Dana 70 or Sterling 10.25?

[bike-maker]

Made a trip to the coast this past weekend with the 5er in tow;
On the way home, it just seemed like it didn't quite have as much power. Then a few miles before I got home I started hearing a nasty gear whine coming from what I thought was the tranny. Got out of the truck and heard what almost sounded like popcorn popping coming from the rear end. Then caught that wonderful smell of burning gear oil. I looked under the truck and could see the heat radiating off of the diff housing.

I am now in the market for a new (used) rear end.

Is the Sterling 10.25" or the Dana 70 a better rear end?
I'm thinking a used rear end will be cheaper than rebuilding the Sterling that's in there....

 

[Dieselcrawler]

i would go with the sterling. mainly due to the outboard drums and the avalability of parts almost anywhere.

 

[PwrSmoke]

To me, this is a complicated answer because there are several Dana 70s (Dana 70, Dana 70U and Dana 70HD). There are three 10.25 Sterlings, the 5300# GAWR semi-float, the 6250# GAWR (Gross Axle Weight) full float and the fairly uncommon 10.25 DRW version (7400 or 8250 GAWR... the only differences between the weight ratings is the tubing wall thickness). The later 10.50 Sterling adds a few more variations but has the metic wheel bolt pattern. The 6250 GAWR Sterling is by leaps and bounds the most common.

Your '84 F350 is listed as having a Dana 70-2U originally, with a 6300# GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating... the axle pros pronounce that "Gowwer" rhyming with "Sour"). The Dana 70U first appeared in '84. Prior to that, F350 SRW had a mix of Dana 61s and Dana 70s.. depending on the axle ratio used (See "Original Dana 70" below)

From early '85 and earlier, you mostly found a Dana 61 full floater under F250 HDs and some F350s. It came as a semi-float for the 6600 GVW F250s and as a full floater in the F250 HD (4x4 and 4x2 in. 8600# GVW and larger). It's an oddball, ****** cousin of the Dana 60 that was redesigned so it could carry taller gears down to 3.07:1. It has a 9.75 inch ring gear and some of them have very odd pinion offsets so you can have trouble swapping gears. It has the same GAWR as the later Sterling. In fact, the Sterling was designed to replace this axle in early '85.

The original Dana 70... It shows up in some for applications prior to '85 but only where a ratio of 3.73 & lower was used. 3.73:1 is the lowest ratio that fits in a "regular" Dana 70. When the fuel crunch hit, they wanted taller ratios and Dana had to redesign the housings to fit taller gears and that's where the D70U line came in. Same goes for the D61 vs the original D60.

As far as I can see in my Data Books and Dana manuals, the only Dana 70 offered in F350 SRWs of this era was the Dana 70-1U or Dana 70-2U (generally considered in the D70U family... the "-1" indicates a version change). The "U" stands for "undersized pinion bearings. They aren't terrible axles but they have small pinion bearings and weird ring and pinion offsets that can make them tricky to work on and especially, to make a gear change on. Many people don't like the D70U in hard tow application because of the undersized pinion bearings. If something fails in hard towing use, that's what will go.

Dana 70HD... wasn't offered in Fords of our era except as a DRW. There were some rare SRW Dana 70HDs in GM trucks. This axle has very thick 4-inch diameter tubes and larger carrier bearings. With a larger ring gear, the D70HD morphed into the later Dana 80. Many people think the D70HD is a better axle than the D80.. but I won't bore you with the details.

So, after all this... I say go Sterling. It's plentiful, easy to ID and easy to work on with no oddball pinion offsets or anything to make them tricky. They can come in factory ratios of 3.07, 3.31, 3.73, 4.10, 4.30 4.56 (more ratios available from the aftermarket). Ford used a higher grade of steel in the axle shafts than Dana, SAE 1050 high carbon steel vs Dana's 1035 or 1040... so Ford's axle shafts are about 20 percent stronger. The Sterlings used 3.50 inch axle tubes, where the D61 and some D70s used 3.1-inch tubes. Most Dana 70s/70U use 3.56 inch tubes and the D70HD used 4 inch. Most 6250# Sterlings have .258 wall tubing, with the DRW versions using .448. The Dana D70Us listed for an '84 F350 SRW truck, 6300 GAWR, shows .410 wall tubing, where in the Sterling listed for the '85 model years, 6250 GAWR is listed with .258 wall for the F250 HD but .448 for the F350. I have verified the wall thickness of .258 in F250HDs but have never had the chance to do so on a SRW F350. It seems strange they would have .448 tubing on an axle still only rated for 6250#. Still, I would suggest trying to find a Sterling From an F350 vs an F250 on the off chance it has thicker wall tubing.

In general, Dana has the edge on axle tube thickness but supposedly, and I have not been able to verify this, Ford used a higher grade of steel in the HREW tubing on the Sterling than Dana used.

 

[DesertBen44]

Plus with the sterling you can buy the new aluminum finned diff cover from ford for the 2008+ superdutys for like 100 bucks, may save an axle from failure like this in the future.

 

[SparkandFire]

Sorry about your troubles! Wonder why it bit the dust??

Not to start a hell storm or anything (this is just my personal opinion,) but I would go with the Sterling axle hands down.

My reason is this ...

I have never had any problems with a Ford axle. (Besides leaking axle seals, but if you spend the $ and get the Scotseal plus XL you won't have any more trouble.) Whereas every single vehicle I have owned with a Dana axle has needed work, and lots of it. Everyone I personally know who has Dana axles is constantly working on them. A friend of mine has a small fleet of Dodge diesel trucks and he is constantly battling pinion bearings and such. He bought all the special tools to do rebuilds on the axles himself, since he had already ran two of them through a shop, and spent close to 2k a piece on them...

I have a D60 variant axle in my '97 E250 van and with 76k miles on the odometer it is on the verge of death. It whines so bad you can't have a conversation inside. I changed the fluid with Amsoil synthetic 80W90, even built me a coat hanger dipstick so as to underfill it by 1/2" and inch just like the manual says. It got a little quieter, but it's shot...

My dad even managed to blow a D44 front axle on our '89 Bronco the first and last time we used the 4x4 on the truck.

I'm sure others have had good luck with theirs. Perhaps the stars aligned ever so perfectly so as that every Dana axle I've been around has had trouble.. who knows? I know my first IDI had well over 300k on the original sterling axle, with just one gear oil change at around 100k. And it was still clean and new looking inside, and didn't make so much as a peep...

 

[Black dawg]

It has gotten to where I can pull the cover off of any dana axle of any size, and find very loose carrier bearings. The 10.25 sterling seems to hold up quite well.

 

[GOOSE]

Sterling, if for nothing else, the ease of brake servicing.

 

[subway]

there is some great information here, i would suggest sticking with the sterling. they really are tough axles overall and you should be able to pick one up for 1-200 and even cheaper if you dig some.

another option might be to find a newer van rear end, they kept the older standard 8 lug into the superduty years and had disk brakes. it would probably be a case of welding new spring perches on but i have not done one so research it more than my word. it is on my list of things to do since i have a semi-float in the rear of my crew cab.

 

[riotwarrior]

Having 3 4:10 two with pois sterling rears and one 70U 3:73 open, I'd op for sterling myself...

Stick with what you got! then you have some extra parts too and you know that all your cables, lines, yokes, and so forth connect unquestioned!

 

[Agnem]

I've got two Dana's in the fleet, and a few Sterlings. The one under the Moose Truck has never been touched. Doesn't leak, doesn't make any noise, and aside from being a PITA to do brakes on, has been a great axle. The Dana 61 I put under the Moosestang with 3.08's in it interchanges brake parts with the Dana 70 on the Moose Truck, so there is good standardization. I wouldn't doubt some stuff would even swap between Sterling and Dana. The crush sleeve on the Sterling is the big negative in my opionion. Makes rebuilding one under a truck very difficult. All the used Sterlings that have come my way have had pinion bearing issues for whatever reason.

 

[bike-maker]

About what I suspected.

Anybody else manage to blow theirs up?

 

[Optikalillushun]

if u go with a sterling go for the 93 or later (up to 97). longer threaded area on the pinion reduces the chance of a loose pinion nut cauing slppy pinion bearings. also lock tight the nut in case. as for the crush sleeve, u can sub a spacer of approx thickness like a dana uses from a few aftermarket diff/gear supply houses.

 

[Dave 001]

My $.02......they all are very good but i would stick with whatever was originally installed.

There's lots of negative comments on this post about the Dana's which is odd. Dana's are usually reguarded as being excellent and very heavy duty. The Dana 60 in my previous truck had 230,000 miles on it and still worked like new. And the brake drums came right off without having the mess with the hub bearings. Current truck (with a Dana 60) has over 325,000 miles but I cannot verify that the rear has never been touch. The first truck I can verify the miles as I put them on it.

A buddy had over 600,000 miles on his Dana 70 with no issues (other than replacing the clutch packs in the differential one time). And he put those miles on it so they can be verified.

Setting up pinion bearings in an axle with a crush sleeve (10.25) sucks but properly done, it should be a one time deal. Shimmed bearings are easier to work on but either way you should not have to keep messing with them.

Dave

 

[82F100SWB]

The 70 is a good axle, but the 10.25 is much more common for our application. A late gearset and a crush sleeve eliminator kit when you set it up and it is good to go.
Every one I have seen fail has been due to low lube, either wheel seals, or a rusted through diff cover.

 

[Kevin 007]

I had a 1990 F-250 with a Sterling 10.25 which had nearly 400,000miles on it and was still whisper quiet. I switched to a thicker 75/140w oil when I bought that truck at 305,000miles and never touched it again. Worked it hard to. My 84 has a Dana 70 (of some sort) and its been fine to.. however there are no miles on that truck either.