M88x Front DANA 60

[Dave_1972]

My apologies as I am sure someone has asked this before but I don't see a thread on it in the forum.

Did any of the Dodge military trucks come with a front DANA 60? I have three M880's and one of them is going to be the donor drivetrain for a 65 Scout build-up and I'd love to find a DANA 60 front for it.

I see lots of the old military Dodges around Central Arkansas (sold from the Forestry service) and might be able to find one if I knew what model to look for.

 

[NDT]

Nope. All Dana 44's. You will have to get a CUCV front axle for a Dana 60, or a M715.

 

[98hd]

Nope. All Dana 44's. You will have to get a CUCV front axle for a Dana 60, or a M715.

I'd stay away from the 715 front axle, as it's a closed knuckle. Also, keep in mind the CUCV front is going to have a different gear ratio (4.56) than the M880 (4.10) rear.

 

[ddgeramcharger79]

you can get dana 60 front axles off of any late 70 up into the 80 dodge trucks and they will work.. you just have to shorten the front drive shaft cause the pumpkin ball is longer.

 

[Elwenil]

Dodge Dana 60s were available in '75-'93 W series trucks. I believe '72-'74 used a closed knuckle Dana 70 front but a D60 is possible in there somewhere. The '75-'79 Dana 60s will have drive flanges instead of locking hubs as they are all fulltime 4WD trucks. Dana 60s from '80 to '93 will have locking hubs but most '80s models will have the Selectro Dualmatic style external locking hub. Later versions will have a typical Warn style internal locking hub. All Dodge W series front D60s are kingpin axles and have 35 spline inner axles and 30 spline outer stub axles and I believe all are disc brake. A stock Dodge front D60 will generally run you from $700 to $1,500 depending on condition. One with offroad modifications such as highsteer, lockers, alloy axles, offroad C's and knuckles, etc can run as much as $6000 new. Be aware that some W200 and W250 trucks (3/4 ton) were equipped with front Dana 60s but they are rare. Also be aware that some W300 and W350 trucks (1 ton) were equipped with the Dana 44HD, so just because a truck is a 1 ton 4WD, does not mean it will automatically have a front Dana 60.

Good luck finding a D60 for your truck. They can be a pain to find sometimes, other times they are easy to find and hard to afford. A GM D60 will probably be your best bet as they are much easier to find, especially with the CUCVs coming into the market. A GM D60 and a 14 Bolt full floating rear are easy to find, cheap and tough, which makes them an easy choice. In any case, the GM D60s are much more plentiful than the Dodge versions, most use typical internal style locking hubs and can be had much cheaper in almost every case.

 

[ddgeramcharger79]

how directly do the gm d60's bolt into the dodge trucks?

are the yokes pretty much the same? i always wondered but never new.

 

[Elwenil]

Yokes are different, commonly GM axles have Spicer yokes while Dodges usually have Detroit yokes. The springs will have to be bowed in to bolt up a GM D60 and you will have to change how the brake lines are run and work out a steering connection as the GM axles usually have a larger rod end.