Super 10 bolt?

[Hossbaby50]

ya, but a rear D60 isn't much better then a 10 bolt. I know guys who break those all the time, if you don't have at least a D70 or 14bff you don't got squat.

Harley

 

[koldsimer]

The d80 IS the new 60!

 

[Hossbaby50]

So how long is that D80 staying under your Dodge...

Till it breaks again. I have the broken one that was replaced sitting in my garage and it is going to go in the next buggy project to come at a later date. I already have a 14bff in the K5 otherwise I would rebuild the D80 I have sitting around and put it under the K5.

Harley

 

[MattK]

Your driving style sounds like it's on more of the conservative side. That plays a huge part in breaking stuff. If I think it's possible, I usually keep trying to get up something until I flop or break something so that has played a big part in my history of breaking things. I bet you'll be fine with a built 10 bolt.

teh funny thing is that this is not at all an exaggeration

 

[gmc4cw]

What if I replaced my built up 12 and 10 bolts and put them in a very light buggy? Something around 1500 lbs? Would they be strong enough?

Weight is the key. I just ran with 3 buggies that were all running toyota axles. they spun tires all day due to wet ground/leaves. I have a lot more contact pressure. thats why stuff breaks. traction. The first D44 shaft I broke was at 0 mph. no tire spin. I was trying to climb a rock and was jammed slightly under it. I kept easing into the throttle without any movement forward or tire spin. BANG! It was a stock shaft and broke clean at the neckdown.

A 383 and 37's. as you become more courageous/aggressive you will break things. not everytime out, but never breaking is the holy grail of wheeling in my mind. I want to come home from a day on the trail, unload my truck, have a beer and tell my wife how much fun I had. I wasn't doing that with a D44. Like I said earlier, look hard for the deal. its out there.

 

[MaxPF]

How about this....
Get the Dana 44 HD. Stronger than the 10b, not as strong as the 60.

Totally incorrect. The tubes are stronger, yes, but that can be easily equalized with a simple truss. As for the rest the 10b (assuming it is a 30 spline model) is equal or stronger. The stock open carriers are about the same strength (read: weak, although the stock 10b carrier is a bit stronger of the two), as are the shafts (again, assuming were talking about a 30 spline 10b) but the 10b has stronger spiders, the carrier bearings are spaced farther apart which reduces the stress on them for a given input torque, the pinion shaft and bearing are much larger (the 10b pinion shaft is as big as a D60 pinion shaft) which reduces pinion deflection under load and greatly reduces the chances of gear breakage, and finally the housing is stronger with more reinforcement than the D44 housings that I have seen. Any aftermarket parts worth having are available for the 10b, and of course all the outer parts are interchangeable. All in all, a 10b is going to be marginally stronger than even a HD D44. It isn't enough to warrant swapping out a D44 though, but I certainly wouldn't swap a 10b out for a HD D44 thinking I am getting a stronger axle.

 

[u2slow]

Totally incorrect. The tubes are stronger, yes, but that can be easily equalized with a simple truss. As for the rest the 10b (assuming it is a 30 spline model) is equal or stronger. The stock open carriers are about the same strength (read: weak, although the stock 10b carrier is a bit stronger of the two), as are the shafts (again, assuming were talking about a 30 spline 10b) but the 10b has stronger spiders, the carrier bearings are spaced farther apart which reduces the stress on them for a given input torque, the pinion shaft and bearing are much larger (the 10b pinion shaft is as big as a D60 pinion shaft) which reduces pinion deflection under load and greatly reduces the chances of gear breakage, and finally the housing is stronger with more reinforcement than the D44 housings that I have seen. Any aftermarket parts worth having are available for the 10b, and of course all the outer parts are interchangeable. All in all, a 10b is going to be marginally stronger than even a HD D44. It isn't enough to warrant swapping out a D44 though, but I certainly wouldn't swap a 10b out for a HD D44 thinking I am getting a stronger axle.

D44 has larger carrier bearings, and is what allows the 33-spline stuff we see now. I don't buy the pinion deflection argument unless the 10b's crush sleeve is dumped. Alloy 30-spline 10b shafts are not common and carry hefty pricetag.

Furthermore, the whole 'HD' nomenclature when referring to any 3/4ton D44 must be a Chevyism, or maybe even only a CK5ism. D44HDs have bigger joints, and kingpins.

 

[MaxPF]

D44 has larger carrier bearings, and is what allows the 33-spline stuff we see now. I don't buy the pinion deflection argument unless the 10b's crush sleeve is dumped. Alloy 30-spline 10b shafts are not common and carry hefty pricetag.

Furthermore, the whole 'HD' nomenclature when referring to any 3/4ton D44 must be a Chevyism, or maybe even only a CK5ism. D44HDs have bigger joints, and kingpins.

I can get alloy shafts all day long from Superior and others, and the price is no different from the D44 shafts. As for the rest, got a pic of those bigger joints and kingpins? I wanna see what they look like...

 

[jekbrown]

believe me, a price-is-no-problem 10 bolt would be very very expensive. CTM or Cone 300M shafts + CTM joints? yikes... lotta $. Throw in a good locker and some good high end gears... and strong steering stuff and you'd be well over the price of a stock D60. They would be somewhat similar in strength... though the ring gear etc would always be weaker.

j

 

[u2slow]

I can get alloy shafts all day long from Superior and others, and the price is no different from the D44 shafts. As for the rest, got a pic of those bigger joints and kingpins? I wanna see what they look like...

So they do! For the longest time the 30s 10b shafts were a pricey Warn thing.

HD stub on top, takes 5-86x (1350) joint

Too bad they're closed-knuckle though (excuse the Ford pic )

 

[fireplug]

As we know there are a lot of factors in question. Vehicle weight, engine weight, engine specs, driving style, terrain, tire size, traction...

The one factor that we always leave out, and you can bet your arse it is a HUGE factor is how well maintained the equipment is. How many guys out there hammer their rig that they haven't worked on since the river crossing 6 months earlier?

 

[SchnorrCS]

On my 44, it has HD stamped right in the houseing, and when I asked on here and called dynatrack (sp?) said that yes, it's a HD unit with 1/2 inch wall tubes, and it's not a closed knukle design.

 

[MaxPF]

So they do! For the longest time the 30s 10b shafts were a pricey Warn thing.

HD stub on top, takes 5-86x (1350) joint

Too bad they're closed-knuckle though (excuse the Ford pic )

Oh, I know about those. One problem there - that's a Ford axle for a driver-drop application. It doesn't help us OBS Chevy guys, although the guys with newer IFS trucks compemplating a SAS could make use of it. Still, they use drum brakes and need quite a bit of work to be useable. I would imagine you would be better off getting a disk brake-equipped D60 rather than messing with that axle. Most guys want something you can drop in with little modifications needed. What I was pointing out was that the 30 spline Chevy 10b's are marginally stronger (carrier and pinion-wise) than Chevy D44's. I just don't want some noob to go and buy a D44 thinking he is getting something better than his 10b, because he ain't. Likewise, as I said I see no reason to swap a perfectly good D44 for a 10b either. And no D44 (HD or otherwise) or 10b is going to be good for really big tires and a heavy right foot. I think we can agree on that.

 

[u2slow]

On my 44, it has HD stamped right in the houseing, and when I asked on here and called dynatrack (sp?) said that yes, it's a HD unit with 1/2 inch wall tubes, and it's not a closed knukle design.

Interesting. Dana is pretty careful usng the "HD" in their documentation:
http://www2.dana.com/pdf/X510-8.PDF
(67-69.5 for GM)

FWIW, the Dodge D44HD of this type I had apart had 11/16" wall tubes.

 

[MaxPF]

On my 44, it has HD stamped right in the houseing, and when I asked on here and called dynatrack (sp?) said that yes, it's a HD unit with 1/2 inch wall tubes, and it's not a closed knukle design.

See my above post. The axle he was talking about was a driver-drop axle used in 70's Ford F250's, IIRC. Your Chevy HD axle is nearly idectical to the 1/2 ton versions except for the slightly thicker tubes and the HD housing which, as I recall, has ribbing on it as opposed to the relatively smooth non-HD housing.

 

[uberbeans]

Sooooo....I know this has been covered elsewhere but which D-60 should I be looking for for my Blazer? Take me to school!

 

[Hossbaby50]

Any D60 from 77-91 is a good D60 but some of the later years have 35 spline non-neckdown inner axleshafts that are stronger and more desireable. Dodge versions will work too but they are slightly narrower and require a few extra little things to work correctly.

Ford High Pinion's are the holy grail of D60s if you are willing to do the work to get them in which requires even more work but the HP is definitly worth it if you can do it.

Harley

 

[6.2Blazer]

How about this....
Get the Dana 44 HD. Stronger than the 10b, not as strong as the 60. But the housing has 1/2" wall tubes, you can use any part for a dana 44, and lets be honest...these are not the hardest to find, spare shafts are everywhere, and usually reall cheap. I have yet to break any shafts for mine, but I do carry a spare set, with stub shafts, and I got both sides for 60 bux. I also run 35s, and it seems to handle it perfectly. All I want is a 14 bolt for the rear, but I don't know if I can run 6 lugs in em. Anybody know?

As already mentioned, the Dana 44 is not any stronger than a 10-bolt. I also disagree with your comment about not being hard to find........I've probably seen at least 20 10-bolts in the junkyard for every 1 Dana 44 I've seen. You are talking about an axle that hasn't been produced since around 1978 and just is not that common, whereas the 10-bolt was in trucks up to 1991.

 

[6.2Blazer]

That is a good point. But the initial cost of the 60 is only the beginning of getting one to work in our trucks. I know that it is all proven and done, but the starting cost is just the cost of the axle. You will probably have to rebuild most of it as well as get new wheels. This doesn't deter me, I am going to eventually get the 60. Do you think I should bother with building up the 10 for the mean time?

If you even think you may get a 60 eventually there is no way I would recommend putting money into the 10-bolt. It just doesn't make sense to spend the money on the 10-bolt when you could probably buy a stock 60 for that same price and then just upgrade it gradually.

In regards to the thought that it costs a lot of money on top of the purchase price of the axle to put one in your truck, I'm not sure where that comes from. Maybe it's from people who insist on putting the ARB, different gears, 35-spline stubs, 1350 yoke, high steer, etc... all before installing it? I bought a Dana 60, slapped a Lock-right in it, repacked the existing wheel bearings, installed new Spicer u-joints, new brake pads, and bolted it in with new u-bolts. I paid $750 for the axle (a decent price, but definitely not a steal) and had it in my truck and out on the trails for under $1,500.

My thoughts on new wheels..........the only reason you need new wheels if you are currently running 6-lugs, which means you probably have a 10 or 12-bolt rear axle that needs beefed anyways, so new wheels don't really count.

 

[uberbeans]

Any D60 from 77-91 is a good D60 but some of the later years have 35 spline non-neckdown inner axleshafts that are stronger and more desireable. Dodge versions will work too but they are slightly narrower and require a few extra little things to work correctly.

Ford High Pinion's are the holy grail of D60s if you are willing to do the work to get them in which requires even more work but the HP is definitly worth it if you can do it.

Harley

So any 1 ton or 3/4 chevy truck will have the D60?

My thoughts on new wheels..........the only reason you need new wheels if you are currently running 6-lugs, which means you probably have a 10 or 12-bolt rear axle that needs beefed anyways, so new wheels don't really count

Definitly also getting a 14 bolt. Just want to keep my wheels, which I guess means a disk brake swap also, right? Plus, I NEED 4:88's like what I have already, so that is extra plus I NEED another Detroit like I have (might go spool) this all adds up to a big price tag. I'm going to still do it but a stock swap over would be a step back from the performance that I already have. I'm not saying that I have the strength but I do already have locked 4:88's front and back and it is all fresh brake to brake front and back. As you can see I didn't do my research before my build and I upgraded all my half ton stuff, which would have been ok with my previous 33's but now I am over the top with my 37's. I'm not complaining, I'll eventually want a buggy and I'll have a nice set of axles for it.

Which 14 should I look for? The same years as the D60? I know that the FF is superior to the SF just that the SF already might have 6-lugs that fit my wheels.

Again...... please take me to school!