DANA 60 question

Gremlin4ever

I've got a chance to aquire a DANA 60 from a one ton chevy truck really cheap. My question is: Can it be converted FROM floating axles? Was hoping I could narrow it down and stuff it under the back of my Gremlin drag car. Any knowledge out there?

dan58

Have you put your hands on it? If it's from a Chevy, it's most likely a 14bolt. If you want a 60, look for a 78-79 era Ford F250. You'll need a set of weld on flanges to run semi-float shafts. The hardest part is welding on the flanges correctly.
http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/Semi-Float-Ford-9quot-Flanges_p_1612.html

tufcj

Not without a lot of work. Full floating axles don't have the "bells" on the outer ends for semi-floating bearings. The axle tubes would need to be cut to length, bells welded on, and custom axles made. For a similar amount of work, you could have a bulletproof Ford 9" for the same or less money. Bob tufcj

Gremlin4ever

dan58 wrote
Have you put your hands on it? If it's from a Chevy, it's most likely a 14bolt. If you want a 60, look for a 78-79 era Ford F250. You'll need a set of weld on flanges to run semi-float shafts. The hardest part is welding on the flanges correctly.
http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/Semi-Float-Ford-9quot-Flanges_p_1612.html

Never seen it. Was under the impression that all one ton trucks used DANA 60 rear ends. Guess I may have learned something today?

msalaba

From what I've read, D60 Rears are rare in Chevy trucks. They were more common in 3/4 & 1 ton vans. The trucks generally had 10 bolt, 14 bolt semi-float and 14 bolt full float depending on GVWR. You may be splitting hairs. a Ford 9" would be more suited to your application. There is a lot of custom aftermarket support. My $0.02

Gremlin4ever

OK, So it seems I have gained a bit of knowledge in this area. Thanx for the help :lo1l: As for the 9", I understand they are light and strong. This has made them very popular in the hot rodding world. My idea is that with the non-counterlever design (no ass) of the Gremlins, there isn't much weight back there and a D60 would be that added balast so to speak. At this very moment there is a mopar 8¾ with 456 gears on a stock width (never measured it, nor know what it came from) and is a posi. With a IL6 (232cid) it is addicuate enough at the moment.

tufcj

The axle/housing/gears are all unsprung weight. All you're doing is "robbing" power from the engine to move/turn the additional weight, and it would increase your E.T.s some. In a drag car, I'd keep the lightest axle that was up to the task. With the I-6, the Mopar 8 3/4 should be plenty. Even with a V-8, an AMC20 with one piece axle upgrade would be fine, a 9" would be overkill.

Wiki on unsprung weight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass

Bob
tufcj