Front Dana 60 Axle Rebuild
Here are the pair of rusty Dana 60 axles from a 78 W300 the day I took delivery of them. There was no question about it...They needed to be rebuilt.
Another view.
Another view. The rear D60 appears to be a HD60.
With the rear D60 rebuild finished, next was the front D60 rebuild. What a rusty mess...
The hubs and rotors came off easy enough. Next to remove were the caliper brackets and spindles.
Wider view.
With the spindles off and axle shafts removed. It was at this point that I replaced the axle shaft ujoints. Unfortunately, the pics of this task and the painting of the yokes are included with the pics that were mysteriously deleted off the digicam.
Next came the disassembly of the king pins. This was without a doubt the hardest and most time consuming task of the whole pair of D60 rebuilds. Actually harder and more time consuming than installing Detroit Locker/Truetrac and resetting the gears. Take a close look at all the king pin nuts and bolts. All were worn by rust and corrosion. Only one bolt came out freely. The rest were frozen with rust.
Look at the heads of the bolts...All out of shape.
Look at the nuts...All worn down to hardly anything by rust.
Making head way...
All rounded off...
Woo Hoo...Got one to budge...One.
Had to grind off the rest of the bolt heads to get the cap off.
I was finally able to get 3 of the 4 studs loose. The 4th stud was ground off too.
Hmmm...Nice grease. Actually, I was surprised of how good of condition the old king pins were in. If original OEM, then somebody must have taken the time to grease them. All king pin componants were replaced anyway with new king pins, bearings, seals, upper and lower bearing caps, and new bolts, studs, and nuts.
Old king pins and lower bearing and seals removed. Again, pics were taken of the giant allen wrench and 4 foot breaker bar that were being used to remove the old king pins...Mysteriously deleted. Prior to installing all the king pin componants, I cleaned and wirebrushed the outside area around the location of the king pins and painted with two coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator.
The next two pics are of the new king pins, bearings, races, and seals installed.
The next two pics are of rusty knuckle #1 getting wirebrushed of it's rust.
Knuckle #1 all painted with Eastwood's RE next to untouched knuckle #2. What a difference...
New Detroit Truetrac LSD. Ready for install in the front D60.
Like the rear D60, it took three attempts to get a backlash of .009 and a decent pattern.
Wider view.
After finger tight bolting on of the rusty dented inspection cover (it's only use), the axle housing was wirebrushed and painted with two coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator.
Ready for new freshly painted inspection cover.
New inspection cover painted with two coats of good ole Rustoleum gloss black is installed with new stainless cover bolts.
The next two pics are of the axle upside down while installing the knuckles over the new king pin componants. Notice new lower king pin caps and new bolts.
The next two pics are of the knuckles secured to the housing with the new upper king pin caps. The driver side also has a new 2.5 inch steering riser block to compensate for the upcoming suspension lift.
Axle shafts (with new ujoints) and spindles installed.
Next install was of the freshly cleaned and painted caliper brackets. Both sides being bolted down to specs.
Oh nice...Time to install new rotors, wheel studs, and get these hubs painted.
Old wheel studs punched out and rotors removed from the hubs.
Front hubs after being cleaned, wirebrushed, and two coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator being applied.
New rotors installed and new wheels studs punched in.
New wheel bearings and seals installed. Hubs now installed and secured with new spindle nuts.
Brake calipers, pads, axle flanges, and caps secured to axle...Almost finished.
Tie rod cleaned, wirebrushed, and prepped for Eastwood's RE.
Fuzzy pic...But, tie rod painted and new Dana TREs installed.
Tie rod with new TREs bolted to knuckles. Clamps also have new stainless bolts and nuts.
The finishing touch...New flex and hard brake line installed. The pre-formed hard line came from InlineTube.com and was a near perfect fit. Also showing is the SS 4 to 6 inch extended brakeline from summitracing .com.
With the 727/208 swap coming soon, new Selectro locking hubs were installed.
With the rebuilds completed on both Dana 60 axles, the axle and suspension swap was next...