Ever seen an offset diff Dana 60 ?

Wow, it's finally done. After ignoring a ton of negative comments about how it wouldn't work(not from this group), half the project is completed.

I took a 1975 full floating Dana 60 HD from a Ford F-250, narrowed the axle, bored the spindles, and offset the diff ( I love my model 18 T/C and wanted something different), installed a Moser spool with 35 spline 1.5 inch alloys and replaced or rebuilt everything else. Fabbed up a custom driveshaft,mounts, ect...and finished installing everything Saturday.

Took it for a ride today (20 degrees ---OUCH) and couldn't be more thrilled. No driveline vibration or binding even under max articulation and droop. Since this thing has a locked rear, it climbs unbelievable in 2wd.

Gotta tell ya, this project was a pain, between the custom yokes, driveshaft and suspension mounts for this project, it had its' low points. Last week I was so depressed I would have let the Jeep go just to get it out of my sight... I'm okay now....Honest....

Now to repaint that left brake line and start narrowing the Dana 60 front.......

To be continued....

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Looks Good!

 

That's a big ol' axle under there. Looks gud!

I really like your main eye mounts. Do those yourself?

Interesting shackle setup. Just trying to tweak ride height, or some other reasoning in mind?

What are those tires, about 35" or so?

 

Thanks for the kind words...

I made the main eye mounts out of 1/2 x 4 inch steel and ran a ball endmill down them for the pattern. The shackes were made with 2 thoughts in mind, for trail riding, I plan to use the setting as shown since it gives a nice ride height and the bottom round piece functions as a limiter for axle droop. I plan to switch to the lowest setting when running in mud bogs for additional clearance. The tires are 36" Goodyear Wrangler Military OZ mounted on Humvee rims with runflats and bead locks...

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That is one of the coolest projects I have seen on here. Nice job. That looks awesome!

 

That simply rocks. Very impressive.

 

You're my new hero. I love it.

 

Beautiful job! Alot of people tried to talk me out of installing a 60, but I once I break a weak link(dana 44), I like to replace it with something a little stronger, Bored your spindles? You must have stayed full float? Lets see a pic of the wheel with the hub, sounds cool. When I was on the search for a donor housing, I noticed 3/4 ton Dodge vans were offset, probably not the right measurments for you though.

 

Is there a reason you didn't flip the pumpkin and do a high pinion diff? BTW that's some great work.:v6:

 

good work

 

How far off the ground is the pumpkin on 36's? Lot of the guys I run with do the 60's front and rear. Usually with bigger tires. With those big diffs having them both offset to the same side will be a huge plus.

 

Looks very good! Nice to hear it's up and running, if your around this weekend I'll stop by.

 

To be honest, I never looked at the Dodge van rears. My guess is it would still have needed to be reworked both sides. I went with the Ford rear because it was a full floater and Heavy Duty version. A high pinion would have been nice, but it would have forced me to redo the exhaust for clearance and I don't have bad driveline angles with the low pinion because the whole drivetrain is lowered 8 inches into the frame to keep the angles managable and the center of gravity low.

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I've got 10.5 " under the pumpkin, 15.5 under the tubes and 18" under the crossmember. To your point, with the diffs in line I can skim over a
15" rock without too much trouble. I had originally planed to go with 38 or plus tires, but I kind of like the way it looks with the 36's. The beadlocks and runflats are a huge plus as well.

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What with axles are you running? Are your hummer rims recentered or not, If so what backspacing? It looks good . I am starting to do the same thing to my 58 CJ-5 .
Thanks , Mike

 

Mike,

I narrowed the axle to 60" drum to drum. Humvee wheels have an 8.75 " inch width and about 7" of backspacing so I did not need to recenter the wheels. I actually sought out these wheels so I would have a wide stance and not have the drum assembly sticking out.

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I'm really enjoying those pics too. Keep them coming.

 

if you flipped the axle over or the center section then it will run backwards. to get a HP 60 or 44 you need a front from a ford, jason.

 

If you were to run a HP Dana 60 front carrier and graft on tubes to make it a rear axle, you are still running the gears "backwards". My understanding has always been that ring gears are not as strong when run backwards. I've seen way to many rigs blow their gears trying to pull out a stuck vehicle in reverse. In my case I had no need to go with a HP rear, but I'm curious on the ring gear strenght issue......

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no there still runing in the forward direction there just runing on the coast side of the gears ( like if you where backing up ), this is what make them weaker buy 35 to 40%. with an under powered motor they are fine but any type of pony power and your testing the limits. what happens is the gears start seperating under force then they slip off each other and bang all done.

we had a friend take out a thick set of 4.56 gaers in his HP 60 over the summer, the thinner gears with the series 4 carrier are stronger. getting them cryod ( the gear ) is goin to get them stronger to, so theres hope for the HP 60 and 44 but not under a high hourse power, jason.