I hate my Dana 60

[manimal]

For the death wobble, you may want to check/replace your tie rod ends. A steering stabilizer will only mask the problem.

[SunSoaked]

I was provided a brand new off the lot 05 dodge 3/4 4x4 at work and it suffered the "death wobble" from day one with 14 miles on the odo. Other co workers with the same truck had the same issue. They were repeatedly sent to the dealer under warrenty but never was fixed. We had to learn to live with it for the past 7 years until they were replaced with F250's. It had to be a design problem with the dana 60 front axles, replacing brand new parts with more brand new parts never fixed anything.

[DetroitDan]

Well, here's the update. I still hate my Dana 60. I did, finally, find the cause of the sketchy steering upon braking. I've done wheelbearings on both sides, one tierod, and finally two new calipers and pads, even though the old ones looked good. When the new calipers didnt fix it, I was pretty ticked. While bleeding them I noticed the passenger side was squirting good, the drivers side would only dribble. Which coincides with the rightward yank.. So, I suspected a bad hose or blockage of some kind, and planned to replace the hose and steel line when I got back (even though they also look good). Come to find out, the steel line from the block to the hose was caught up under the washer of a large bolt I put in when I installed the lower plow frame last winter. My own damn fault, I should have been more careful. I remember bending the line out of the way to fit the bolt, but it must have crept back up just enough to get caught when I tightened it. So now thats fixed, and it stops decent.

On to the steering block..Installing the new super-duper long studs in the replacement knuckle (mine wasnt saveable) was no fun. Had to buy a couple of big C-clamps to try to compress the arm down enough over that big kingpin spring to catch a nut on the stud. After much swearing and clamps popping off, I got it on and found that the stupid ORD studs come with jam nuts. Nice, soft thread, so that when you tighten them they strip and supposedly lock in place. Well, they strip all right, but when you havent got the arm tightened down yet. I used two regular nuts I had and got it done, but one of the studs got ruined by stripping jam nuts on it. Had to use my one remaining stud that didnt break from the former setup. You just can't tighten down against that spring pressure with stupid jam nuts. I dont know how they expect you to get it all together, but I would recommend not using the jam nuts at all, or if you want to, get it fully installed first with real nuts, then swap them one at a time for the stupid jam nuts. I was using a torque wrench, and the jam nuts were stripping at 40 lbs ft!

Ok, so I test drove it and it seemed ok, expect for the swervy braking and a little wandery steering. (Here's where I made another mistake) Prior to test driving, I torqued the studs/nuts down to 80 lbs ft. Supposed to be 70-90. Before leaving, and before rechecking them, I put a little white paint on each one, so I could easily tell if they were backing off. Should have rechecked them prior to the white paint. Upon arrival after towing my camper a white knuckled 75 miles. I checked and the white paint was intact, but the block would squirm when you rocked the steering wheel. Got it all back home, checking to see if a stud had broken and realized 3 were a little loose. Retorqued them to 90, should have done that before applying the white paint. Drives much better now. Still considering changing the block back to stock and adding a drop pitman arm, but for now it seems all good.

Wife wants me to get a late model 2500hd so I don't have to tow the camper with a 30 year old truck. Getting a little tired of the hassles. I am too, but I also like fixing things myself. Except Dana 60s, I still hate them.

So yesterday I go to a slimy used car lot to look at a 2500hd. Sleazy Guido wanted to screw me over so I said Good Day and tried to leave. Naturally, my Blazer wouldn't start. Had to get it towed home, some important wiring for the starter burned up.

[freexj]

Yes, if you hate Dana 60s get rid of that old truck now!
The new 2500hd will be so nice!
Also sounds like the 60 is junk so how about 100 bucks for it.
Cross over steering and NO lift block will fix it.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[SunSoaked]

Originally Posted by DetroitDan

Well, here's the update. I still hate my Dana 60. I did, finally, find the cause of the sketchy steering upon braking. I've done wheelbearings on both sides, one tierod, and finally two new calipers and pads, even though the old ones looked good. When the new calipers didnt fix it, I was pretty ticked. While bleeding them I noticed the passenger side was squirting good, the drivers side would only dribble. Which coincides with the rightward yank.. So, I suspected a bad hose or blockage of some kind, and planned to replace the hose and steel line when I got back (even though they also look good). Come to find out, the steel line from the block to the hose was caught up under the washer of a large bolt I put in when I installed the lower plow frame last winter. My own damn fault, I should have been more careful. I remember bending the line out of the way to fit the bolt, but it must have crept back up just enough to get caught when I tightened it. So now thats fixed, and it stops decent.

On to the steering block..Installing the new super-duper long studs in the replacement knuckle (mine wasnt saveable) was no fun. Had to buy a couple of big C-clamps to try to compress the arm down enough over that big kingpin spring to catch a nut on the stud. After much swearing and clamps popping off, I got it on and found that the stupid ORD studs come with jam nuts. Nice, soft thread, so that when you tighten them they strip and supposedly lock in place. Well, they strip all right, but when you havent got the arm tightened down yet. I used two regular nuts I had and got it done, but one of the studs got ruined by stripping jam nuts on it. Had to use my one remaining stud that didnt break from the former setup. You just can't tighten down against that spring pressure with stupid jam nuts. I dont know how they expect you to get it all together, but I would recommend not using the jam nuts at all, or if you want to, get it fully installed first with real nuts, then swap them one at a time for the stupid jam nuts. I was using a torque wrench, and the jam nuts were stripping at 40 lbs ft!

Ok, so I test drove it and it seemed ok, expect for the swervy braking and a little wandery steering. (Here's where I made another mistake) Prior to test driving, I torqued the studs/nuts down to 80 lbs ft. Supposed to be 70-90. Before leaving, and before rechecking them, I put a little white paint on each one, so I could easily tell if they were backing off. Should have rechecked them prior to the white paint. Upon arrival after towing my camper a white knuckled 75 miles. I checked and the white paint was intact, but the block would squirm when you rocked the steering wheel. Got it all back home, checking to see if a stud had broken and realized 3 were a little loose. Retorqued them to 90, should have done that before applying the white paint. Drives much better now. Still considering changing the block back to stock and adding a drop pitman arm, but for now it seems all good.

Wife wants me to get a late model 2500hd so I don't have to tow the camper with a 30 year old truck. Getting a little tired of the hassles. I am too, but I also like fixing things myself. Except Dana 60s, I still hate them.

So yesterday I go to a slimy used car lot to look at a 2500hd. Sleazy Guido wanted to screw me over so I said Good Day and tried to leave. Naturally, my Blazer wouldn't start. Had to get it towed home, some important wiring for the starter burned up.

You know what they say " if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all".
Wow

[Mr. 250r]

The crossover and high steer according to the very credible interwebs says it puts more stress on the frame in certain areas.... nothing a little boxing or adding some metal can't fix but that just what a decent amount of people said not me as i don't run it because i currently run with the lift block on 38s and the death wobble lol

[mknittle]

Has anybody tried adding a little more caster?

[b454rat]

See if I can remember everything. You say you have 6" front springs on your truck now? Well that is equivalent to 8 inches. The frames on 1 tons are 2" taller than 1/2 and 3/4 tons, both 2 and 4wd. So with 8" of lift, that is more than pushing it with regular push/pull style steering. You should go with crossover. It will steer better, and has no side affects handling wise.

As for the death wobble, it's a 60. Been there, done that. Bout the only thing that I can think of is pinion angle. Not sure if it's called caster or camber, seems I can never remember which is which. Anyways, I built a truck that had a GM 60 in it. Completely rebuilt everything other than the gears/bearings. All steering was rebuilt, as new TREs and DREs. I had 36" swampers on it, they weren't balanced, but never could tell they weren't, they rode pretty good. Then had 40" boggers, could tell pretty easy that they weren't balanced, but with a bogger you don't get a great ride anyways. But, every now and then I would get DW. Speed up or slow down, it would go away. This was with the GM 60. I then swapped to a HP60 from a 78/79 Ferd. ALL the steering stuff was the same. I swapped from the knuckles out between the two. I had 15" wheels, and can't run that size wheel on a Ford, wasn't about to spend more money when didn't need to. After I swapped, no more death wobble. Place I used to work had a set of railroad tracks that went across the road, they were on an angle, and every time I went across them with the GM60, it shook bad. After the swap, it never shook again. I would hit the tracks at different speed, couldn't get DW.

I came to the conclusion that is the only thing it could have been is pinion angle. Everything else stayed the same. I also noticed with the crossover arm, on the Ford 60 is was pretty much level with the ground. When the GM60 was in, the same arm was pointed up, indicating pinion angle was pointed down.

I would get some shims and try that. Also, replace the bolts on the pass side with studs. I got some all thread from the hardware store. Drove the truck for couple years and never came loose. I even had chrome lug nuts on the crossover cap, with a spacer and they never came loose.

IIRC, 14ff rears are 67" wide, and C+C are 63". They are the same axle, but use different brakes, both drums and backing plate, and like said wheel hubs.

I wish I had a truck, want something to play in the mud with and haul the 4 wheelers around....

[DetroitDan]

havent suffered from death wobble since I added a dual steering stabilizer using two extra-heavy duty stabilizers. Today I used it to haul a ton of pellets 2 miles from Lowes, when I turned onto my street I heard a loud snapping/clicking sound that seemed to be coming from the left front. No idea what it is, but I did notice the stupid steering block is loose again. I did actually bu ya dropped pitman arm, havent gotten around to installing it yet. But the noise seemed to be something coming from in the wheel or hub, it was with road speed, not engine speed. Brakes, calipers, wheel bearings all new. Axleshaft u-joint appears ok, I think maybe something let go in the auto locking hub, unless something simple like the inner brake pad...IDK. Raining and muddy snow and ice in the driveway, I'm not about to work on it right now. And I'm not driving it 6 miles like that to work with my kid with me, loaded, to use a lift at work.
If I have ONE more Dana 60 related problem, I swear this truck is going up for sale!