Dana 60 swap

I hear people say you should swap out the old Dana 44 or 50 for a 60.  For my 85 F350 diesel with a Dana 50 what do I need to look for in Dana 60 axles I find to adapt to my truck? I see them for sale from guys that said it wouldn’t work on their trucks.

It is a shame that yours is an 85 as in 86 the F350's got D60s.  But those were solid axles, not TTBs.

I swapped to a D60 and used Superduty springs and a Sky Offroad reverse shackle kit.  Love it.  I went from at most 2" of articulation in front to 8".  And a MUCH better ride.  Plus a bit shorter turning radius.

So the question becomes how far you want to go.  You can go with a D60 and stock leaf springs.  Or stock leaf springs and a reverse shackle kit.  Or Superduty springs, which are 6" longer and give a better ride.  Or SD springs and a reverse shackle kit.

But, there are now kits to adapt the later solid axles and coil springs.  So if I were doing it now that's what I'd consider as it'll give you an even better ride.

If you're going with a 1986-1997 Dana 60, there are three things to remember.

86-91 are Kingpin.
92-97 are Balljoint.
95-97 have bolt on brake calipers rather than slide pins (86-94).

All of those are pretty much user preference. Some people prefer kingpins, some people prefer ball joints. And some people might find it harder to find bolt on brake calipers than slide pin calipers.

Any Dana 60 from the front of a 1986 - 1997 F-350 will work fine.  Yes there are some differences, as Salans7 points out.  But they are minor.  All of those years will work.  What you will run into pretty often is a Dana 60 from a newer Ford truck.  While those can be made to work, they aren't a simple bolt-in.  They have a different lug pattern, so your '85 wheels won't fit, and different brackets so you'd need to do some fabricating.  There may be some other more minor differences too, but those are the deal breakers.

Some other misses that may be obvious, but to be complete...  You don't want any Dana 60 rear axle or a front axle out of a Chevy or Dodge.  I've never really heard of anyone running into an earlier Dana 60, but I believe they were used in something like '78 -'79 Fords, and I don't think you want those either.

If you do get an axle, try to get as much other stuff as you can from the truck.  Gary correctly points out that the simplest option is to use stock leaf springs.  But that's stock leaf springs from an '86 - '97 F-350.  If you use your stock '85 TTB leaf springs you will find the ride WAY too stiff.

I could be wrong about this, but I think the solid Dana 60s used a double Cardan U-joint on the driveshaft at the transfer case end.  You can keep your transfer case and front driveshaft, but you might end up with some vibration when the hubs are locked.  If you can at least get the driveshaft and the transfer case yoke you can improve your odds there.

A solid axle swap will lift the front of the truck a couple of inches.  If you choose to do a reverse shackle kit (RSK) that will lift it a couple more.  So shocks and rear ride height will need to be addressed.  That usually means lift blocks in the rear.  If you're not doing the RSK you can use stock lift blocks from an '86 - '97 F-350.

I don't think the '86 - '97 F-350s used a track bar (I think that came in the later SuperDuties).  But if I'm wrong about that you'd want that too.


As far as whether it's worth it to do the swap, most people who've done it say it's one of the best things they've done.  As Gary said, it improves the ride significantly on most trucks, especially if you do the RSK and use the SuperDuty U-code(?) springs.  That said, I had an '85 F-250HD that rode terrible, and now a '97 F-250HD that rides pretty well.  I'd've loved to do a solid axle swap on the '85, but I'm happy enough with the '97 and I don't want to lift it another 2" - 4", so I'm sticking with TTB on it.

Good points!

I forgot about the bolt-pattern change, and that would be a deal-breaker for me.  And don't use TTB springs on a solid axle!

Yes, my D60 came with a double-cardan joint in the front shaft, which does take a different output yoke on the t-case.  I'd want to do that to keep the vibrations down.

And yes, I'm running U-code Superduty springs.  With the D60 plus RSK I think the front of the truck went up 4", so while the rear had been 2" higher it came out level when I put the 4" blocks in the rear in place of the 2" blocks.

And yes, that 4" of lift makes a difference - as my wife comments on frequently.  

I was already going to do the sky kit.  I just thought while I’m performing surgery on the front end why not do a 60.  I just don’t want to buy one that is not compatible in some way. So educate me please.

I have some details, but am no expert

Basically subscribing to see if I can glean any more details for the brain box.  🤔

I think the sweet spot is probably what I did in the thread Sky's Offroad Design Super Duty RSK Install.  I went with a D60 & front driveshaft from a 1995 F350 and 2005 U-code Superduty springs.

As I said, I'd still consider the later coil sprung approach but I think that while it would ride better it causes you to need to change out the rear axle as well to keep the wheel bolt pattern the same.

I'm sorry I was so pushy about that, Gary...

But it did work out for the best,in the end!  

It worked out great and I'm very happy I did it.  So thanks for pushing.  I never would have been happy with the horrible ride of the TTBs, and now we have a ride we can live with.  Janey said just the other day how huge of a difference it made.  

Once in a while I have a clue about what to do!  .

85blueox wrote

I was already going to do the sky kit.  I just thought while I’m performing surgery on the front end why not do a 60.  I just don’t want to buy one that is not compatible in some way. So educate me please.

Like I said above, '86 - '97 F-350 front axle is compatible.  Anything else is a fabrication job.

Has Sky smothed out all these problems from your build in the link you provided? Makes me a little jumpy to try it after reading your link.

I had serial #1, and yes they fixed the problem.  I've put many miles on it since installing it and would do it again.

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