Ford's heavier front axles......

[averagef250]

Has anybody ever seen a driver drop Ford Dana 70 front axle? I know IH, Jeep, etc. used them in the 60's and 70's, but never seen a ford 70 front axle. Only Ford 60's, 80's, marmon herringtons and rockwells under fords.

[adrianspeeder]

Have never seen one or heard of a model that used one.

Adrianspeeder

[72hiboy4x4]

just for future reference, this was posted earlier on here somewhere.
no listing for a Ford Front Dana 70, but it has some other info on the front Dana 70's.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=318285

[willowbilly3]

Ford did use Dana 60 front axles. Look for them on F-350 4x4s from about 1978 to about 1984 I believe. Also I have heard of low pinion closed knuckle 60s on some older (bumpside) crewcab 4x4s. I know one kid who found a closed knuckle for his 71 mud truck. He had a couple spares but those are the only ones I have seen.

[FLATBEDFORD]

I think the Dana 60 was used beyond 1984 on the F350. I know of one that's available in Southern New York from a 1986 F350.

[averagef250]

I've owned dozens of ford chevy and dodge 60 fronts. Doesn't take much convincing for me to believe they made plenty of them. Ford has used 60 fronts since they came out in the mid 60's as a closed knuckle drum brake 30 spline sorry excuse for a front axle. Many of the early 60's had the big 6 lug pattern and make great lawn ornaments or melt them down for razor blades. These were usually found under specialty contract military and forrestry vehicles. In 74 Ford began installing the closed knuckle 60 in it's F-250 crew 4x4's. I don't know why. It's not even the tiniest iota stronger than the 3800 lb HD closed knuckle 44, but they did it anyway. In 76 Ford went to disc brakes on their 4x4's and the F-250 crew 4x4's got a new low pinion open knuckle disc brake 30 spline 60 front that was basically a glorified Dana 44 6CF axle, really, it shares most of the parts, but is still a milestone because it is the first modern open knuckle kingpin 60 front that ford used. In 77.5 ford changed the F-250 4x4 chassis completely to incorporate a mated transfercase and a 4" lower stance. They begun using the most sought after front axle in the universe, the 78-79 ford high pinion 35 spline inner axle dana 60 front. It's actually a pretty bad unit in stock form and spend another grand on one beefing it up with goodies and you'll have to try real hard to break it.

Ford did not use a dana 60 front from 1980 to 1984 or maybe 85 (don't remember which year exactly). Instead, the F-350 4x4's used the dana 50 TTB axle which people weren't too impressed with so they brought the 60 front back for the 85 or 86 model year F-350 4x4.

The dana 60 front was the same from 85-88.5 then in 88.5 the overall width was changed and then in 91.5 the kingpin 60 front was forever gone and replaced with the balljoint 60 up to 97. 98 and 99 ford used the biggest hunk of garbage ever, the Dana 50 solid axle under it's trucks up to F-450's. You could however get a dana 60 front in an F-550 4x4 in 98 and 99. In 2000 or so the 60 came back and is probably still alive in some strange form under the new trucks.

I asked the dana 70 question quite some time ago and the followup was the thread where I explained that I'd decided to retube and narrow an early hunk of junk closed knuckle 60 front into a 67" wms-wms full 35 spline low pinion driver drop open knuckle disc brake 60 front to look completely stock, but be really strong under my highboy. It goes into pretty good detail about the conversion if you're curious.

Edit: The regular cab 77.5 F-250 4x4 didn't come with the 60 front. You had to order the HD front axle option specifically, buy the special snow fighter package or buy a crewcab F-250 4x4 to get the 60 in an F-250 4x4 from 77.5 to 79. In 1979 and only 1979 ford made an F-350 4x4 in the early body style and it came standard with the 60 front. It was however, the exact same truck as the F-250 4x4 except with a higher GVW on the door plate.

I've owned way too many old ford trucks.

[adrianspeeder]

The '05 Superdutys have the same Dana 60 front, but with coil springs and radious arms. Also the Dana 50 was used up to 2001 in some applications, so check those superdutys carefully before pulling.

Adrianspeeder