Dana 60’s from Ford e350 worth building?

Have the option of getting a Dana 60 that is in a Ford E350 Van. There’s actually 3 , 2 2009 Vans and one 2012.
Are these worth getting and have them cut and built to fit a car of choice?

Price a new S60 bare housing and compare against the core + labor.

Also give some thought about whether you care about the lack of snubber provisions and very slightly greater complexity of service (compared to an S60 with diff bearing adjusters) on truck housings.

I'd done that a few years ago and at the time I think there was a small savings going with a salvage yard piece, but it
may have been worth it to pay lightly extra and not have to do any of the work, and have a shiny housing with no grease or rust to deal with, nothing to cut, just build it.

Mine came out of a 1 ton duallie Dodge.

We cut off the full floater ends and replaced with ends I had from an old 8 3/4 housing. I also installed Dr. Diff axles and spool.

With a gear change and some labor to the local chassis shop to burn the ends on, I had around $900.00 in it.

if you can do the work yourself, [or con a buddy to do it for you with beer for payment] and have the setup bar and bearing alignment plugs, it could very well be worth it.
however, if you don't possess the know-how or tools to do the job, it wold be cost effective to just buy the rear done to your specs.
then there is the "time value cost" to consider. how much is your time "worth" ?

I used a 1 ton truck axle for mine. The tubes are thicker to begin with for a race car application such as mine. As mentioned above. I cut the full floating truck ends off and we welded on new Strange Engineering ends. I also have Strange gun drilled 40 spline light weight axles and light spool, with a 4:10 Pro Gear, with the low profile calipers to clear for dbl beadlocks, with Strange rotors and 5/8" studs. I have less than $1700.00 into everything.

If my memory is correct ford offered two different Dana 60 H.D. axle tube diameter, 3.0 and 3.250, maybe even a 3.125 width earlier
I've used all three, I prefer the 3.0 or the 3.125 for the weight savings
The shorter , narrower axle tubes, the less weight

Some of those E van axles were C clip semi floating style. On those it might be practical to have the shafts shortened, resplined and drilled for the right lug patterns.

Both Dizusters and mine are out of Ford trucks. New ends, spool, axles, gear. We do it ourselves. Even ran the junkyard gears in one. Mine was free. As I remember his was either free or cheap as well.
Doug

I retrieved a "Dana 60" from a Diesel E350, and discovered it was actually a Dana 70, doable, but not ideal.

64-72 F-100 pickups had an optional Dana/Spicer 60 Powerloc diff when the buyer wanted a locking diff. 5 bolt axles (5 on 5 1/2").
Usually came with 3:54 gears (mine does in my 66 F100), but I have had 4:10 sets, and I did see a rate plate /6, 4 speed 4:88.
Guessing farm truck. Think 3" tubes. Can't remember the overall width or spring mount (they were on top). Narrower than a square body gm.

When I was hunting around for 60's and 70's for my project,pretty much all of used truck rears had spun a carrier bearing and the housing surfaces were worn. It needs the carrier pulled to see the wear of course. I ended up taking the
housings to a machine shop with a line boring tool and they cut the bearing lands flat again, cost about 400.00.

Must have lucked out. I found a D60 on Craig's List that was a pull out of an '80 F250 for $100. Had a local shop cut it to size and bought all the parts from Dr. Diff. I think I reused the ring gear.

I used a Ford Dan60 in my old 1965 plymouth B body

if your going to drag race it in a car with clutch or trans brake I would replace the driver side stock carrier cap with a steel one from either Malk Williams or Strange Engineering

I just bought a Dodge truck D60 with 4.10's in it from a guy in Southern Indiana for $100. I'm happy to see this post in here today.

Give Dr. Diff a look for parts. Very happy with mine!

I did two of them at the same time. I have a friend that narrowed them for free, then I did the gear setup and all assembly myself.
Got lucky w/ one of them that it already had the good powerlock diff., 3.54 gear, and a 1350 yoke on it. Only needed narrowing w/ new housing ends, axles, and a 35 spline gear kit for the diff.
All parts from Dr. Diff.

Like mentioned previously....most will have thicker axle tubes (3.25" versus 3" if I recall correctly) so you'll need larger U bolts. I got the bigger U bolts from NAPA.

Mine had the thicker axles, I did manage to get stock u-bolts around them, though. Definitely 3.25".

Yep, you can force them and bend them to fit, but the right ones fit so much better. I did the same thing, lol.

I have narrowed 6 or 7 truck Dana's over the years. the 60's 1/2 ton Ford ones I have tried to use were bent so badly, that i quit getting them, not sure if they were that much lighter, or just badly abused farm trucks. Have had good luck with the 3/4 ton Dodge and Ford rears. And as mentioned Dr Diff has all the parts. I usually just use 8 3/4 ends unless somebody requests otherwise. The S-60's adjusters are real nice if you do not have the pullers and spreaders, but definatley cheaper to go the truck route. Jim

Mine is out of a Ford .
Still running thestock 3.33 ratio.

Dartin's Dart Sport has one from an odd application IIRC, I know it has .350 thick tubes.