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![]() Building a high pinion Dana 60 for the front of a CJ-7. It sounds like a good idea but the problem is that all the factory high pinion Dana 60's have the differential on the wrong side of the vehicle. So, a custom axle is the only route to go. Since I had re-tubed a high pinion Dana 44 just a few years ago, making a Dana 60 high pinion a passenger side differential shouldn't be that bad. This time, to simplify the process, I would simply shorten the long side and make it the shorter of the two sides. And then, with the original short side, I would add an inner sleeve, much as I had done when I had built the high pinion D60 rear axle, and add a section of tube to turn it into the long side. In other words, my plan was to make the short side long and the long side short. So lets start off with the parts that were used (or destroyed) to make this project. A Dana 60 high pinion was salvaged from a 1978 Ford F-350. The brakes, what was left of the factory lock-outs, and the factory inner axle shafts were all scrapped. New spring perches were procured from Lou Fegers Racing. Howe Racing twin disk calipers, Chevy-style mounting, were procured from Behling Racing. A Detroit soft locker, 5.13 gears, bearing kit, and Pro Comp lock out hubs were supplied by Drivetrain Warehouse. The hubs and brake rotors were machined for by a friend of mine in the Black Hills 4 Wheelers. Custom steering arms from Roggy Enterprises. New inner 35 spline axle shafts from Moser Engineering. Other small parts include 1979 F-150 rotors and wheel studs, bearings as needed, and u-joints.
The next weekend, the first thing I did was to make two cut just inside the knuckles to free them from the housing. These short pieces of tube were then pressed from the inner knuckles. The next step was to cut the axle tubes to length. All measurements were double- and triple-checked and then the axle was cut to length in a band saw. The long side was cut down to the short side first and the length of tubing was salvaged to be reused on the new long side. This will only work if you are narrowing/shortening the axle at the same time. The long side of the axle was then created from the factory short side by pressing in an 8" piece of 2.125" OD .250 wall tubing as an inner sleeve. Then the salvaged piece was pressed onto the inner sleeve. The two tubes were then welded to make one long side tube. The weld was done in a series of stitch welds to keep the housing cool and avoiding any warping. The weld was cleaned up and the axle smoothed out. Next, the spring pads were added to the axle. They were set in relation to the angle of the pinion that was desired and the angle of the springs. Once this was mocked up and verified they were welded in place. After that, the inner knuckles were pressed on and the caster was set. The knuckles before pressing were set to a rough caster measurement. About halfway on they were removed from the press and mocked up again and set to actual measurements. Then they were pressed all the way on the tubes and again re-verified. Once this was done the inner knuckles were welded to the axle. Again, this was done in a series of stitch welds to avoid heating and warping the axle. Once the housing was built it was just a matter of reassembling the axle as you would any other. Just a couple of items worth mentioning on reassembly. The hubs and rotors will need the wheel studs pressed into them. Also I found that with the Chevy brakes I used I needed to slightly clearance the knuckle to avoid interference with the caliper. This was easily done with a grinder and still left plenty of material on the knuckle. Also with the steering arms you will need to get longer bolts on the passenger side to hold the steering arm on. One could also use studs here. I was short on time and couldn't find the correct studs so I used grade 8 bolts. One final thought: D60's are heavy. Plan on getting a friend or two over to help you install it.
by Mike Knorr
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