Gonna go look at a dana 60 tomarrow out of a truck guy said take 50 bucks so im gonna look
I told him I just needed the bare housing. So hes gonna take the open center and pinnion out
Is there anything to look for or to avoid?
Im wanting to have cut down for car. Think is out of a late 60s early 70 ford truck

I would see what gear ratio it has and then decide if I wanted them based on the condition and price. What weight car, size motor and track length are you building the rear end for? I use to buy all the hurt junkyard Dana 60 I could get, especially those that had a bad axle end on them with 4.10 or lower gears( 4.30,4.56 and up ) and posi units You already stated it was a open rear so a spool will fix that easily. I have one out of a 3/4 or 1 ton van in the shop now that I had narrowed locally and new ends put on it. I bought a early clutch style posi unit from another member on here in the past and bought axles and the parts needed to convert the 30 spline posi to a 35 spline from Dr Diff. It is ready to go into its new home, 1966 dodge Coronet Deluxe, with the orignal 3:54 gears for street driving. 464 C.I. 440 motor with a NP 833 O.D. tranny, hopefully the gears are quite and the used tranny is good also

One thing to look for is the condition of the differential housing bearing mounting points.

I scrapped a truck Dana 60 because the differential mounting points were so wore out that they needed machined with special equipment that it wasn't worth it to fix.

Some of the truck housing use really thick tubes...the dana60 I built for my challenger was a full floater for $50. The tubes were like 5/8" thick if I remember correctly. I chopped the full float ends off and could believe how think they were. Makes for a heavier rear end. I used them as is . Mg build, but I think you Ca. Replace the tubes if it bothers you. Also, the truck rear tubes are bigger in diameter that car tubes, requiring larger U-bolts than cars usually use. Not a problem...just something to be aware of.

I just did one for Dizusters car. Remove the caps and make sure the side bearings haven't damaged the housing. Out of a late 70s/early 80s Ford dually. The tubes were .310" thick. Try to find one with the ratio you want. We reused the ring & pinion and the pinion bearings. Add your choice of carrier.Reset the backlash to the same number you measured when you took it apart, done. Ours still had .008" backlash.
Doug

That era Ford p/u had some 1/2T 5 bolt (5 on 5 1/2") axle Dana 60s. Most were power locks, I think.

I thought the common practice with truck danas is to cut the tubes off at the housing. New tubes are almost a perfect slip-fit into the old. This solves both the u-bolt issue and the weight issue.

We bought 3 1/4 U-bolts and ovaled the holes in the spring plates. Easy fix.
Doug

Any ford half-ton Dana is 5 on 5 1/2" bolt circle. Not 5 on 5".

As if that mattered, the OP isn't working with one of those...

R.

Thanks for the correction. Washing my brain out with go-jo. Must have had my broken (again) GMC on the mind.

Well I bought it. Just bare housing. It had a 3.55 open center I didnt need anyway. The tubes are 3" so thats good also
Later will round up some ends. Came out of a 71 or 72 ford 3/4 ton

I havent unloaded it from the truck bed yet. But was wondering. If it was not possible to drill n tap for a snubber? I havent decided wich car I will put this under yet (one has 4 link) more then likely will not be a issue. Just courious

I wont have to ship the rear nowhere to have to cut/welded. There is a few places here in the bluff that have narrowing jigs and that is what they do

Did you check the differential side bearing faces on the housing to see how they looked as suggested by me and DVW?

Its been raining here all day. I back tbe truck under the carport. With rear still in the bed.

Summer Bros. use to repair the inner carrier bearing race seat on the inner tube ends and provide a shim that went in between the race and the tube I have seen several Dana 60 that had spun the carrier bearing races and goof up the tube ends OP, look closley at yours for any signs before building it. As far as replacing the axle tubes I have a Dana 60-2 that has 2.5 tubes in it, I talked to Cass at Dr Diff to see if he could, would, remove and put new 3 inch tubes in mine as it was hit in a train wreck and bent the crap out of both tubes before I bought it. It was the front end out of 1 ton 4x4. He said no he didn't do them anymore due to wearing out the cutters on his lathe or mill while enlarging the cast steel housing that the axles tubes press in I was planning on that rear end being a really trick lightweight rear end for a four link project car, I was bummed when I found out it was a no go Maybe I will call Dutchman

IMHO, don't worry about the tube size and weight issue.

The difference in a rear with 3" tube and 3.25" is about 4-8 pounds total depending on tube wall thickness. Not enough to worry about.