MORE Dana 60 issues :(

[michaelbrainard]

Well, I got my donor rear axle for my 77 F250 camper special...we pulled it from a 1979 f250. At the time of removing it from the donor truck, I measured a few things to make sure it would fit..The shock mounts were the same, the distance between the anti-sway bar and spring alingment bosses were the same...the distance from brake plate to brake plate appeared to be the same...but I didn't measure the right stuff. I was about to swap the axels today and realized they are quite different. Overall ( spindle tip to spindle tip ) they are the same length. The actual axle housing is different...the one in my 77 is about an inch shorter than the other...and the spindles are about 1/2" longer. I wanted to use my brakes and hubs, but the different length of the axle housing/spindles won't allow that! It appears there is a significant difference here! The bolt pattern on the brake backing plate isn't even the same. ( the axle shaft lengths are the same ) I was aware at the time of pulling the axle that the brakes were different...and assumed the brakes and hubs weren't an issue and would swap...$*(#$&*($#&*(# ...now am seeing that THEY WON'T!! The brakes and hubs from the donor truck are JUNK and I didn't want to consider rebuilding/replacing them but it may be my only route unless I can find the correct axle housing. Any info in this swap??

[Comet]

Dana 60 rears go for around $100 at the local pull a part yards here. I have some info. somewhere on the D60A, which you may have gotten, but I can't remember the specs.

[michaelbrainard]

I went ahead and installed the 73 axle in my 77....pretty easy swap..I had to completly rebuild the brakes in the doner axle but that really was pretty inexpensive. The drums on the doner axle were in excellent condition, once I blasted all of the rust and crap off of them. new bearings/races/seals....pulled the diff housing, pressure washed the entire axle housing...etc. Did the swap today in about 5 hours.

I just wanted to ask about wheel bearing lubrication. On a full floating Dana 60, the wheel bearings are lubricated by the gear lube...correct? Sorry..first time tearing down a rear end. I packed the new bearings with grease prior to assembly. Once assembled I filled the axle with friction modifier ( trac lock dif ) and gear lube. To make sure lube flowed to each hub, I jacked one side of the truck to get lube to run through the axle housings and into the hubs....refilled...jacked the other side...refilled...ran the truck around town at lows speeds for a few minutes..all seemed well...took it out on the highway...everthing was quiet... Was this the correct thing to do? Should I run it a while and swap the gear lube?

[michaelbrainard]

Also...how far off will the speedo be going from a 4.10 to a 3.73?

THANKS!

[willowbilly3]

Also...how far off will the speedo be going from a 4.10 to a 3.73?

THANKS!

About 10%