How does this Dana 60 look? (got it home... new pics p3)

[garydan]

wow your right, that is a ****ty camera.... or he has parchedness disease. sick find though.... did he check the teeth on the gears?

Yeah, he took the cover and checked the gears and oil. My brother in-law was a mechanic in the marine corp (just got out about a year ago)... so he knew what to look for.

 

[desertrat67]

By the hubs, that looks like an ex cucv axle.

 

[garydan]

By the hubs, that looks like an ex cucv axle.

I was told it was from a dually and he bought "new SRW hubs".

 

[howdiy]

Not a bad deal

I would offer to weld some stock mounts onto the axle for you but your on the wrong coast

 

[garydan]

Well I finally got it home... new pics

Well I traveled over to the in-laws and picked up the axle. Here are some better pictures

Should I keep these shock mounts, if so... how do I change the upper mounts to use them?

The drag-link tube length is only about 32 inches, so I'll likely need a new one correct? This axle came off a toyota previously.

The 4.56 gears look good. See that number on the top right, does that mean anything to anyone?

Now, I'm just wondering what I need to do next. I took off the tie-rod and drag link to clean them up and paint them. I need a new rubber piece for one of the ends.

 

[garydan]

Well I started the disassembly

Cleaned it up and painted:

I'm having a hell of a time getting the bolt out of the front spring perches. I'm going to get a sawzall and take care of them. The BFH did nothing.

 

[owenst7]

Look for a penetrating oil called "kroil". It comes in a squareish metal can. Diesel, PB, or Deep Creep might work too.

Or an air chisel.

Or weld a nut to them and spin them with a breaker barb once you overcome static friction they will move a lot easier.

 

[K5Nate]

Nice find man. Clean up job looks sweet. Loving the "Jenga" jack stands.

 

[garydan]

Nice find man. Clean up job looks sweet. Loving the "Jenga" jack stands.

Thanks, they work pretty well. I got the 10-bolt out today (just finished actually, I finally got those damn front spring bolts out). I like this picture, it reminds me of Back to the Future Part II

 

[RootBreaker]

Look for a penetrating oil called "kroil". It comes in a squareish metal can. Diesel, PB, or Deep Creep might work too.

Or an air chisel.

Or weld a nut to them and spin them with a breaker barb once you overcome static friction they will move a lot easier.

i have a can of that!!!!!!!!!! THAT STUFF IS NASTY!!!!!!!!!!
nasty in a good way...

i think it can get into a creves 1/1,000,000 of a particle or something like that... i no longer use pb blaster but use Kroil!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Desert Rat]

I was referring to the shock towers as you mentioned. Should I use the Ford Shock Towers? Is there an advantage to having those tabs on top of the axle instead of the stock location?

I swapped a D60 into my Blazer and went with Ford cast shock towers.

Here are a couple of things I would consider.

1. The current tabs on the D60 will put your shock sitting straight up and down. This means the top of the shock is going to have to be nearly directly over the axle because of the orientation of the tabs. Had the previous owner put the tabs the other way, you could have angled them back away from the axle. You can see in the first pic you posted that the PO had shock hoops welded to the frame which probably worked pretty good.

2. If you opt to keep the current tabs, then you need to find a top mount that can be directly over the axle which limits you to fabbing up a shock hoop, or using a Ford tower. There are two types of Ford towers if you didn't already know. There is a cast tower that came on newer Super Duty Fords and a stamped tower. The stamped tower has the top of the shock in the same orientation as your lower tabs are now. You could go with this tower but you have the issue of where to bolt it to the frame.

I don't know about your rig, but I have my bump stops bolted to the frame directly over the axle. This would prohibit me from putting the stamped tower in that spot. I suppose one could remove the bump stop mounts and just do without them, but I preferred to keep mine on and added extended poly stops. The second option would be to use the cast towers and mount them on the frame behind the bump stop mounts and angle them forward to put the upper post over the axle. The top post would be a different orientation than the bottom, but that shouldn't be too big of a deal since you are going to be straight up and down. You should know that the upper shock mount though on the Ford cast towers has a slight angle to it. This may or may not cause problems getting the top and bottom shock mounts to line up correctly. My top mount sits at an angle on the Ford bolt and was snug getting it on. I also think it will wear the bushing faster, but I will just replace the bushing as needed.

3. Depending on the length of your shocks you choose, you may have to notch the inner fender as I did. I chose the longest Bilstein 5150 shock I could. I then had to cut some of the edge of the inner fender out to let the shock tower and shock go up into the engine compartment. I plan on using some rubber sheeting one of these days to put behind the notch to keep the mud and dirt out of the engine compartment better. If you use either style Ford tower, you may also have to notch your inner fender. This means you better check to see if you have anything on top of the inner fender on both sides first and if you do, you may have to relocate items. I would have a tough time on the passenger side of mine as that is where my ARB compressor sits.

4. You are probably going to need to address the drag link location. On mine, It had to be both the bent drag link that ORD sells, along with changing out my engine crossmember. Most folks have issues with a straight drag link hitting the stock crossmember under articulation.

I know you don't have a welder, but in my opinion I would be looking at taking the existing tabs off and having new ones put on that would allow for either the stock upper mounts to be used, or for you to do what many others have done and use Ford mounts, but with the lower stock shock mounts on the axle. You can buy the tabs for pretty cheap and just have any muffler shop or welder put them on for you for little money. If you want any more pics of my setup, just ask.

 

[76zimmer]

great Info DR....I am looking at doing that too. I still have stock axle mounts, but want to change the uppers to the cast SD units. Did you use a particular spot for the location of the towers, or just line up the shocks to where the articulation looks like they wouldnt hit the shocks.?

 

[1-tonmudder]

I would make another tierod that was the correct lenth.Way too much thread showing.

 

[garydan]

I would make another tierod that was the correct lenth.Way too much thread showing.

Well an update. Progress has been real slow, I have only weekends to work on this. I have the axle installed, I did end up purchasing a new tie rod from ORD that was the proper length and I also bought new ends.

I've decided to install ford towers where the bump stops were, here is some pictures of my progress. Going to get new grade 8 hardware tomorrow morning:

I'll have to figure out something for the bump stops now. I also need to figure out what length shocks to buy. I ended up getting new 6" Tuff Country Springs, so I won't be seeing the crazy droop of the 52's. I've installed the shock towers with the same length eye to eye that it would have been if I used the stock mounting locations. So I think a typical 6" lift shock would do fine.

I've measure 22" eye to eye at ride height.