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Anybody ever made their own axle

79bonanza

79bonanza

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I'm talking like retube a hp Dana 44 or 60 for a passenger side drop or anything like that.

I've just been looking at some retube videos on YouTube and the complexity of it isn't bad, a lot of elbow grease it looks like but not too awful bad.

They sell one of those rock jock hp currie Dana 60 housings for like 1200ish, might be something cool to build, it seems to cut way down on the price if you tube it yourself
 
Done it. And I plan on doing it again making a full floater 8.8 in the next month or so.

And down the road Im going to make a high pinion passenger side drop with dana 50 gears.

What do you want to know?
 
Well I'm mainly thinking about this towards a Dana 60 front just to keep things a little less confusing.

How hard is it to get your axle tubes out of the housing?

Is there any good tips or tricks for getting it apart easier (ie. torch, plasma, drill/grinder)

How did you get your tubes back in? Hammer, press?

And I know this is prolly axle specific but is there a good press fit (housing to tube) to shoot for.

Oh and just curious but could a person if he was inclined add more rosette welds to the housing? Would it compromise the strength of the housing?
 
You dont pull tubes from the housing. The interference fit is ridiculous. Ive seen one guy do it but it involved cinch anchoring a steel plate into the ground, a serious forklift, and a torch to boot.

What you do is cut the tube down and use a piece of DOM with the OD of the inside of the factory tube as a sleeve and slug a couple welds in each side to that. Plus leave a nice gap and bevel to burn it all together.

Are you narrowing at all or basically just want a passenger side drop HP60?

As far as the tube to the pumpkin just burn the tube to the pumpkin with nickel rod the right way.
 
Oh I knew of the cutting the tubes down, I've seen/been apart of helping a buddy do that. That wasn't too bad of a job.

I was actually thinking of a full on retube.

And just wondering, I have a couple angle finders but I couldn't imagine them be accurate enough to set the caster on the inner c. Is there a more accurate angle finder for doing that.

And yea I'm considering this as my hypothetical hp Dana 60 for the K5

http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/Products4x4.aspx?id=2758
This is the housing I'm more thinking about, over a factory one
 
79bonanza said:
Oh I knew of the cutting the tubes down, I've seen/been apart of helping a buddy do that. That wasn't too bad of a job.

I was actually thinking of a full on retube.

And just wondering, I have a couple angle finders but I couldn't imagine them be accurate enough to set the caster on the inner c. Is there a more accurate angle finder for doing that.

And yea I'm considering this as my hypothetical hp Dana 60 for the K5

http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/Products4x4.aspx?id=2758
This is the housing I'm more thinking about, over a factory one
Click to expand...

Like I said. Not worth it and probably would require way more equipment than most people have access to. Just cut the long side down to the short side length you want and then extend the short side.

An angle finder is all you need for caster.
 
Hmm. I bet I could find a few friends, a few trucks, some straps, and some beer together in a field to make that happen. And be much more comical than a forklift :whistle:
 
Deuling said:
Hmm. I bet I could find a few friends, a few trucks, some straps, and some beer together in a field to make that happen. And be much more comical than a forklift :whistle:
Click to expand...

"Here, hold my beer and watch this...."
 
Well I have access to a lathe big enough to mount a axle housing in.

I've read where guys retube them and just drive the new tubes in with either a press or big hammers and a block of wood.

As far as getting the tube out, it looks like the preferred method is cutting a gap out of the tube and squeezing it together enough to hammer out of the tube from the other side
 
Damn. Drive it in with a hammer?

If you do it please start a thread. If its feasible I would much rather retube than do the sleeve/extension
 
You're not kidding!

I watched a build on pirate or two and he made it sound ridiculous...

I'll be trying this down the road...
 
Yea I mean if you buy an aftermarket pumpkin, new tube, and the inner C's. It just looks like all it is, is a little machine work, some elbow grease getting them actually together, then just burning them in.

Just a rough pricing but

A currie HP Dana 60 housing...800.00
3"x.500 tube 10ft...................250.00
Reid racing inner C's................300.00ea

So I mean for $1650.00 you'll have a hp Dana 60 with the strongest tubes, knuckles, and housing out there.

I'm just assuming they're the strongest
 
79bonanza said:
Yea I mean if you buy an aftermarket pumpkin, new tube, and the inner C's. It just looks like all it is, is a little machine work, some elbow grease getting them actually together, then just burning them in.

Just a rough pricing but

A currie HP Dana 60 housing...800.00
3"x.500 tube 10ft...................250.00
Reid racing inner C's................300.00ea

So I mean for $1650.00 you'll have a hp Dana 60 with the strongest tubes, knuckles, and housing out there.

I'm just assuming they're the strongest
Click to expand...

Would the knuckles, hubs, spindles, etc come from a used housing?
 
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