Finally Completed 1-ton Conversion

[cleszkie]

Well, I swapped in a 14 Bolt full-floater and 8-lug Dana 44 some years ago with the intention of completing the 1-ton swap, but never got around to it until now. I located a Dana 60 with the right gears (4.10) recently at a good price so I pulled the trigger. The Dana 44 had served me well over the years, but I got tired of replacing the steering knuckle ball joints every couple years (oversized tires are hard on them), and the wheel bearings were also taking a beating. The Dana 60 was out of a Dodge, so the spring perches were about an inch wider apart than a GM unit, and the overall width of the axle is about 2 inches narrower than a GM unit. This makes the axle the same width as my rear 14 bolt, and it looks good (not the typical wider front track width that GM axles have). I got around the spring perch width issue by doing some creative trimming and stacking of the spring eye bushings to move each spring outboard by half an inch. Another benefit of the 60 is that I now get the 1-ton brake calipers and rotors up front to work with my disk brake conversion in the rear for some truly awesome braking. Here are some pics: