Upgrading front end

[InnovativeAV]

So I've had a pretty good knock upfront when I'm in four-wheel-drive and I let off the gas. I had a bad spindle bearings so we ordered a kit from Dana. I have a Dana 50 upfront right now. After doing a U joint and some other things we found out that the carrier gear is shot inside the pumpkin. Right now I currently have 4.10 gears. I plow with the truck so I think I'm going to do a Dana 60 solid front axle swap. And I'm thinking while I'm at it I may go down to 3.55 or whatever gears I can find. And I may just put a 1 ton axle in the back saying that my yoke bearings are shot. I do run the highway once in a while so it would be nice to get rid of the 4.10. I'll keep everything updated if I decide to start doing a swap has anyone else done a swap like this and what should I look for being involved?


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[laserjock]

This is exactly the swap I did. I went from 4.10 D50 to 3.55 D60. It's a direct bolt in. I pulled both axles from a 1 ton. Things that you will need are:

For the front:
Axle
Ubolt plate for the driver side (they are nearly impossible to find aftermarket so if its there make sure you get it with the axle)
track bar and bracket
Front driveshaft (this may be optional as it seems some folks can get away with running the original and some have binding problems. It seems to vary)
Springs (on EDIT... forgot the springs. The 250 springs don't work with the D60.

For the rear:
axle (if you aren't swapping gears)
the lift blocks. F250 spring blocks are about 2" the F350 blocks are about 4" These are also hard to find factory items although they can be had in the aftermarket pretty easy.


If you don't have axles and stuff lined up yet, it may very well be cheaper to buy an entire truck just to get the axles out of it. Swap your stuff over to it to make it roll and then part out the rest. That's what I ended up doing. I bought the whole truck for about the going rate of the front axle. Granted I ended up going through the axle and replacing everything but I didn't have to change gears and I got a rear axle and another running 7.3 and a clean (although bent) core support.

There are lots of swaps documented here. Probably the best that Ive seen documentation wise is one by mblaney.

Hope that helps.

 

[IDIoit]

X2 on buying a complete truck.
d-60's arnt cheap
i ended up buying a 89 F350 for a grand vs. a front end for 1300....
it was a gasser truck with a blown headgasket. ive sold about 500 dollars of parts off the truck to make some money back.
i dont know what the d-50 is using, but i needed the steering box and pitman arm for my swap as well.

 

[mblaney]

link in my signature might help you

 

[laserjock]

Oh, crap. forgot the pitman arm and drag link. I think the shorter one will work but it may cause a travel issue. The 250 pitman is almost flat and the 350 drops a bit to counter the extra height.

 

[mblaney]

Oh, crap. forgot the pitman arm and drag link. I think the shorter one will work but it may cause a travel issue. The 250 pitman is almost flat and the 350 drops a bit to counter the extra height.

Yep, in my thread I took a picture of the two pitman arms next to each other; if you use the D50 pitman with the straight axle you will go from having the turning radius of a school bus that of a freight train! I also took pics of the knuckle arms to show the difference.

Inno, I bought a whole truck for $350 that was missing the transmission and rear axle. I parted out what I needed and scrapped the rest for $280. Pretty good deal for a complete D60 - but I replaced every consumable part on it. Like you, my D50 was due for a bunch of work so the parts list needed for the D60 was mostly a wash.

 

[catbird7]

Getting ready to do this swap and noticed Laserjock mentions the F250 front leaf springs will not work with the D60 front axle. I have both trucks F350 4x4 and F250 4x4 and they appear the same however I'm looking at both front axles while they are still in the truck. Maybe after removal the difference will be obvious?

 

[laserjock]

The f250 ttb springs arch down (frowny face) the f350 D60 springs arch up (happy face). Lengths are about the same but the truck will bottom out bad if you run the D50 springs on the D60.

 

[mblaney]

The D50 springs are a bunch stiffer than for the D60. The reason is that the TTB axle is connected to the truck at the pivot; If you calculate the moments around any point (tire, spring or pivot) you will find out the the D50 spring is about 30% heavier (guessing, I didn't measure it) than for the straight axle (for comparably rated trucks).

Edit: I think I am having a slow day... I decided to draw a picture

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[laserjock]

Damn.... busting out the math.

The other thing that is different is the twisting load on the spring. There is an inherent side load put on the TTB spring due to the fixed pivot and spring perch locations. As the arm travels, it essentially gets longer and shorter through the arc.

Slow day here too.