I plan to upgrade the front axle in my Excursion, as I will be getting rid of the Dana 50 when I go with 37's.
Option one: Bolt in 99-04 Super Duty Dana 60.
Pros: Complete bolt in, ABS stuff works
Cons: Ball joint knuckles, high steer expensive, unit bearings.
Option 2: 1986-91 Ford F-350 Dana 60
Pros: Near a bolt in, spring perch width same. Kingpin knuckles allow more highsteer options. More aftermarket support. Rebuildable hubs.
Cons: Steering may require some fab, wheel bolt pattern different, no ABS.
So, I really don't care about the ABS, but I want the wheel bolt pattern to match front and rear, which means redrilling one of the axles and rotors. Steering fab is not too big of an issue.
I have neither axle yet and am shopping. Which way would you go?
1 and talk with rock solid about high steer. They have been doing a lot with these axles.
And don't be scared of ball joints. Replace them with a quality joint. I wheeled the shit out of my ball joint 60 on 40s and full hydro and never had an issue. Twisted the pass tube in the housing twice and eventually bent both tubes. But ball joints were never a problem.
I STILL do not understand why people are concerned about unit bearings and ball joints. Buy good products and they will hold up.
13 races on the 4400 buggy and I replaced exactly 0 unit bearings (I even ripped the knuckle off the axle and the uni bearing was fine). I DID replace the balljoints twice. Once was preventative maintenancebefor KOH, and the other was after landing in a washout which sheared my knuckle off (mentioned above).
Not to mention my tire/wheel combo is about 144 lbs per corner...
also as mentioned, rock solid has an awesome high steer kit that really isn't that expensive.
If I did it again I think I would have gone with a UB/BJ D60. Yeah old school hubs are rebuildable and blah blah blah, but for as often as a UB is actually going to go bad I can deal with it being a throw away part.
Also consider that the factory king pin knuckles are weak....with hysteer on something as heavy as a diesel excursion with 37's it will be 100% necessary to go with after market knuckles which are $$$...the super duty knuckles are alot stronger and rock solids hysteer is :rock:.
What about going the other way and getting a 05+ super duty 60 so you already have 1.5" 35 spline outers as well as heavier tubes and even beefier knuckles?
What about going the other way and getting a 05+ super duty 60 so you already have 1.5" 35 spline outers as well as heavier tubes and even beefier knuckles?
I haven't seen those up close out of a truck. I know those are radius arm axles and the thought has crossed my mind to "update" my Excursion suspension to the new style. However do you or anyone else know if there is enough room on those axles to run them under leafs?
Do you really need a d60? A d50 is a reverse rotation 9" ring gear. Reverse rotation in the front is slightly stronger than regular rotation. Are you going to throw a spool in it and rock crawl with an excursion?
Alright great thoughts here. The strength of balljoints is not a concern to me, the advantage I saw about kingpin was the better steering options only. But thank you guys for the above suggestions, I will definitely be checking those out. That may swing my vote towards a Superduty axle.
As for unit bearings, they are not horrible, but in my experience they just don't hold up like the old stuff. I probably put 4-5 "high quality" ones on my XJ with stock tires in the 150,000 miles I drove it.
I believe the radius arm brackets are just welded on so they can reasonably be removed unlike the old cast wedges....i don't know about putting a spring perch on the drivers side but i would think it could be done.
As for the "keep the 50" comments, I don't want to put any money into this axle. Plus I have several Dana 60 Detroits already and a variety of gear sets and other parts.
I agree with what everyone else said. If you have a Dana 50 now just rebuild all the steering parts, unit bearing and new ball joints now and then find a 60 housing when you can. That way you can swap all those parts over and your good to go.
I grabbed a 2003 Superduty Dana 60 with the right gears and all the steering stuff on it for $375. I plan to clean it up, toss one of my Detroits in it, and swap it in.
If you want any bling parts for it make sure to talk to ROCKSOLID performance. Their high steer arms and machines knuckles are awesome. They also redrilled mine to 8 on 6.5 for me. Great guys!
I've never seen a dually excursion so i'm assuming you're planning on a SRW. Do not forget that ALL SRW superduties ran 50's from 99 to sometime in '02. This narrows your search possibilities down to a couple 02's, 03's and 04's F-350's.
I think you should convert it to 2wd. Gas savings, weight savings, etc. Face it, with a dozen people riding around in there by the time you load everyone up and get ready, then when you get to the trail head it will be time to turn around and go home!
High steer is not expensive. Talk to ROCKSOLID performance. What is wrong with unit bearings? Why build a steering 14b? A 35 spline 60 shaft is just as beefy as a 14b shaft. The 14b has the extra pinion support but you are putting the strain on the coast side of the gears. If you aren't going to buy the fancy bling shafts and locker what are you gaining?
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