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Narrowest D60

R

rholbrook

Well-Known Member
Location
Kaysville, Ut
What was the narrowest Dana 60 in stock form. I want to transform my TJ, but want to keep in narrower than full width and still be able to not worry about safty inspections and being able find an axle in a hurry if needed. I already have the ugly 6" flares so with the proper backspacing or wheels, what am I looking for?
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Front or rear?

Front, the most narrow is the Dodge kingpin. You'll be looking at 67.5" WMS/WMS but
it's passenger drop. I don't know if there is anything more narrow than that. I don't know the Ford stuff very well, but I think they are 69" and the Chev axle (again, passenger drop) is 69.5".

BillaVista's Dana 60 bible on PBB is an excellent resource and would be required reading if my money is on the line.

What I wonder, is if you could find a longside axle that you could find easily to have your Ford longside shortened to. Then you'd still have production parts, but a little setup cost to make it work for the TJ.

Rear you should be able to find a few options.
14 bolts are plentiful, cheap and reliable. I didn't like them until I put one under my Jeep with the gigantic plow lip shaved off. It's been pretty serviceable and I NEVER worry about it breaking. That almost fits under my 6" flares on my YJ tub. Not letter of the law, but out about 1-1.5" from the flare. You could get a cab/chassis hub and narrow it further, though. No other swap parts.
 
Chevycrew

Chevycrew

Well-Known Member
Location
WVC, UT
I happen to have one of those for sale...


On the front, if you take an 80's ford kingpin 60, chop the pass side down 5" along with shortening the axle, you could have a 64.25" wide 60 for not much cost in the work.
 
R

radjeeper

"Why You Say"
Location
Salty City
I was just going to say that. The old Ford semi-float Dana 60 is 61.5" WMS (About the same as you TJ's rear). Not sure which years they came in exactly. I have one available also. They are easy to re-shaft for the 5 on 4.5 lug pattern. A set of chrome molly axle shafts with the right lug pattern aren't bad price wise. BTW, Dynatrac Dana 60s are semi-floats also.

Ther are no stock Dana 60 front ends that I know of that are close to being the right width. However, the '80's era FSJ DSD Dana 44s work well. If you want to stay with FSJ 6 x 5.5 lug pattern then when you re-shaft the D60 you can go to the same lug pattern. Of course you'll have to do what no one ever wants to do, buy new rims.
 
utah340six

utah340six

Registered User
Location
west jordan Utah
of corse if you new were there was an old 70tys dodge cuda, challanger, road runner, ect.
that had a 440 with a 4 speed you could get a d60 with about a 61 inch wms.
and it would have a 5 on 4 1/5 bolt pattern.
 
rondo

rondo

rondo
Location
Boise Idaho
Advance 4wd shortened the long side of my 91 Ford 60 to fit under my nissan frontier; i think it was around 300 and included cutting and resplining the shaft. I also ordered a spare shaft that was cut and resplined which is a good idea for a custom axle so if you break you don't have to wait for days for another one. Running the H2 wheels with a deep offset and hummer high steer arms works great and keeps the police from stopping me.
I would guess off the top of my head that you would want to narrow it at least 5 inches for a TJ. Your ideal axle would probably be a 78-79 Ford so you have more room for your coil buckets on the short side.
 
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420willys

420willys

Registered User
Location
holland mass yes its the east coast
I used a 88 SRW Ford and chopped 5"s off the long side to make it 64.5"s WMS. The reasion for the it was I found a 32" long Spicer shaft listed in the dana 60 bible. So not thinking I went ahead and chopped the housing down and re-welded the C.

Then I called to try to get that length axle shaft only to find out it has not been made for years. So now I had to get the shaft cut and re-splined.
I just had it out over the weekend for the first time in 5 years to replace a broken stub. The splines still look perfect, but it would be nice to have a spare for the trail.

There was a guy on Pirate thart said he called and Spicer/dana found him that odd ball shaft that was 32'' long.

Sucks having a custom part like that on the Jeep. If I had thought about it I should have left it stock and just bought deeper offset rims. I get alot of Ford 60's for cheap money and have plenty to make a spare, just dont want to spend the 110.00 dollars to have it cut and re-splined.

Jason.
 
rondo

rondo

rondo
Location
Boise Idaho
Gee Jason,
if you get plenty of Ford 60s for cheap money, how about giving me a few :D I would at least like to have a spare spindle for the trail as well.

as for the oddball axle length, its super easy to get any size shaft cut and splined which makes it easy for those of us who have had axles cut down.
 
420willys

420willys

Registered User
Location
holland mass yes its the east coast
rondo said:
Gee Jason,
if you get plenty of Ford 60s for cheap money, how about giving me a few :D I would at least like to have a spare spindle for the trail as well.

as for the oddball axle length, its super easy to get any size shaft cut and splined which makes it easy for those of us who have had axles cut down.
Click to expand...

Ive considerd shipping axle's from the east coast to the western part of the country. But I was forced to sell my truck last year and the only way a shipping company will pick up at my hous eis if I have a fork truck to lift the axle's in or a loading dock, I have neather.

I have local junkyards that are starting to scrap the axle's for money rather than sell them. It sucks, I have gotting some of them before the crusher but I cant get them all.

Plus the one axle I did ship to CA two years ago I posted Pics of the condition and the buyer agreed to buy it, well when he got he did nothing but complain about how much rust scale was on the axle.
I did send him plenty of Pics of the axle and explained that it is rusty and would need a good cleaning. He agreed and gave me nothing but a rash of sh*t when he got it.

East coast axle's are bad with scale, I have some chevys 60's from state trucks and there to so bad that when I moved one of the trucks the knuckle collapsed under the weight of the truck.

I think I have a spare Ford spindle, it belive it spun a bearing but would make a good trail spare. I will check and if I do I will Pm, OP sorry for the highJack.

Jason.
 
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