What axle is it? Dana 60 front or a Rare 7-0?

[elks]

Ok guys I thought I had a sure thing dana 60 all lined out. Agreement made etc. the 60 was coming out of a 1983 large moving truck/box van. It is set up for DRW. The guy pulled it out today and sent a pic via my cellphone. Well it is not like any 60 I have seen... Ok somewhat like a 60. Front of the diff cover looks the same. Same pattern, etc. It has ball joints/king pins not sure the difference, but the look very similar to the set up on my dana 44 in the font of my blazer just much larger. It is disc brakes.

The thing really throwing me off is the pumpkin/housing. On the top of the pumpki front than there is a truss cast into the housing. Like an extra 2 inches all the way over the top of the pumkin. After some research I have learned that the 81-90 kodiaks had dana 70 front, but are somewhat rare. It is supposed to be similar to a 60, but has a larger ring gear.

So now I have went from the high of buying a dana 60 to trying to figure out if it is even what I thought.

I know pics would make all the difference, but I only have 2 pics on my cell phone. I could text any expert here with a copy. Maybe someone is cool enough to be able to post pics to internet from their phone?

He said it was a diesel engine and a 14 bolt FF rear. I have never seen a 60 like it, and have never seen a 70 front...

 

[thatK30guy]

Pics, pics, pics.

 

[JDNobodi]

There isn't any casing marks that say at least "60" anywhere?
Dana was pretty good about casting the model series somewhere on the housing.

 

[shaun89]

im interested in this one.. post some pics!

 

[shaun89]

http://www.mhrk.it/Share/D70_80.jpg does it look like the axle in the back? its flipped upside down btw.

 

[gonefishin]

if you want you can pm me and i will give you my number and post the pics for you

 

[elks]

Ok here are the 2 pics I got from the seller. He is 1/2 way across the state. I am asking him to send better pics. I am concerned about the value? I had no problem paying the $700 for a dana 60 but now this not what I thought. If I can build it with out major issues and a much larger cost I would be happy. As he said the thing is heavy duty for sure....

Let me know... I like the axle, but the cost is a huge factor. I am looking at my first ever 1 ton front axle, it is like better than xmas and halloween together. I just want it to be right.

 

[plyr2k]

Ok here are the 2 pics I got from the seller. He is 1/2 way across the state. I am asking him to send better pics. I am concerned about the value? I had no problem paying the $700 for a dana 60 but now this not what I thought. If I can build it with out major issues and a much larger cost I would be happy. As he said the thing is heavy duty for sure....

Let me know... I like the axle, but the cost is a huge factor. I am looking at my first ever 1 ton front axle, it is like better than xmas and halloween together. I just want it to be right.

Seeing as all the chevy dana 60's ive seen use 3 u-bolts and 2 studs cast into the center section, I could see it being a 70. Other then that, I'm out.

 

[rksjd8420]

Hard to tell from the pictures, but I am pretty sure it is dana 70. It actually looks like the axle that was built to convert pre '99 F450 superduty Fords to 4wd. Some had passenger side drop dana 70's.
What is the distance from spring mount to spring mount? It looks wide. I am betting it is the 36.5" and not the 32" GM uses.
What wheel bolt patern does it have? F450 axles were built with 10 on 7.25" bolt pattern, but the hub and rotor will swap out with GM dana 60 hubs. Also the spring spacing is 36.5". The 3500HD GM's were 33.5" and were all driver side differential as far I know.
The inner c's appear to be the larger dana 70 type that was also used on 76 and 77 Ford dana 60's. The outer knuckes do not appear to be standard king pin dana 60 knucles either. They space the tie rod out farther.
Newer Kodiak dana 70's were high pinion and used large ball joint knuckles. This is definately not one of those.

 

[ryoken]

definitely not a 60....

 

[elks]

Here is the pic of the rig:

 

[elks]

Some other numbers:

Ok some numbers from the axle:

On the pumpkin housing there is "17 E3 A" cast in the... The axle tube itself has the following 7 24 85 A 060 ba101 4.... He know the truck is an 83... But the axle build date look likes it might be 7-24-85????

This is the best I have for now...

 

[K85 Octane]

wicked
ask him about the perch spacing, that's what matters the most
if it's not the same as your's, pass

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

Pros: starts with 35 spline outers (they're stock alloy and prone to wearing out the yokes with bigger tires but better that stock D60 stuff for sure), bigger inner c's

Cons: it's a dually (unless that's what you really want), if it it does have 36.5" wide perches now then good luck making it work with a truck that needs 32" (i.e. 67-87 Chevy), the casting will be a big issue

It seems like a bigger axle but really it's a D60 with 35 spline outers (which most people upgrade to anyway), bigger inner c's (which most people never hurt anyway) and a bigger ring and pinion (which is hard to hurt even with chromoly axles throughout and then there is the Jana deal that lets you run a D70 gearset in a D60 housing).

If it were me, I'd pass unless it were cheaper than any D60 I could find.

 

[elks]

I asked for the spring perch measurement and he came up with 37"... Not sure if it was the centers or if it was the outer sides...

Also got a wms he measured himself to be 78" it is a dually front. I am not sure what to do... It is all the way across the state so I am going on faith that it will work out. It looks cool and extra heavy...

 

[rksjd8420]

Just because it's a dana 70 does not mean that it has 35 spline outers. In fact all dana 70's that I have seen that were built for conversion companies are 30 spline. Factory dana 70's like the ones in Dodges and Internationals were 35 spline.
If the spring spacing is 36.5" like it appears to be, I would stay away from it. Moving the spring perches to 32" is going to be nearly imposible. The spring perch would be on the differential casting.
Is the wheel bolt patern 8 on 6.5"?

 

[blazinzuk]

If your going links then go for it.

If not the pad width is a pain to deal with, you will have to move the pads in ( and since they can only go so far) you will also probably have to move your springs out

 

[elks]

If your going links then go for it.

If not the pad width is a pain to deal with, you will have to move the pads in ( and since they can only go so far) you will also probably have to move your springs out

thanks. I basically came to the conclusion that it was just too much work for my set up. the axle was for a jeep build that already would require outboarding the springs. Moving the perch, trying to figure out where things will line up in terms of tcase draop etc. Is just more work than I want. So my search continues for a dana 60 front. I found a set of 1 tons with 456 gears and the rear has been converted to disc, but is missing caliper. They want $1200 but I already have a 14 bolt rear.