WHICH AXLE IS BEST???????????????

dingle dave

New member
Hi this is my first post(I,m a virgin so be easy on me)

I,m also new to the Scout world. I purchased a 79 Scout II in the spring and I'm hooked on it already. I plan on doing a SOA in the fall and run tires 37" or bigger.

So I want to upgrade the axles without loosing the tight turning radius. Most of the trails in my neck of the woods are narrow so the narrower the axle the better.

I'd like to run d60 front and back but don't know what donor vehicles to look for.

Also is narrowing an axle expensive?????? Does anyone sell a do it yourself kit????????

79 Scout II, 304, 727

dingle dave :confused:

thanks in advance
 
You should be looking for a passanger side drop Dana 60, most commomnly found in early model dodge and Chevy trucks if you go with a Chevy just pick up the 14bolt rear at the same time. You can narrow anything you want but the costs go up as you will need to have custom axles made. I doubt you would gain enough out of narrowing the axles to justify cutting them down. Either way this is not something that should be done by anyone that isn't very skilled. It also requires some speciatly tools.

Furthermore if you are looking to run 37's plan on either adding some lift over and above the SOA or doing a fair amount of sawzall work.

Welcome to the addiction!!
 
Ok, I bought a 1-ton 14bolt this weekend and am now looking for a Dana 60 or I'll even run a 8 lug 10bolt front for now.

My question now is how much of my original stuff will work. Driveshafts,brakelines and cables,steering and anything else I forgot?

I know I've got to move the shock mounts and back perches. I'm just trying to be as prepared as possible.

Thanks in advance
 
I would avoid the 10 bolt, not as many options there but if you already have one then go for it. Bacisally nothing from your old set up will work anymore.the steering box is fine but you need to go to cross over steering. Instead of moving your rear perches just do a reverse shackle. Also I would look into running a taller shock tower and getting longer shocks. You need new ones anyway. Get stainless brakelines while your at it. All can be had from Jeff.
 
will my driveshafts work or will the anything work from the donor vehicle(Chevy 3/4 ton pick up).:confused:


I depends on the t-case your going to run. I still have the dana20 and took a front drive-shaft off a Jeep cherokee 88-91 appx. They have a cv joint. So get the yoke off the np231 too. This will bolt right up to the later model dana20 with 26 spline (early has 10 spline) I then ground off the ends and welded on a new tube to the length I needed. Worked great and no vib's either at70mph with 37" put this into goolge to get a good write up on the pbb driveshaft 101 site:pirate4x4.com
 
Im in the mode of searching for axles for my '71 800B. I was taking a look over at the binder bulletin board, and in another thread there, someone posts "don't forget a 9" out of an early Bronco. 65" wms I believe and 5x5.5 like the Scout."

how accurate is this, is my question. Are the leaf spring mounting pads in the correct location? I know they are already spring over from Ford, so im just looking at this 9" as an option compared to a d60. Thanks for any info!!! :gringrin:
 
Nine inch is a pretty cool option, but no the spring perches are not in the correct location nor are the the correct width. The rear is easy though, the front is the difficult end.
 
I was just bascially referring to the rear at the moment. I was thinking a good set up would be a Ford 9" rear, and a d44 (Scout) front. As far as the wms measurements, im not too concerned about if its an inch or two, its the location of the spring perches. I guess those are relatively easy to remove and weld on new ones. I want to run something larger up front than the d30 becasue I want to go with 35" tires in the future and from what ive found out/been told, the d30 wont hold up too well with that large of tire, especially when powered by a v8. Anyway, thanks for the info :gringrin:
 
So, now that im going for a d60 for the rear, im seeing there are a lot of versions of it. Any pointers as to which ones to stay away from, ones better than others, etc.? Whats a good place to start? Thanks!
 
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