Dana 60 kinuckles- safe to drill out??

I drilled the taper out of mine years ago without any issue - I've been hard on them with full hydro for years. I thought ruff stuff made an insert-

Single or double shear?

The pins would eliminate the need for double shear. I know that people get away with single shear and a bolt, but that's asking for a failure. It's not an If question, it is a When question. Might be tomorrow, might be 2 months, might be 10 years, but fail it will. I define failure as the joint becoming loose in any way, not just a catastrophic failure.

Single shear -


I just realized you are talking knuckles, not hi-steer... lol. My hi-steer was tapered for TRE's and I drilled it. We have many other trucks in the group who are using the stock knuckles with drilled out holes and hiems. One is on 40" 18.5" wide boggers.

Single shear steering, knuckles to C's, upper control arms, lower control arms and I'm sure I'm missing something. I'll stop I don't want to mess up what is a great idea for some applications, a friends thread or create more debate.

And trailers balls break off going down the road too......

Its all in the engineering equation with proper support single shear works perfectly.

My self and Twisted Customs, builders of the single shear trail plugs

I agree that double shear is over-hyped, but in steering I don't like taking chances. The tapered pin evolved to totally eliminate any play in that connection. It also rearranges the forces involved to be in a more manageable form, i.e. that proper support is easily obtained w/o needing tight tolerance machining from multiple mfg's. I also have to wonder if when the steering arm was designed if it can handle having that tapered hole opened up to a hole of the major diameter without giving away a big chunk of the design's Factor of Safety. Not saying it is or isn't, just curious about what the original design constraints were and what the mod does to them.

It normally would go against my grain to even consider designing and having made such a part as this. For my own use I would sooner investigate using 5t truck TRE's than go in this direction, but I've known nvrstk since SOB 5 (at least) and I've a pretty good idea of how he maintains his equipment.

There's a reason two crossed-under safety chains are a requirement for towing a trailer. ;D

Haha I've chilled out sorry and thanks for not sinking to the level I was headed.:-[ guess I was having one of those afternoons


They are there for when you forget to close the coupler;D

Yeller said:

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They are there for when you forget to close the coupler;D

Click to expand...

DOH!

Good thing no one here has ever done such a thing, huh?!?

Never seen a ball break, but I have seen them come loose though never with a lost nut. Never happened directly to me, but I now drill the shanks for cotter pins or Safety Wire. I bought a 24" Cresent brand adjustable just for those nuts & bolts. And any other bolt that thinks because I can't get a socket onto it that it can do wherever the hell it pleases. I am bigger than it and I AM going to win.

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On topic; In looking over my model I made an assumption that I'd like to validate if possible. What is the length of the 5/8" thread? End of stud to start of the taper.

It's only metal it's not smarter than we are

If I had one I'd go measure......