curious........

[crash_552]

The vin on my truck says the factory rear end was a Dana 60 4:10.
But a couple years after I bought it, a bearing went out in the pumpkin and the axle walked itself out. That was a fun ride. Anyways, I grabbed what was left of the bearing and took it to Gopher Bearing. They could not find a replacement, and if they can't match, cross-reference, or find one--nobody makes it. They had it for a week. Now is this normal or what rear end could it have been to be that obsolete? No I don't have it, I swapped a junk yard for a different working rear end.

[REDNECKMOBILE]

A Dana 60 does not have a "pumpkin" in my terminology. Does your truck have 8 lug wheels or 5 lug? My guess is you have a 9" Ford that is standard in the 1/2 ton versions, the Dana 60 was used in the 3/4 ton versions. Maybe yours has been converted sometime through the years, a couple of pictures of the rear would help. JMO.

[ToughOldFord]

Yes, something doesn't compute, the D-60's axle shafts aren't held in by a bearing.

[crash_552]

I don't have the rear end anymore, I had to swap it out. But it did have 8 lugs cause my tires went right back on the newer rear end. A better description would be that when you jacked it up and pulled on the tire the axle came with. And it was because of a bearing. I just wanted to know if anyone else ever heard of that before.

[gmcjimmy88]

I am not sure if any axles are held in by the bearings. A c-clip would be more likely. I also cannot think of any axle being that obsolete that parts cannot be found. Something doesn't add up in my opinion. Do you rebember what the pumpkin looked like?

[crash_552]

it was on the floater axle and the bearing was discontinued, i probly could have found one if i looked hard enough but at the time it was quicker and easier to put a new rear end in.---there wasn't wasn't much left of it

[ToughOldFord]

On semi-floaters the axle shaft is held on by the bearing which is pressed onto the axle shaft behind the hub. IE the ford 9" used in half tons.

On a full-floater the hub is bolted to a spindle on the axle housing and then the axle shaft is bolted to the hub/drum assembly. IE the Dana 60 on the 3/4 and 1 tons.

But here's an odd I've only come across once:

A friend of mine had a '88 F-250 Super Cab Diesel 2WD and it had a semi-floating 8 lug rear with outboard drums on it!
At the time I had almst the identical truck, '84 F-250 Super Cab Diesel 2WD and it had the usual full-floating Dana 60 on it. I've never figured out what rear end he had and why it was on there. Maybe someone here can clue me in, I'd forgotten about it 'till I read this thread.

So your old axle had the large center hub on it?

[averagef250]

He had a semi-float sterling rear. They're very common under the lighter duty 3/4 ton 2wd trucks in the mid to late 80's.

[ToughOldFord]

I wonder what genius @ Ford thought a 3/4 ton diesel was a light duty truck?

[averagef250]

Ford was better than the others in that time frame. You had to get a heavy 3/4 or 1 ton chevy to even hope to have the chance at getting a full floater. The 9.5" chev semi-floater is a pile of junk too. Atleast the semi-float sterling that Ford used was a pretty good axle.

[19674x4]

Applied industries has a good bearing selection. that 's where i get all my wheel bearings, and bearings for my d-60 and d-44