Hi im new here so bare with me im possibly wanting to do an axle swap on my truck , i am needing to do one to the front axle anyways because while mudding the other day i broke my axle shaft so rather than just replace the shaft im going to replace the whole axle because the coil spring mounts are going bad/ rusting out and i know of no way to fix that, but , what im wondering is how difficult is it to do a swap from a d44 to a d60 what changes need made to the drive shaft steering components etc to make it work, i have heard it is a take off bolt on procedure but you have to change the drive shaft. I will be needing to do this to both front and back so all info on both will help significantly. and if anyone does know of a way to fix the coil mounts on the axle please let me know. any and all info will help im not unexperienced at all i work in a shop just never done this before. PLEASE INFORM ME!!!! THANK YOU.

 

The front is indeed a bolt in job, I was able to use my org front ds with no problem at all.
For the rear you can either use the 3" 2500 leafs and change the spring hangers on the frame or use the 2.5" 1500 spring's and install new spring perches on the rear diff. Rear DS will need to be shortened and the u-joint size dealt with at the same time.

I have done this swap, Ham bone is in the middle of doing this and has a thread going on, one or two others have done this as well.

Link to threads

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...a-60-swap.html

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...dana-80-a.html

 

thank you for the info. whats the reson for having to install new perches, do the old ones not line up or is there something els going on as far as the driveshafts will i have to buy new ones or am i able to use the old one but get it modified.

 

Rear springs on heavier trucks are wider than the half-ton guys.

Keep in mind, all the D60's for your truck are going to be eight lug. So, new wheels will be in order as well. 16" wheels will fit, if you get rear drum brakes. 15" will not. Need 17s or larger if you get a disk rear. (I think, might be 18....)

Gonna move this to the tech section. Read thru the two threads Merc linked for LOTS of answers.

 

yes i did i am deffidently confident i can easily accomplish this task lol. thanks alot for the information now on to find full floating d60s !!!!! and yes new rims are must for all upgrades. pull a part here i come!!!!

 

My 2500 part truck had rear disc with the stock 16 in wheels steelies. As far as I know they are what originally came on the truck.

2500 springs are 3 in. Therefore the perches are bigger and line up different. You can either cut your 2.5 perches and weld them on in the right spot or change hangars. Hangars involve cutting out giant frame rivets. Not fun. But worth the 3in springs in my situation. That's up for you and what you want out of your truck.

If you get a pre-99 axle you can do the 99HD steering upgrade. Much better than stock.

I have my front 60 in and am working on the rear. I got a nice 4.10 gear ratio upgrade with mine. It steers, rides, and feels much better than the little 44.

I'd say I got at least a half inch of free lift just because the axles are so much bigger.

 

i can not wait to do this sap ( even tho i may have to wait till after winter) but now dont ? my intelligence some of this is new to me how do gear ratios work compared to what tire sizes your using i have a very minuet knowledge of how gearing works and how they correspond to tire size????????

 

Gear ratio and tire size work hand in hand to determine your final drive ratio. Final drive ratio is basically how many engine revolutions as relates to tire revolutions. Stock gearing is more than likely 3.55:1 (gear ratio in differential), stock tires are right around 30" diameter. When you go larger on the tires, you are changing the the Final Drive Ratio.... make the number smaller. That means you speedometer underestimates your speed, and your engine turns lower RPM for the same road speed. Of course, this also means the engine/trans have to work harder to get you rolling...... which means, worse gas mileage around town, but, slightly better on the freeway. If you tow, it's a pain.

General rule of thumb on gears here is: 4:10s for 33 inch tires, 4.56 for 35" tires, will keep you very close to stock RPM, for any given road speed. Of course, still need to correct the speedometer..... On the 97 and older trucks, it's a simply matter of changing a gear on the VSS. Gears run about 30 bucks for that.

Changing diff gears though...... if you have to pay someone else to do it, you are looking at anywhere between 500-800 PER axle...... (including parts.)

 

Here is a link to where I purchased my axles

http://www.car-part.com/

I had done research for several weeks and decided on what I wanted and decided that I wanted to upgrade to 1 ton axles. To make sure that I didn't get axles off a dually 1 ton, I looked for axles off a 2500 diesel. The diesels come with 1 ton axles. Beings I was planning on changing the gear ratio to 5.13's I really did'nt care about what ratio the axles came with or even if they matched. I did get lucky and find them in missouri off the same truck. At that time, they had several options.

Here is another link where I took the search engine to front axle assy 4wd located in the north east

http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

I'm not sure if that link will work but that car-parts.com website is pretty easy to navigate. I paid just a little over $1000 for them delivered and all.

 

ok well if the front ds will work just fine then what do i ave to do about the rear ds if it needs shortened how would i go about getting that done or can i just get a ds out of a 2500?