Dana 60 Front Axle Swap in 1971 Ford F-250 Question

[Worldsworstfish]

What would it take to swap in a more modern Dana 60 front axle (1980-1996) into my 1972 F250?

I know the holy grail of a 1977.5-1979 High Pinion Dana 60 is the best way to go, however, six months of searching with no luck. Welding spring perches on doesn't bother me, however just haven't seen a lot of this subject. If this has already been covered somewhere, please excuse me, I tried the search function and the results I get and the delay for my next search would take me another six months to find it.

[averagef250]

Can't really do much with the perches. The 86+ Dana 60's aren't nodular iron like the old ones were and won't weld on the center section. If you were able to weld a new perch on how would you keep the driver spring in place? No room for U-bolts and the housing is too thin right there for studs/bolts.

FWII I used a 92 60 under the front of my '70 when I first bought it. I offset the spring hangers with a new front crossmember and made new shackle pivots in the rear. The inner rear shackles passed through the bottom of the frame rails.

I used a 2wd dentside steering box with the 92 tie rods and 4" Skyjacker highboy springs. The tie rods worked great, the 2wd steering box sucked (gutless).

I've retubed 86+ Ford 60's and turned them into 78-79 housings. Splined the longside shaft into a 78-79 shaft and bought another longside shaft to spline for the shortside and got a 78-79 axle with real axleshafts for just a bunch of work. One axle was actually free, it had a bent tube that I fixed when a redid the tubes.

[Worldsworstfish]

Thanks 250, appreciate the information. It is something I just haven't had time to look at the options appreciate the information. I do have a Dana 44 HD Low pinion out of a 76 that I will drag out of storage and use it until I find a 60.