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Dana 70 front??

thatK30guy said:
There are some open knuckle D70 front axles out there. They were offered in early Dodge motorhomes. They are very rare indeed. I've seen pictures of them before.

I printed off some pages of this topic that was on Pirate. I will need to get out the papers and type in the link. It does show pictures of the rare housing and other stuff, too. It looks like a D60 but larger. The "C"s are bigger, much like what the Dedenbears look like.

To be continued tomorrow, when I dig out the papers to get the link....
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I will also have to get some comparison pics. My brother bought some "C"s and knuckles from a front d70 open knuckle design. The housing was damaged somehow, thats why he was able to buy the "C"s. The C is definitly beefier. I sized up one of my new DIY shock mounts (the ones that mount on the "C") on it and it didn't fit too well because of the added material.

The knuckle definitly looks a little beefier as well. He just took apart his DRW front d60 so I should be able to get some side-by-side pics this weekend
 
As already stated there were factory offered D70 front axles, but they are fairly rare and usually older. The ad states "closed knuckle" so I would guess it is an old axle off of maybe an early Dodge or International pickup.

I think the biggest issue with them is that many of these had drum brakes on the front and it can be difficult to swap to disc. The closed knuckle is not as desirable as the more common open knuckle setup, but I don't know if this necessarily makes them "weak". The R&P is obviously larger than a D60, and it will already have 35-spline inner and outer shafts...but I don't hear too many people breaking R&P's on the D60 and it's super-easy to swap in 35-spline stubs so there go any benefits.

The "Eaton" rear axle is most likely...are you ready...an Eaton axle! Sure, maybe he doesn't know what he is talking about and it's actually a D70 but there were many Eaton full-floater rear axles used in pickups back in the day. Kind of hard to find parts for but they seem to be pretty beefy.
 
IMO, if someone were to come across a closed-knuckle D70 front for cheap, I'd tear it completely apart and get the Dedenbear C's and knuckles and cut off the closed-knuckle stuff to reweld the Dedenbears on it. Then rebuild the axle to your specs with your choice of ratio, locker, etc.

I remember seeing a motorhome open-knuckle D70 front from Gerstner at Differential Engineering for sale around $3500. While I wouldn't mind having one of these super rare front axles, I don't want to spend that much coin on one that badly.
 
Crap! The red X-s from mustange70's posts used to be visible as they showed pics of a bare D70 front housing with no guts or knuckles on it. I have pics from the copies I printed off. Dammit! Wished you guys could see the pics.
 
lol! well looks like I never posted pics in that other thread, I will try and get some this weekend I promise.
 
I had a 70f in my 69' power wagon. it was from a 72 w300 dually. dodge used them from 72' to 74' with closed knuckles and 12"x3" drum brakes. i have also seen them in IH 1 ton dually trucks in the early 70's
 
1BEATK5 said:
I had a 70f in my 69' power wagon. it was from a 72 w300 dually. dodge used them from 72' to 74' with closed knuckles and 12"x3" drum brakes. i have also seen them in IH 1 ton dually trucks in the early 70's
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Just about everyone has seen these closed-knuckle D70 fronts. Its the open-knuckle ones we all haven't seen nor found.
Try and stay on track with us. :wink1::D
 
the tie-rod location is weird on that one in pbb, its behind and below. would be badass to have 70's front and rear that guy steve on there put 2.5ton rock shafts in it, thats crazy
 
I'd like to have that 70 front and an 80 rear.
 
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