Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I'm leaning toward keeping the original reverse rotation steering and replacing the gearbox and using a steering lift block on the D60.

The one question I still have is the steering arms on each axle. The arm on the original D44 is shaped quite a bit differently than the one on the D60 and appears to be shorter as well, but I need to go measure. Does anyone know if there are any issues with using the late D60 arm in conjunction with the original reverse rotation steering other than possibly the size of the tie rods?

Thanks for the recommendations on updating the D44 above, but the swap to the D60 is locked in. The D44 is pretty worn out and since that picture of the D60 was taken a while back I've gone through it entirely with new seals, bearings, hub work, etc..

Thanks!
-Jon