dana 60 front and rear question

Has anyone here ever took a high pinion dana 60 front end, or a regular dana 60 front end, and gutted it, and chop the long side, take the guts from a jeep dana 60 rear with 5x51/2 lug pattern and have the shafts cut to length and resplined?

And make an offset dana 60 for a dana 18?

Or just chop a regular dana 60 rear end?

 

I'm sure they're out there. A full size 60 could likely be cut down to an off set to mate with an 18. It would need custom shafts so might as well go 35 spline.

 

More then likely would probably in the long run , be easier to just do a regular rear end huh?

And just have the shafts cut and resplined, then re drilled for 5x51/2

Dont they make a dana 60 front hub kit for 5x51/5?

 

Yes their are 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern kits for a front Dana 60. There are no full float factory Dana 60 rear so can't use parts from one of those for the front.
I got my kit from Six States Distributing years ago but not sure if they are still available from them. Dynatrac, Tera Mfg, and others make kits for converting. Not cheap though.
A fairly easy rear 60 with 35 spline shafts to narrow if you can find one is the late 60's early 70's Jeep pickup 60-2 with 12" brakes. Semi-float axles, factory 35 spline shafts, 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern. That's what is under my '59 CJ-6 narrowed to approximately 58 1/2" wheel to wheel. The biggest issue is the 12" brakes but R&P has a disc brake conversion to eliminate this problem. The axle bearings aren't cheap either.
If you want narrow track CJ width axles forget about the 60 front. Not gonna happen as the front axle is just too big. I narrowed mine which started life as a '93 Dodge kingpin axle to about 60" wheel to wheel. Might be able to get just a touch narrower but not much. The castings are just too large. Both axles in mine are very close to Scout 2/Wagoneer width which is what I had under it before building the 60's.
I also have a wider than CJ frame under mine which made it possible to go that narrow on the front axle. If I had a stock width frame I would have had to outboard the front springs to get that narrow. I can probably take some pics tomorrow if you want.
Narrowing the rear was relatively easy but a lot of work.

The front was kind if a pita and I've narrowed a lot of axles.


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Did the 12 inch brakes fit the 15 inch wheels?

 

Why Narrow the axles? Just outboard your springs and run them full width :tea:

 

I'm pretty sure they did not but couldn't swear to it.


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Because in stock form full width is around 67" wms to wms. Almost too wide at 60" front. In full width form the tires are completely outside the body. Not only goofy looking, illegal in many areas, but also too wide for many trails.



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If you're talking trail rig only, I see full size 3/4 ton and 1 ton axles under rigs all the time. I personally don't think it looks that goofy. Allows for more articulation than stock with little to no lift.

Now as far as someone who drives their rig on the street occasionally or daily, I wouldn't do it.
If you do end up narrowing, I would only narrow it down to the stock 76+ wide track width. Pre 75 width is too skinny

Personally, I'd go Dana 60 or Chevy 14 bolt in the rear, Dana 44 in the front. That's what I plan on doing, but I'll probably grab 8 lug axles and swap to 8 lug wheels

 

Well with the theme I am trying to go with.
Other then the with of my tires.I want it look as stock as possible.Thats why if I upgrade axles at all the rear will be built offset.
I want a dana 60, because unless you are a super uber jeep geek (Timgr)...... Ridicules jeep geek(Nickmil)

At quick glance it resembles a 44

This is a sleeper build....

 

A friend used a high pinion Dana 60 as a rear axle pumpkin to alleviate the rear driveshaft angle. He ran a 5.7ltr Hemi along with a NV4500 and an Atlas case. Sure your running on the coast side of the gears and all, but it worked well for him.


Cutting full float rear axles is easy, and getting custom length axle shafts should not hold you back, IMHO.

My only issue with running one ton stuff in a shortwheelbase rig is that they tend to look like squirrels with elephant b*lls.

 

Thats why I was thinking high pinion housing.

"My only issue with running one ton stuff in a shortwheelbase rig is that they tend to look like squirrels with elephant b*lls."

Thanks for making me spit root beer all over my monitor

 

root beer???? I'm embidding on Shock Top Belgian White as we speak

 

First, '76 is not widetrack. That didn't come about until late '82. '72-'75 30 front axles are the exact same width as '76-'82 and all are considered narrowtrack. The '71 and older 25's and 27's are only about 1 1/2" narrower total.

In your area full width may fit on the trails just fine. I don't know. In my area, there are trails that full width axles simply won't fit without cutting down trees. Whether an axle should be narrowed all depends on intended use and taste.

I have to ask, are these full width axles on a Jeep with an 81" or 84" wheel base or are they later model longer Jeeps or have extended wheelbases?

 

Here are a couple pics of the cut down 60 installed in the '6 project. Again, cut down to 60 1/2" wms to wms. You can see on the passenger side there really isn't much room to go narrower on this side. I have some mount plate and shock mount changes to make, this was more or less to make it moveable.



Here is a pic of the complete front end



here is a pic showing the 36"x12.50x15" Swamper radials on 8" wide wheels with standard backspacing, 3 3/4" iirc. This is to show how far the tires stick out, and those are 6" wide Xenon flares to give you an idea. Keep in mind full width is approximately 6 1/2-7" wider than this. These tires are no wider than 33"x12.50"x15" tires are.

 

Hey Nick!.................No Room! What are you talking about?......(LOL) No way could you do a SUA............and yep that shock mount will be interesting...........so 60.5" in the front, what width did you do in the back?
That's kinda why I'm still thinking on my next project HP D-44's........thanks for posting the photo's.

 

WoW .

Well looks like the 44 will just be beefed up LOL

Holly no room....

Thanx for blowing holes in all my plans damit

 

I just re-read my first post above and I meant to say there are no full float 5 on 5 1/2" Dana 60's. not that there were no full float Dana 60's as there are all kinds of those with everything from 16 spline up to 32 spline axle shafts.
If you decide to go 14 bolt bolt rear keep in mind they hang down a long ways (can be overcome, lots of shave kits available). If you decide to narrow one you will need custom shafts made as the shafts narrow up right behind the splines so can't be simply cut and splined. Been there done that.
Tomorrow I'll try and take some other pics to give you guys other ideas.


Tarry99, I narrowed the rear Jeep PU 60-2 to 58 1/2" wide. I cut the Long side to match the short side (same length as stock short side shaft) and added disc brakes to get me dang close to Scout 2 rear stock width.


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you can cut the long side on the 14 bolt to the same length as the other side and run the same shaft on each side. only need just one size spare shaft. a friend of mine did it to his rig

 

Are you still in contact with that friend?Or do you remember what the final width ended up being, WMS to WMS?