Dana 60 5 lug conversion

[PLYONS11]

Originally Posted by chevy_mike

Personally, the first thing I would decide on is what lug pattern you want. It will make a difference in what factory parts you can get from a junkyard versus what you have to buy new from the aftermarket companies. 6 lug makes it easy to find a '63-'70 rear end but there are no factory 6 lug rotors for a disc brake conversion for the front. You have to buy the conversion from an aftermarket company and will never be able to walk into a parts store for a replacement. 5 lug means the only factory rear ends are '71-'72, which are much harder to find and command a premium in price but you can then use '71-'87 factory rotors, which you can buy in any parts store.

Once you have the lug pattern figured out, then decide if you want to swap to a coil rear suspension or leave the leafs. Coils are more common and yes, all of the '63-'72 trailing arm setups will retrofit as they are all the same length. Only the crossmember moves depending if a short bed or long bed. I don't think your frame has the panhard bar mount, so you'll likely need to get that off another frame or fab something.

My old '65 truck, someone had converted it from a trailing arm to leaf springs, as they swapped everything over from a '73 truck, to get the 5 lug conversion. I was going to swap it back to trailing arms as I like the ride better but sold it before I ever did it.

Good luck.

Chevy_mike. Good points! I am going to do 5x5. Being able to walk into a parts store to replace parts is very important to me. That's why I have been looking closely at the aftermarket front end swaps out there. I decided to do an aftermarket setup on the from in lieu of a junk yard setup because I will likely open up my wallet for a big brake kit of some kind. I plan to have a wheel with a lot of open space and I like the look of the big brake kits. I realize this does not fit in my "budget build" but I'm ok with that. It's my late grandfathers truck and I don't plan to let it go for a long time. I figure over time it will transition from a budget truck to a full on money pit!!!!

I figure that if I can find a junkyard rear end for 2-300 bucks I can still put another 2-300 hundred into it for a 5 lug axel from moser or similar. As noted in prior posts, I plan to eventually put air bags on it so I am looking for coil rear ends. I had not thought of the panhard mount however. I'll have to look into that a bit further.