Solid Axle Swap BS Thread

Very true about the steering!

My buddy pressured me to go with a d60 from the start. Some guys gave me crap about it, and I hesitated quite a bit lol. But in retrospect I think he was right.

Not a big deal, but the ballistic shave kit I got required modifications to the ring gear to clear the 2" shave. Ballistic sells pre-fabricated ring gears to go with that shave kit, but they are pricey. I got lucky that my gear installer had a lathe in house and was able to shave the ring gear I had at no extra charge.

The factory shafts on the kingpin d60 taper down pretty thin, so I upgraded them preemptively. Factory knuckles are prone to stress cracks. So I upgraded those preemptively as well along with steering arms.

I didn't "have to" upgrade these things from the start, but did it anyway since the axle was apart and I was going with 40"s. The axle was a pile of rust, so brakes, spindles, bearings, etc. all needed to be replaced. New ring/pinion, new diff cover. Literally everything on that axle that was factory got tossed. At the end, I realized that I basically paid for an empty housing with that axle LOL. This is where the 2005+ SD d60s start making better sense!

But the factory shafts on the 14b, heck yea those things are pretty tough.

Very true. Things have come long ways. I remember when people started using SD axles a lot for their SASs. Steering was a challenge. Now there are options. I would say though, the longer driver side axle tube of the 79' kingpin is still desirable because it makes fabrication easier. Lots of room to place stuff on. The SD axles barely have any room on the driver's side tube!

 

If you can do the welding and cutting yourself, do a 609 axle. When you do the math, a 609 front axle comes really close in price to a junkyard Dana 60 axle and weighs a lot less, more clearance and easy to work on. But that’s only if you source the parts and don’t have to pay labor for the housing to be cut to length and ends welded on.

If your going to run a single case and a lot of travel similar to mine you’ll need a high pinion but with duals I didn’t have issues with a front low pinion. Rear I would just build a 14 bolt or some sort of 60 or if you want to spend a little more a 609 to match.

 

Alright, so 14 bolt rear and a 2005+ SD60 in the front? How are folks matching bolt patterns? Looks like anything junkyard is basically just good for the housing, correct? Every 14 bolt I’ve seen has drum brakes. Am I looking at the wrong years or is there an easy swap?

 

Or just stick

Or just stick with the factory Stirling rear - i know quite a few who have done it. No need to run spacers like on the 14 bolt, stirling has factory disk brakes and everything's matching.

 

That’s an option. How does it compare to the 14 bolt? Any shaving required?

 

While the 14-bolt is a stronger and more popular axle, I think there are some major benefits to the Sterling axle --

1. Matching 8x170 lug pattern with the front (if using a 99+ SD60)
2. Factory disk brakes
3. Factory E-brake
4. Lighter
5. 1" more ground clearance than a 14-bolt (when stock)
6. E-locker can be purchased new directly from Ford for ~$500

If you don't mind putting in more work, I suggest going 14-bolt, but if you want something more ready-to-go, I think the Sterling axle is hard to beat (especially when matched with a 99+ SD60 front).

 

Those are really good points. I wouldn’t mind something a little more turn key honestly. Can a sterling be ground down to be close to the clearance of a shaved 14 bolt? Is every SD60 from 2005+ going to be a sterling rear? Not sure what to look for in a junkyard axle.

 

If you're not gonna be rock bouncing, Stirling is solid! I do believe 05+ SD will have sterling 10.5 rear. You can shave the Sterling 1.5".

 

Yes, a Sterling Axle can be ground the same clearance as a shaved 14-bolt. Check out Ballistic Fab for more info. Every 8x170 SD60 (so any 99+ F250/350) has a matching Sterling 10.5 rear.

 

Looks to be as intense of a shave as the 14 bolt. Might be something I do later unless it’s an absolute must from the get go. 43’s instead of 40’s might be cheaper…

 

Start reading!
http://www.billavista.com/tech/Articles/14-Bolt_Bible/index.html

 

I found that exact website last night. Pretty snazzy. I’m leaning more towards the sterling now though haha

 

Honestly just hit irate4x4 and start searching. There’s way more tech stuff happening there and some really good resources for SD axle tech

 

That’d probably be best. How much of the pirate stuff was transferred over? I don’t know much about what happened but browsed a good bit on pirate when linking the rear.

 

The older kingpin D60 axles are 8 X 6.5 bolt pattern.

14 bolts are also 8 X 6.5.

So with those axles no issues with mismatched bolt patterns.

I think the bolt pattern on D60s changed to 8x170mm after 99' (don't quote me on that, not sure about the exact year)

My 14 bolt is from a late 90s truck, and it came with factory disk brakes. Mine did not need anything besides new gears of course and a locker. The truck the axle came from didn't have many miles. I'm still using the factory brakes, they have lots of life left in them LOL.

 

My current 14 bolt has discs already. Believe it’s from a van or 2500 truck from early to late 2000’s. looked under my buddies 2010ish Duramax and it’s got discs.

I have been checking out these to match bolt patterns
https://ca.tmrcustoms.com/products/jk-1-ton-swap-rear-14-bolt-wheel-spacers

I also believe this helps match the track width of the front d60 as well. I could have that backwards though. I just remember one of the axles being narrower then the other. Believe it’s the 14 bolt.

 

Aren’t the pre 2005 sd axles substantially less beefy though?

 

Very cool. I think I’m over the 14 bolts because of the shaving right now. I don’t want to make things super complicated before even getting to the swap. I’ll wait until I break the rear first haha

 

Not really.

Late 70s' to late 80's kingpins are beefy axles. Kingpin d60s were considered the holy grail for a very long time. It's just that in their stock form they are not suitable for the 40"+ tires that people are running today compared to decades ago. But they are very old axles, and many of them come from the north or northeast and are full of rust, which require full teardown and rebuild.

Many people say the 90's ones up to 2004 are the "weaker" because that's when they switched to the balljoint design. But mind you, those ball joints are no joke...pretty huge. But old timers believe that kingpins are always stronger than any ball joint design.

Then a MASSIVE improvement took place in 2005-present. Those are the strongest beefiest D60s ever in factory form. You do not really have to upgrade much to run big tires on them from the get go. The fact that they have 35spline shafts all around from factory is extremely desirable. And many most of them are in really great shape (not full of rust like the old kingpin ones). So no full tear down and rebuild needed. Those are currently the most popular D60s for SASs for people who want to build rock crawlers with D60s.

BTW...I am talking here about Ford D60s.

 

If you run 40"+ tires, I do not think an unshaved 14bolt will be a problem lol. You'll have plenty of clearance.