CobraMarty

Looking and finding Dana 60 and 14 bolt axles is getting harder and harder. More scarce, further away, more expensive.
Getting fully built axles are too expensive.
Ford Super Duty '99-'04 and '05+ has become a very good other choice. The '05 are still a bit scarce and expensive.

Why even consider all this? I guess it is all part of the learning curve and wanting to upgrade and have more reliability and capability.

-Stock HP D30/8.25- good for most, daily driver, mild wheeling, 31" tires.
-Upgraded HP D30/8.25- Chrome moly shafts, gears, diff, covers,33" tires
-'Super' HP D30/8.25- + sleeved and trusses, C reinforcements, HD lower control arm brackets, 35"
..also 8.8 rear, JK front D30 and 44 rear, Dana 44

Now for 37" and 40" tires-
-'99-'04 Super Duty Axles, 1 ton, cheap, everywhere, decent support, require 8x170 wheels, some 16 or 17". Huge wheel bearings, huge inner C's, huge ball joints and 1480 U joints. Uses D60 knuckles and brakes. Has 1350 drive shaft U joints.

37" - Dana 50 from Expeditions and F250 and 10.25", with 5" backspacing 9" wheels, even with the wider WMS-WMS, the outside of the tire is only about 1.5" wider on each side than D30 with 35s on 3.75" back spacing. Bushwacker or Notch Custom flares will nearly cover.
-can get lockers and CM shafts if needed. 30 spline inners and 30 spline outers. Can upgrade to 35 spline outers if needed.

40" - need Dana 60 front which has 35 spline inners and bigger diff.

42"+ - need '05+ Dana 60 with even bigger unit bearings and has support for 1550+ U joints and 40 spine

This has been our progression and where we are going.
Thought about building custom axles like 609 or 6044JK8.9 for the front but are too expensive.

We have several projects on the burners with all these combinations.
-Built Super D30/44 CM shafts and trussed with 35" Duratracs cut stock flares
-Built Super D30/8.9 with 37" MTRs with Notch flares
-'94 Ranger linked with Jeep XJ 4.0L AW4 and 231 and stock '00 F250 Super Duty D50/10.25 with 5.38s and Grizzly lockers and 40" Pro Comp Extreme MT2 and 42" PitBull Rockers
-replacing the Super D30/8.9 and Super D30/44 with stock Excursion D50/10.25 and 37" tires

WHY ALL THIS UPGRADING?
All the D30/D44/JK all use small U joints, weak C arms, small unit bearings and ball joints. Tired of having to change parts out every 2 years or breaking. Trying to find an upgrade which still can be daily driven, drive cross country, wheeling without having to worry about breaking.
RCVs are not the answer, they only address the small U joints with CM shafts. Still have the small weak C arms, small unit bearings and small ball joints.
I'm tired of changing out worn out parts or worring about breaking parts.

And, Artec is coming out with a kit for SD D50/60 into TJ/XJ in the next week or 2. Mounts, everything. And the rear 10.25/10.5 only needs spring perches and shock mounts.

MoparNJeep

Dana 50 is one of the most overlooked axles. I find them priced for $150 most the time. I Remember reading you can use some dana 60 parts in them.

machinisttx

14 bolt is a GM axle. The fords, starting in '85, used the 10.25/10.5 Sterling. 10.5 parts drop into the earlier 10.25 housing, and you're probably going to have to regear anyway, so why just look at the '99+ models? I'm guessing the disc brakes from the newer models can be retrofitted to the earlier axle fairly easily. If not, aftermarket suppliers can fix you up. First and second gen also have a non metric wheel stud pattern.

It appears that for the best end product, one should start with the mid 90's second generation version of this axle and swap in the third gen three spider carrier. The third gen axle uses a smaller pinion bearing. AFAIK, all the aftermarket gears are third gen 10.5" size.

CobraMarty

8x170 wheels are fairly common and F250 hand-me-downs are out there.
Don't be afraid of the metric bolt pattern.

D50 vs D60- U joint and knuckle out are the same, cover, unit bearing, brakes are all the same. Externally the housings are the same, internally the pumpkins are different
D50s have smaller bearings and narrower diff, 30 spline and 9" ring gear and smaller pinion shaft.
D60s have a bigger and wider diff, bigger bearings, 35 spline and 9.75" ring rear and larger pinion shaft.
D60 internals will not go into a D50.

Usually you find matching year axles as the pair together.

machinisttx

I'm a machinist and I hate metric.

andrewmp6

Gm ran the 14 bolt tell like 99 if i remember right.Then it was replaced with a aam 11.5 axle and dodge uses the same rear axle,But the gm aam 11.5 axle has weaker axle tubes that narrow down and the dodge does not.

Dylan2405

I have a 3/4 ton f250 front from a 79 and a sterling full float 10.5 from an 04 f250. Got the axles for 300. Had a guy install them for $1400 and sold all my old ****, I’m into it for less than $2000, and that’s with brand new rims and brand new 38” tires.

Big David

How did you address the difference lug patterns?

Dylan2405

Ordered new wheels. In 17x9 with 4.5” backspacing but in 2 different sizes. 8x6.5 front and 8x170 rear.

Big David

Gotcha. I love those tires.

Dylan2405

I read up a lot about them, and honestly couldn’t recommend them any more. These are by far the most quiet mud terrains I’ve ever had. They were more quiet than my 40” Toyo MTs I had on my Cummins. And they run true to size. Got them for $203 a tire matching wal marts out of stock price lol