d60 9" REAR COMBO

snappy

snappy

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I bought a dana61, was told it was a 60, and have a 9" rear. My question is can I cut the outers off the 60 and weld to the 9" and do 35 spline axle shafts? How much does the dana 60 30 spline spindle need to be bored? Thanks for the help.
 
snappy said:
I bought a dana61, was told it was a 60, and have a 9" rear. My question is can I cut the outers off the 60 and weld to the 9" and do 35 spline axle shafts? How much does the dana 60 30 spline spindle need to be bored? Thanks for the help.
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that sux dude, freakin 61's
 
with a ring gear spacer you can run normal 60 gears lockers in it...

Some of the 61s had a shaved/smooth bottom, as well as the bigger spindles that wouldnt need to be bored out...

the main question I'd think is, Does the 9" and 60 35 spline, have the same spline characteristics (pitch, depth, diameter,etc.)?
 
Why not just run the 9" with upgraded 35 spline shafts? I am not being a smartass. I am truly curious about what you are doing.
 
drkelly said:
Why not just run the 9" with upgraded 35 spline shafts? I am not being a smartass. I am truly curious about what you are doing.
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kinda thinking the same thing...I could understand a 609 front end...but I'd just run a 9" rear, be a lot cheaper and easier.
 
Are you trying to acheive 8 lug pattern? The cost difference is going to be marginal with a semi-float setup vs. going to the full floater. Cost of yukon 35 spline full float shafts are cheap and can be cut down with a band saw if you swap the spindles yourself. I think the last set i bought were $80 a shaft or something like that. Hardest part would be the alignment. Do it because its cool though, not because its economical. :huggy:

Make sure its a big bored 61 also before you start hacking and welding. You can always just run a ring gear spacer and save a good bit of coin.
 
Just got off the phone Chase and I'm going to run 61 with upgrade 35 spline shafts. The 9" is not a full floater and I was trying to use what I already had instead buying all the parts to convert. thanks for the input and help.
 
What are you going to run for a front axle to go with it?
 
I have a D60 ring gear spacer brand new in the box. $30 and it's yours.
 
Have fun with the ring gear spacer fiasco. I attempted to gear a 61 last year. Many, many exhausting phone conversations with Randy's, Reider and as many gurus as I could find, never got me the correct spacer. Apparently it is no longer produced.

No matter what I did, I was unable to attain backlash under 0.030". Even with no shims on the non-ring gear side of the carrier, backlash was at 0.030". I could not find a correct thickness spacer to correct the problem.

Maybe you can find one now.

If it were me, I would find another rear diff and go from there. 35 splined 9", trussed, would take some serious abuse IMO.

Keep us posted on the build. Might help someone out later down the road.
 
WNC Custom Jeeps said:
Have fun with the ring gear spacer fiasco. I attempted to gear a 61 last year. Many, many exhausting phone conversations with Randy's, Reider and as many gurus as I could find, never got me the correct spacer. Apparently it is no longer produced.
No matter what I did, I was unable to attain backlash under 0.030". Even with no shims on the non-ring gear side of the carrier, backlash was at 0.030". I could not find a correct thickness spacer to correct the problem.
Maybe you can find one now.
If it were me, I would find another rear diff and go from there. 35 splined 9", trussed, would take some serious abuse IMO.
Keep us posted on the build. Might help someone out later down the road.
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Glad you posted up, ive been talking to a customer about this and i was under the assumption that you could just order the spacer from randys. there are a bunch of threads about this on pirate and the consensus seemed to be that you could still get it; guess pirate isnt always right though
 
Metto said:
Glad you posted up, ive been talking to a customer about this and i was under the assumption that you could just order the spacer from randys. there are a bunch of threads about this on pirate and the consensus seemed to be that you could still get it; guess pirate isnt always right though
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Yep, I actually spoke firsthand to a fellow at Reider that was onboard to make the original batch of spacers. He said they are no longer made. Any spacer available is solely for purpose of swapping between carrier ratio breaks, not running 60 gears in 61 housings. (i.e. the Mr. Gasket spacer Randy's sells)

He actually gave me phone numbers of the folks who bought the last 3 they made so I could try to track one down.

Only way I can imagine making it work PROPERLY is to have a thinner carrier bearing on one side to accomodate the needed movement to the non-ring gear side of the housing of the carrier. I could not find one.

I just told my customer what was going on with the build. He ran it anyway with 0.030" backlash. 2 years later no problems. I would never run this myself. He was dead set on the 61 solely because of the larger splindle diameter.

I begged him to just run a Dana 70 and be done with it.

I will never attempt to put 60 gears ina 61 again...
 
if its a 61 i swear the spindles do not need to be bored. the way you gear these with out the infamous rieder spacer is to run a dana 61 3.33 and up carrier part# 706400x it is 2 3/4 tall the regular dana 60 4.56 and up carrier is 2 7/16. which is what i assume you were using.

you can also just have a custom spacer machined.
 
Chase, did the d61 have a different carrier for 3.33+ and 3.55-. I know they mainly came with 3.73, 3.55, and 3.07, but where available upto 4.10 as well.

I have heard that you could run the stock carrier with spacer and normal gears, or the d60 carrier with thick gears. Is this correct?
 
There is more than 1 61 carrier from what i've been told...More than one spacer....this is getting way too much for me, I'm going to just find a diiferent axle to run. Thanks for the help and Chase I'm sorry for the headaches on this one.
 
In order to run 3.55- 4.30 gears in a 61 you need the 4.56 and up carrier this is the basic 60 carrier found in the CUCV trucks and any other 60 with 4.56 and up w/ a 2 7/16 offset and the mr gasket ring gear spacer easily attainable for $30 or the 3.33 and up spicer dana 61 carrier mentioned earlier part# 706400x it is 2 3/4 tall.

If you want to run 4.56 and up gears you need said 61 carrier and said ring gear spacer to account for the difference.

The 61's all pretty much have 3.07's from what I have seen but if not and you already have 3.55 up gears in the 61 you just need to run a spacer to run 4.56 and up gears.

the difference is in the carrier offset by using the standard 60 4.56 and up carrier it does not get you far enough towards the pinion in a 61 even with the spacer to run the 4.56 and up ratio.

If you had an older dodge diesel with a front 61 w/ 3.07 with a non overdrive tranny and you swap to overdrive tranny or manual and want the lower gears then you can run either the 61 carrier 3.33 and up, or you can run the 4.56 and up dana 60 carrier w/ spacer and run 3.55's,3.73,4.10's

The 4.56 and up dana 60 carrier w/ spacer gets you to the same offset as the dana 61 3.33 and up carrier gets you to which is not enought to run 4.56 and up gears.

machining the carrier to let the bearing fall further down on the carrier to achieve the offset may be possible and a preety good idea but i think your going to have so many shims on the opposing side that the bearing is not going to have as much of the bearing boss to ride on as it needs and may cause you to spin a bearing, and the amount of metal that you take outof the carrier will weaken it.

This is a ridiculously lengthy post but at least this way when I get asked this question again I can copy and paste my answer.

In short yes it can be done, is it worth it, I don't think it is if its a rear and you have to bore the spindles, but then again 61rears are practically free for this reason do to the mythical Q can it be geared.
 
I'd build the 9" with some good 35 spline shafts, and an aftermarket carrier. If you want to save some coin and don't mind the weight, then go with a 14 bolt FF. For about $1,000, you can buy and build a 14B with disc brakes, detroit locker, and new gears. I am guessing that building the 9" would cost between $1,500-$2,500 due to the aftermarket case and axle shafts.
 
Cperry said:
machining the carrier to let the bearing fall further down on the carrier to achieve the offset may be possible and a preety good idea but i think your going to have so many shims on the opposing side that the bearing is not going to have as much of the bearing boss to ride on as it needs and may cause you to spin a bearing, and the amount of metal that you take outof the carrier will weaken it.
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I thought the guy said he only needed .030
 
he did but there is no shims on that side to get the .030 backlash so all the rest of the shims are on the opposing side you would have to add that extra 30 to the otherside the bearing is gettign farther and farther off the boss, I guess .030 would not weaken the case but theres not alot of meat on that side.
 
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