Help me ID these ford axles (pics)

[crazyorigin]

Ok, i finaly got some pictures of these axles under a ford truck i found for cheap. Looking at the front again, it is definetly not a high pinion, may not even be a d60 like i was hoping the rear is questionable too, it may not be what i am thinking it is either, i am a bit of an amateur at this so far, but i am learning as i go. The -case is definetly a 205, no questions there so i didnt take pics of that. Here they are, the first is a set of the front axle, and then the rear centersection. The front has drums. Any help ID'ing these will be greatly appreciated, the t-case is worth more than i will pay for the whole truck so...

They are pretty dirty and rusty, but hopefully worth my time, the front axle may be junk, but maybe not, i figured i'de see what you guys think. The truxk is a 73 Ford, at least the cab is the guy said

passenger side front shot

front centersection

this one is flipped, it looks confusing at first, front shot of drivers side

this is the top of the drivers side

the rear centersection

 

[pauly383]

I don't know if closed knuckle 60's had studs or u-bolts , so I am going to guess dana 44 front of the HD flavor .

Probably a rear 60 .

Can you clean it up enough to find a BOM number ?

 

[thatK30guy]

Those are Highboy axles.

D44 front and D60 rear.

The front has closed-knuckles and drum brakes. There are 2 types, an LD and a HD version. The LD has internal lockout hubs and the HD has external hubs.

The power steering on these trucks use a manual gear box with slave-assist cylinder on the axle housing and hydro lines running to the draglink which performs as an assist to the cylinder. This setup is/was poorly designed as they leak like a sieve. There are rebuild kits and remanned parts for these but they cost almost $1000 by the time you get everything rounded up.
The best way to convert these trucks to power steering is to use a kit thats found on eBay. It uses a 2wd power steering gear box with a few other parts. Granted they're not cheap but they do give 100% power back to the steering.
Here's a link to eBay for a kit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...00301316249&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT&viewitem=

These '73 to '79 F-series trucks are good ones. My favorite years of all Fords. My truly favorite ones are the Highboys. I have a '75 here at home and also have the power steering kit like the one shown above but its an original kit from the original designer whom doesn't sell them anymore. This kit by the new seller is identical to the one I have so I'm guessing they got the rights or permission from the original guy to fab and sell them.

Tell us more about the '73 you're looking at. More overall pics of it, too.

 

[thatK30guy]

Oh yeah, the front axle is a low-pinion unit. Only the 1/2 ton D44's got the high-pinion from '73 on up. 3/4 tons didn't get a high-pinion until 77.5 year as Ford had a split in design in the '77 year. Theres a Highboy and a Lowboy.

Highboys have a divorced transfercase. These use a short driveshaft after the transmission before the t-case.

Lowboys had married t-cases mated to the trannies, much like GM's have.

Frames are different between High's and Low's. Front springs are positive arch on High's and rear springs are 2.25" wide where the Low's are 3" wide springs.

There are a few varying factors that differentiate the High and Lowboys. Highboys are not too easy to find parts for as Lowboys are.

Oh yeah, '76 marked the first year Highboys ran open knuckles and disc brake fronts.

 

[thatK30guy]

Blackbirds offers a front disc brake kit for the closed-knuckle D44's: http://www.blackbirdscustomtrucks.com/index25.html

 

[crazyorigin]

Thanks for the help, i was thinking it was a 44 after the 2nd look. It looks to be of similar sixe and style as the chevy 44 i have in my yard. Likely i will be sending a good load of scrap off this summer, and getting a diffrent drivers side drop axle for the front. I'll likely end up using the rear and t-case from this. The ford truck is no gem, it is very rough, you can see a hole in the frame that you could slide your arm thru in the pics above. It was a railroad truck so it saw a long hard life. I'll just cut out the t-case and rear axle and scrap the rest, unless any of you guys need any parts from it, then they would be free realy as i'll be scrapping evreything i dont use, cant start a truck parts graveyard in the back yard, the ole lady wouldnt aprove sadly.

 

[thatK30guy]

You could always put the remaining carcass on eBay or Craigslist and get some money back. There always seems to be more of this stuff for sale on the east coast especially in the northeastern parts more than anywhere else I've seen.

What size motor?
Automatic or manual?
These drivetrain parts are worth coin to the serious rebuilder and they're out there. I'd put them on eBay and let the bidding get crazy. You may make a few hundred bucks.

 

[crazyorigin]

Eh, its just a Ford =P haha, not worth a whole lot. I think the motor is a 400, and the trans may be a stick shift, cant remember, i didnt hand out long as i was nervous about neighbors out in the boonies wondering what the hell i was doing driving out in this guys field un-anounced (he knew i would be there, the neighbors didnt) So i just got in, took the pics, and got out. It was a nice oportunity to tru out the 4wheel drive on the 84 Checy K10 i just brought up fron NC this past weekend for a beater truck, worked great, it will also likely drag the heap of a Ford home for disecting. If i find out the motor and trand are salvageable i will likely tear them out and sell them, but i would imagine they are greatly worn, and not realy rare or anything, so most likely they will just get scrapped so they arent in my way. The body and frame are beyond rough on this truck, it had a long life in NY, thats why there is so many mechanical parts up here as all the bodies and frames rot out before the drivetrains wear out, good luck finding nice NY sheetmetal tho. My beater Chevy i just got is prpbably too nice to drive year round, but it was cheap, and it will be a fun driver till my nice truck is done.

 

[thatK30guy]

I'd be interested in the tailshaft housing on the tranny. Either auto or manual, I'd like the housing where the shifter bolts into for the pivot.