Dana 60 Kingpin vs ball joint?

[KyleQ]

The late 70's F250 heavy duty and F350 HP Dana 60 is the best axle to use for either a full width conversion or to shorten the right side down for an EB the differential housing is located much closer to the center of the axle giving a much better driveline angle to the pinion yoke. There is also much more room than any other Dana 60 on the short side tube to make up up just about any type of suspension mount including factory type wedges for radius arms. Thought it may be worth a mention.

No it isn't - your space and drive shaft points are moot. The 78-79 axle may have more room for un-skilled fabricators to make use of, but scowering the web and yards for a 30 year old axle made for two years is retarded.

Yes, a kingpin is and always be strong than a ball joint, mainly because a ball joint just has a large crimp holding it all together.
Do you need it?
The Dana 60 Lower ball joint is a lot larger than a Dana 44 ball joint (the upper, not so much).
The 78-79 ford Dana 60 is the cream of the crop, but all Dana 60's are better than a 44.
I'd not hesitate to swap in a ball joint 60.

Again - why is the 78-79 axle cream of the crop? Seriously - the space the provide isn't exactly "needed". I'm sick and tired of people stating that the best axle is one that is nearly unobtainable over seriously overpriced simply because of people stating they are worth more than they are not.

They are worth what you are willing to pay, I understand that, but build after build after build proves that any year D60 fits and works. Don't put yourself in a box - look around and see that any D60 will work.

ANY D60 is an upgrade of a D44 - take that away from this thread. The 78-79 D60's have the weakest shafts of any D60 out there - so toss another $4-500 on top of that overpriced axle...

 

[treihesse]

Kyle is right. I opted for a 97 bj because of non taper down 35 spline shafts and a pretty strong inner and outer C. The 78 79 shafts blow. Plus the late 90s stuff is much better metal than 78 79 so cuttings and resplined shafts are much more desirable. All the dynatrac axles are bj and plenty of them have been run for years. On another note all of them have limited room on the short side tube. I ordered brackets in 2 5/8 with and cut off a inch or so off the spring perch. It will work fine

 

[welndmn]

No it isn't - your space and drive shaft points are moot. The 78-79 axle may have more room for un-skilled fabricators to make use of, but scowering the web and yards for a 30 year old axle made for two years is retarded.



Again - why is the 78-79 axle cream of the crop? Seriously - the space the provide isn't exactly "needed". I'm sick and tired of people stating that the best axle is one that is nearly unobtainable over seriously overpriced simply because of people stating they are worth more than they are not.

They are worth what you are willing to pay, I understand that, but build after build after build proves that any year D60 fits and works. Don't put yourself in a box - look around and see that any D60 will work.

ANY D60 is an upgrade of a D44 - take that away from this thread. The 78-79 D60's have the weakest shafts of any D60 out there - so toss another $4-500 on top of that overpriced axle...

Something always has to be better than something else. I've swapped in a few and the 78-79 is always the nicest because of the extra 2 inches of room it gives you.
Sure, the later king pin just requires a notch in the c bushing / leaf perch but that was 10 minutes of work I didn't have to do before.

If I was buying another, I'd buy super duty 60's just for the they are the cheapest.

 

[treihesse]

I've also seen guys buy a super duty 60 pretty cheap and Chevy or dodge 60 and swap in the inner and outer C as there is more aftermarket support for the Chevy/dodge stuff. Weird to me since the Ford hp dana 60 stuff is the most popular.

 

[KyleQ]

Yeah - the other thing you have to remember is that the other big two people are after Ford D60's as well, and they all want the 78-79 as well.

 

[broncokak]

Well, with out looking very hard I've stumbled apon a 1997 D60 front end complete lockout to lockout for $400.00 and he has the matching rear Sterling as well.

 

[Mountain Ram]

I have run a ball joint D60 with unit bearings under a full size crawler on 44" tires for 6-7 years or more now. Ball joints are much weaker than kingpins and have relatively little fail safe when they go out... The knuckle flops off- been there- twice. That is a nightmare recovery! King pin knuckles fail too... Seen that a number of times and the recovery is equally as hard. I would not be afraid of BJ axles, just jack up the truck and check them before big trips- on or off-road.

As to the unit bearings... They are completely unserviceable and that gets expensive- I always carried a spare and replaced more than my fair share. Since the axle shaft is shorter and typically has more splines engaged- they should last longer- I never broke the stub, but I have seen 35 spline stubs get destroyed on similar rigs to mine.

The weakest 30spline D60 is still stronger than most 44s. I am using an '85 KP D60 under the front of my crawler project. These are desirable, affordable and available. Plan a future upgrade to the outers and this axle should last- I am starting out with 35spline... But I am hard on stuff.

 

[broncokak]

As to the unit bearings... They are completely unserviceable and that gets expensive-

This is my whole issue with Unit Bearings and why I want to stay away from them. I am used tp pulling the hub now and regreasing the bearings or replace them if I think they are getting bad. Plus, I priced out a replacement unit bearing at $200.00 each (mid range price) where a set of good regular bearing with the race are around $50.00 for the set.

 

[broncokak]

Anyone happen to know how wide the 97 D60 is?

 

[Yeller]

Anyone happen to know how wide the 97 D60 is?

should be 68-3/4" from WMS to WMS. Same width mine is.

With 9.5" wide wheels with 5" of back spacing it is 82" wide over all. With a Warn lockout the face of it is flush with the face of the wheel. with my Yukon lockouts it is recessed just abit. On an EB it can be cheated a little more with different wheels but the hub will stick out, all though with a Ford hub it will be a bit better, its just over 1/2" shorter than a GM. But no more than an axle shaft costs its not a big deal to shorten the long side a few inches and easy to do at home.

On a side note: I remember reading here in the last few days about it being weird that all the manufacturers are reproducing GM parts and not the ford units. There is a reason, we are not the only market, there is whole faction of industrial equipment that use those parts and they all use the GM based parts. Also the GM front hubs fit on a 14 bolt spindle too.

 

[broncokak]

Thanks Steve, yes, I think I would want to shorten it a little. If I go with the matching rear Sterling I would need to shorten each side of that too I guess.

 

[Kyle.malone]

Ken. I'm running a 97 Dana 60 BJ non unit bearing in its full width state. You can cut the perch off and weld c wedges on it too. Just make sure you weld the tube and pumpkin after you grind/cut the perch off. I went through the whole axle and changed everything that was serviceable.. New bearings/ball joints just to be on the safe side and changed it to 35 spline outers with yukon hardcore hubs (chromolly).