Dana 60 front w/ crossover steering?

[welpro222]

Just picked up a Dana 60 front and rearend for my suburban, they have the 4.56 gearing and the front has a cross over steering system for $600.

Im just going to keep my 14 bolt sf in the rear and regear the front dana 60 to 3.73 to match.

Anybody have a crossover steering system and use a 4x4 steering box or do I have to get a 2wd box? Is it worth it with a 4inch lift and no plans to do any hard off roading.

 

[doghead]

Why didn't you post this in the cucv modifying forum?

Which CUCV are you doing this to?

 

[olly hondro]

Have to use the 2wd steering box. It bolts up the same, the pitman arm motion is left/right instead of front/back. Some of the guys here with skills disassemble the 4wd box and put 2wd innards to accomplish the same.

 

[Gottlos]

 

[richingalveston]

this is going on a suburban?
do you have and over drive tranny?
are you going to 37 inch or bigger tires?
is it a diesel suburban?

If you answered yes to the above questions then you want the 4.56 gears and not the 3.73

 

[Skinny]

I would caution the regear to...unless you are really over revving on the highway you can never really have too much gear. Plus it is rather expensive to regear correctly.

 

[welpro222]

this is going on a suburban? YES
do you have and over drive tranny? NO th400
are you going to 37 inch or bigger tires? 33 tires
is it a diesel suburban? YES

If you answered yes to the above questions then you want the 4.56 gears and not the 3.73

Using the 4.56 gear would put me at 2700+ rpms at 60, at the moment I am doing 2450+ rpms at 65 with my 3.73 gears and 33 tires. I was planning originally to use my 37 humvee m/t (not radials) and the 4.56 would have put me right back into the stock rpm range, but after reading alot about the tires, it sounds like they are not good for street use which is my main use for my truck with the once and while logging road.

 

[Skinny]

I think because those are the bias ones which probably suck on the street. My radial Goodyears see pretty much all street use and are pretty decent. I run no weights so I have to watch tire wear. I own a set of centramatic balance rings but have yet to install them due to rim clearance. Gotta save for different rims. You could probably buy a set of new or two sets of used 37's for what it will cost to regear to 3.73's properly.

 

[welpro222]

I think my plan will be to stay with the 33 tires, and regear my dana 60 to 3.73 with used parts from ebay. Then I could resell my 4.56 gears and carrier to recoup some funds. I will probably just do the swap myself.

I have never done a gear swap before, does it need to perfectly lined up like the rear or is it not as critical?

 

[doghead]

What kind of cucv are you talking about?

 

[welpro222]

Its a air force veteran suburban

 

[doghead]

Pics?

 

[welpro222]

Here it is, I'll get more later as I'm at work. I added the 4 inch lift, wheels/tires, front bumper, and the spot light.

 

[welpro222]

The original color looks to be a white and yellow combo. I assume it went from the air force to a firestation and painted red, then auctioned off after that.

After driving it for 2 weeks now, Im pleased with the MPG it gets. 15 mpg freeway/city combo according to the odometer distance between fill ups. 16-17 MPG if you adjust the difference in the larger tires, driving about 4-5 mph faster/farther distance.

 

[UNIMOG-GUY]

As someone else pointed out I think the reviews were for the 36" bias tires.

I've had great luck with the 37" Goodyear Radials and H1 rims. That being said I had serious tire balancing issues from 50-60mph when I first mounted them. Thanks to suggestions from threads I read here and elsewhere. I did remove the runflat and installed the PVC insert in it's place and used balancing beads with good results (I don't remember the brand of balancing beads I used). I have run both the Goodyear MT and the MTR. I have found that the MTR performed better offroad than the MT but I think that the MT wears better on the road because the rubber isn't as soft.

Also if you haven't done a gear swap before I would advise having someone around who has to "oversee" the swap.

If I were you I'd reinforce the frame where the box mounts, keep the gears and get a set of 37" tires and rims.

 

[Skinny]

Thats a nice looking ride. The brushguard looks like it belongs to a P38 Range Rover.

I agree, if you have never done a gear swap I wouldn't. Lots of knowledge, specialty tools, and experience are required even if you are pretty mechanically inclined. Of course I state this in doing the job right. I think many people slap the gears in with the existing shims and call it good...YIKES! I've seen a lot of seasoned vets hammer on pinion yokes with impact guns. I wanted to go over and ask if they know what a crush collar is.

 

[welpro222]

It was off a toyota, I had it welded to my front tow hooks and extended out. I am pretty mechanically inclined, i've rebuilt a 6.2 diesel before and do all my own work on it. But i've never done a rearend gear change. Looks time consuming and requires experience.

 

[Skinny]

A 14 bolt full floater not so much. The pinion depth is shim adjustable on the removable section. The carrier has threaded adjusters. Really the only hard part is setting pinion bearing preload because the crush collar requires lots of leverage (ie. big mf'n bar) to get it to begin crusing. Of course you will need some specialty torque wrenches, a dial indicator, bearing press, etc. to do all this work but overall not really a difficult axle to do.

The Dana 60 on the other hand uses shims on everything which requires pressing bearings on and off constantly to get set up or you need to purchase a setup bearing kit. The carrier is a press fit into the housing so lots of work to get in and out during set up unless you have a spreader. Overall probably one of the more difficult axles to regear. Certainly not one you would want to learn on especially not having the proper equipment.

Can it be done without a lot of it? Sure, if you like pain and suffering

You are at the advantage of doing it with your axles on the bench and not in the truck since you haven't installed them yet.

 

[welpro222]

I'm sure I could do it, but is it worth buying all the tools for one job? Not to me.

 

[welpro222]

Well guys, I may have a local who may trade his 4.10 dana 60 front and 14 bolt rear for my setup. I'll keep you updated.