are you using the 50 spindles, hub, rotor, lockout etc?
Looking forward to see the progress pics!
 
#8 ·
With stock components at stock ride hieght, the twin arms sit very close to, or parrallell to the ground. The top ball joint does have a castor/camber cam though and it can be adjusted up to 2*, so it should not be a problem. One thing to keep in mind is that most of the F250's had D44's, not the D50's. This TTB came out of an early '80's F350. The D50 spindles, rotors, hubs, and lockouts are all identical to the stock 30 spline D60 stuff.

As for the D61, everything from a D60 will swap, but it is not supposed to. The only difference between the D60 and D61 are pinion offset in relation to the ring gear. That is how mine ended up with shelled gear, the PO put D60 gears and case in a D61... Side gears and spiders are all the same, and you can get a spacer ring to run D60 gears in a D61 case. Optimally, you would build this w/ a D70 as it is already 35 spline. When I first started this, i thought I did have a D70 due to the extra center section webbing, and the larger tubes. It wasn't 'till I had it apart and found 30 spline axles and I started running BOM's to figgure out how the thing possibly got this F-ed up. I will have to take pics of the R&P, they were more tore up than any other axle I have ever seen, every tooth was sheered and a 2lb pile of razor sharp scraps came out of the pig...
 
#9 ·
other than it bringing the ball joint suck, this would work for any rear axle if you were goign to get custom inners. probably be really nice for building a high pinion nine.
 
#10 ·
I whole heartedly agree that the ball joints suck, they are pretty good size joints though, so they should be fine for light trail use. I dont intend to use tires larger than 35", since I intend to use the bronco to tow my buggy to the trail, then it will be a backup trail rig for when my wife wants to wheel with our little girl or when I break the buggy... I think the coolest thing is that the D50 knucks would give you a good pattern for makeing plate steel knuckles since they are made of mild tubing to begin with. I am going to run stock D60 shafts I have around, so a D60 or D70 center was all I really seriously considered. I thought about a 9" center, but I think the only 35 spline options are ARB??? and I didn't want to spend the cash.

Later,
Jason
 
#12 · (Edited)
Wicked_S10 said:
One thing to keep in mind is that most of the F250's had D44's, not the D50's. This TTB came out of an early '80's F350.
Not true, most had a D50 TTB. Only the light duty F-250s (Under 8600gvwr I believe) had the D44 TTB. The light duty trucks also got a semi-float 10.25.

I like the build. I'll be following it since should have an extra D50 TTB sitting around soon and I'm looking for cheap front axle options for my trail rig.
 
#13 · (Edited)
VerticalTRX said:
Not true, most had a D50 TTB. Only the light duty F-250s (Under 8600gvwr I believe) had the D44 TTB. The light duty trucks also got a semi-float 10.25.

I like the build. I'll be following it since should have an extra D50 TTB sitting around soon and I'm looking for cheap front axle options for my trail rig.
You could get them any way you ordered them. I parted out a '89 with a D44 that had a GWVR 200# less than a one ton of the same vintage.
 
#14 ·
Made a little more progress today. Got the drivers knuckle properly clearanced, and is now welded on. I may have to take it apart and grind down the lower ball joint stud just a little. It clears the yokes on the shafts, but it is so close, I am not sure I am real comfortable with it. Anyhow, here are the pics.



I made a collar for the tube to give me a better and more uniform weld area...



It is also plug welded on all 4 sides...



And the clearance between the joint and knuckle now after grinding some more, and some more again, and oh, it finally clears!

Now I just have to take what I learned on this side, and do the same on the other, any luck and I will be done in a week or two.

Later,
Jason
 
#15 ·
VerticalTRX said:
Not true, most had a D50 TTB. Only the light duty F-250s (Under 8600gvwr I believe) had the D44 TTB. The light duty trucks also got a semi-float 10.25.

not true

I've seen plenty of HD 3/4 tons with 44's under them, many of them had diesel's as well.

I also came across a F-250 this fall, that had a 50 up front, and a SF 10.25 out back, and the door sticker confirmed it as factory, the front GAWR was higher than the rear. It wasn't till the 90's that you started to see the 50 under a majority of F-250's
 
#17 · (Edited)
I'm really digging this project so far, very creative. Sounded dumb at first, but now it's proving to be a really cool idea.

Do you have any idea what your caster is gonna be? Obviously it's gonna be adjustable to a certain degree.

Also, I'm assuming that your shooting for around 67" wms? Or are you gonna go wider than that? Keep up the good work.

Any pics of the whole assembly as it sits right now?
 
#21 ·
u2slow said:
What is the length of the overall yoke-joint-yoke section? Is it greater on the D60 shaft assembly?

I'm curious if the D60 u-joint will be inline with the balljoint steering axis.
From the dust seal lip on the stub, to the center of the u-joint is 2 1/2 on the d50, and 2 5/8ths on the D60 shafts. I may be off a 1/16th or so, as I was measureing with a tape and small caprenters square, but they are very close. Overall length of the yoke/joint assemblies really doesnt matter as the shaft is snap ringed in place and the stub is what dicates the location that the steering joint will be in. Overall the yoke/joint/yoke on the d60 measures a fair bit longer, 5 1/2" versus 5" on the D50. This is why I had to cut the inner knuckles.
I know those measurements dont exactly add up, but keep in mind I am measureing from the outer surface of the lip machined for the dust seal, to the center or end of the yoke, this will put the dimensions off just a hair.

In the axle the steering joint exibits no binding in either direction from lock to lock.
 
#23 · (Edited)
zainyD said:
I'm really digging this project so far, very creative. Sounded dumb at first, but now it's proving to be a really cool idea.

Do you have any idea what your caster is gonna be? Obviously it's gonna be adjustable to a certain degree.

Also, I'm assuming that your shooting for around 67" wms? Or are you gonna go wider than that? Keep up the good work.

Any pics of the whole assembly as it sits right now?
It will be stock '79 Ford D60 width, as that is the shafts I am useing. I have never measured the OAW of my other D60, but I would assume it is closer to 69"s. Caster is set at 7* w/ a upward pinion angle of 3*. I should be able to adjust both camber and caster up to 2* w/ the eccentric cams.

*edit* I am on my way to work right now, but I will try to get pics of the whole axle in the next few days. The other side still has its spindle on though, I was kind of waiting to take pictures of the whole thing until I got started ont eh other side.
 
#24 ·
FordFascist said:
Cool idea. Will you have to lengthen the long side axle tube to get it to the right width?

Keep us posted on this
Yes, the long side needs to be a bit longer, I am unsure how much, as I dont have the spindle off yet and the knuckle assembly adds a lot of width, I may get away w/o haveing to add any tube. We will see, and I will keep you posted.

Later,
Jason
 
#26 ·
Well, it is done. The project went pretty quick. I am going to truss it and tie both knucks together. I got the passanger side castor about 1* off, I am going to have to correct it with an eccentric cam, I checked about a dozen times too, must have moved while I was welding it. Next off is setting up gears and building a truss. We will see how it holds up :D





Later,
Jason
 
#64 ·
Cool project my old man just loves strange stuff like that. he just did a odd job alittle differnt, he took a hp d44 from a77.5 F250 like mine and made it a pass.side drop diff. by machineing out the plug welds at the center secton and swapped everything side to side switched the knuckles spindels,axles brakes ect. a little axle shaft remachining and respline was needed and seals it seals were installed in the tubes.He put it under his 87 Ramcharger to match the D60 rear and it works great the high pinion made the drive shaft angle perfect! great to see others out there gettin creative.
 
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