Dana 60 knuckle upgrades...

rockcity

rockcity

everyday is a chance to get better
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Location
Greenville, NC
I need upgraded knuckles for the buggy. Well, my stock ones are ok but I continue to have issues with high steer arm stud failures even with the ARP studs. Eventually the knuckle is going to split due to the continued stressing.

So, I'm starting to get in the market for some new knuckles. I've seen the Crane, Reid, and Solid knuckles.

Reid knuckle is $300 and has 5 high steer arm studs, no keyway.
Crane has 4 studs like stock but include a keyway, not sure on price...
Solid knuckles are $460 and have 6 studs for the high steer arm and a keyway.

Seems that the Reid knuckles are slightly better than stock with the 1 extra bolt for the high steer arm and more beef on the knuckle itself. Its reasonable at $300.

Crane seems to be OK as they have a keyway to help with the stresses added by a high steer arm but still seem to be in the $350 range

The Solid knuckles seem to be the ticket but I haven't seen much tech on them. They do have a nice setup but are damn pricy at $460 each!

Are the Solid knuckles worth the extra coin??? Are they that much better to justify the $160 extra per knuckle? They will likely solve my high steer arm issues and I'm sure the Cranes will as well. But I fear that I'll have the Cranes and still have some concern with the high steer arm studs.

Anyone else have any opinions or experiences?
 
That's one of those deals where you buy it for insurance. The solid set will cost you nearly $1000 now but beats the heck out of breaking a current one and ruining anything else attatched to it.
 
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I have solids and love them
 
Honestly the keyway takes so much stress off the bolts/studs, that I wouldn't even be worried about 4 vs 6 if they are properly torqued. The $pidertrax also look well built.
 
I will give this warning on the solids. You have to run there or arteks high steer arms. I bent a solid and they where a pain to get so had to order a set of arteks...
 
Well damn, the solids seem to be sold in pairs for $460! I looked right past that!

Guess I'm sold on the Solids!

That was easy!
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
X4 on Solids. On your current arms, are you breaking studs or are they just working loose constantly? Are you running conical washers or just studs and locknuts?
Click to expand...

I've broken studs and have had issues with them working loose even with lots of loc tite. I have not used the conical washers as my current arms are not machined for them. I'm sure that is part of the problem too.
 
the conical washers take a lot of the load from the studs. Otherwise, unless they are press fit onto the studs, there is always some loading/unloading on the studs trying to break them off. It is also possible that they are stretching initially causing them to loosen.

Either way, the keyway is a strong design as Matt mentioned; and Solids should take care of all the factory knuckle issues.
 
I went with Solid knuckles and arms on my Dodge 60. I had a stud shearing issue before. If you have stock brakes you might have to clearance the solid knuckles so they fit properly. I had to do that on mine.
 
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