Bigger front axle questions.....D50

Goatman

Goatman

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Bakersfield, CA
I have access to a complete D50 if I want it, and I'm still trying to figure out if it's worth using. Lincoln and I talked about D44 carrier and gears working in the D50, but I'm trying to confirm that. Does anyone have, or can find, some good info on that? A possibility is to use the 35 spline D44 ARB to be able to use 35 spline inner axles, then shave the hell out of the housing. In stock form, it has 30 spline inners and 31 spline stubs with 1480 series axle joints.

The other question I have is about 1/2 ton brakes on the ball joint D50/D60 knuckles. I know there are kits for 1/2 ton brakes on king pin D60's, and Currie uses Wilwood brakes on their D60's, but the Currie setup won't allow running my aluminum 15" rims.

IF the D44 carrier and gears will work, and IF 1/2 ton brakes can be made to work, then it could be a reasonally priced project.
 
Rich, I have D-44,50 and 60 carriers at my disposal. The OEM side gears in the 50 are much larger than a 44, but I haven't had time to see if the 60 side gears fit inside. I DO NOT believe the 35 spline shafts fit into the carrier bearing journals, but I can check to confirm. I can also check the total width of the carrier on the 50 to see if the 44 carrier will fit, I know it's about 1.25" narrower than a 60. The pinion is the familiar D-30/44 size, and Ford has had some problems breaking the pinion under TD power.

Let me know how you want me to mix and match parts and I can give you an answer to most of your questions.

Oh, and if you don't use the 50 housing, I'll take it!
 
The problem with running it stock are two fold. One is the 30 spline inner shafts, which would be a downsize from chromo D44 30 spline shafts. The other thing is the 8 lug metric bolt pattern. You'd want to match it with an 8 lug D60/D70/14 bolt, and the 8 lug bolt patterns are different.

Andy, the only reason to run it would be to use the 35 spline D44 ARB.......otherwise there's no point.
 
All right I have to ask, how much do they weigh ? :)

Just some food for thought. It's going to be big money but this is what looks good to me.
I have no way to swing it myself but sombody here might.
From PBB.

You'll see a full article on spidertrax's new axle in JP coming up I think next issue.

The axle pics on their site are of my front axle The entire thing with a 2.5" psc ram, shafts, 3rd...everything...weighted in at a whopping 318lbs.

Now that's what I'm talking about. 318 lbs !!!!!!!!
 
Last edited:
Oh, and the stubs on my TTB 50 are 30 spline, not 31. Fairly certain the SupDuty 50's are also 30. The TTB 50 outer knuckles DO NOT fit the SupDuty 50, much as I would love if they did!

CRASH

PS, I'm constructing a sheet metal housing from a TTB 50 center section, which is not the easiest way to achieve what you are trying to do, but it is cheap! It's for my tow rig.
 
Oh, and the stubs on my TTB 50 are 30 spline, not 31. Fairly certain the SupDuty 50's are also 30. The TTB 50 outer knuckles DO NOT fit the SupDuty 50, much as I would love if they did!

CRASH

PS, I'm constructing a sheet metal housing from a TTB 50 center section, which is not the easiest way to achieve what you are trying to do, but it is cheap! It's for my tow rig.
 
Goatman said:
The problem with running it stock are two fold. One is the 30 spline inner shafts, which would be a downsize from chromo D44 30 spline shafts. The other thing is the 8 lug metric bolt pattern. You'd want to match it with an 8 lug D60/D70/14 bolt, and the 8 lug bolt patterns are different.

Andy, the only reason to run it would be to use the 35 spline D44 ARB.......otherwise there's no point.
Click to expand...

The ARB part number for a 44 is different than a 50, so I doubt they interchange.

Richard, I am fairly certain that you can get Dana 60 35 spline drive gears into a Dana 50 ARB. In fact, I think it's been done. May need to bore the carrier bearing bores a touch, but i can measure that for you tonight.

http://www.arbusa.com/alac/215110.pdf
 
I think we should beat Brett into searching on Pirate. I'm sure I read you could use the D44 carrier in a D50 housing but you had to use the 44 gears along with it. They were discussing getting the 35 spline inners into the super poopy housing and it came up as an option. The big complaint was stepping down to the 44 gears.

I can't remember if they said it needed to be shimmed more or not. Later I'll do some research on the carrier bearings and check sizes.
 
Goatman said:
The problem with running it stock are two fold. One is the 30 spline inner shafts, which would be a downsize from chromo D44 30 spline shafts. The other thing is the 8 lug metric bolt pattern. You'd want to match it with an 8 lug D60/D70/14 bolt, and the 8 lug bolt patterns are different.

Andy, the only reason to run it would be to use the 35 spline D44 ARB.......otherwise there's no point.
Click to expand...
no, no, no. What I mean is why run a D50 and change the side-gears etc? Why not take the inner and outer knuckles off it, put the 35 spline ARB in the D44 you already have, and put the knuckles and outers on that?

and yeah, the Spidertrax setup Dave is talking about looks awesome. Another thing added to my dream setup which I'll never have.
 
The straight axle D50 stubs are 31 spline. We counted them, plus I read it somewhere. They might be worth trying stock with 37's. 35 spline stubs for king pin knuckles are cheap, less than $100 for Spicer's, but 35 spline stubs for ball joint knuckles are custom only and are $200.

Yes, you could just put ball joint 60 knuckles on a D44, but then you'd have to get a HP44 just for the center section, and if it's the one with cast brackets it would need to be retubed. Doable, but it could be easier and slightly cheaper if the D50 center section could be used. This is especially true if it was used in a buggy project and left full width. I wouldn't cut up my current housing

I'd love to have 9"/D60, but any way you cut it the cost will be $5000++. That's just too much even though I really want one. If the 31 spline stubs are used, I figure the D50 can be built for half of that.
 
I'm not having much luck getting the specs on those carrier bearings. It looks like the D50 bore is larger but I can't get the OD diameter for sure. It may be different also.

The bore won't matter much since the 35 spline ARB uses different bearings anyway.

Andy's idea may be a better way. The largest drawback would be you couldn't shave the housing as much because of the larger ring gear.

Brett, did you do that search on pirate? I'm too cheap to pony up for a star.
 
I wouldn't mind not shaving the housing the extra 1/4" to get the bigger 9" ring gear. The problem with the brakes would still need to be worked out to be able to use the 15" alloy rims. If starting from scratch on a project, just get 17" rims and use the stock brakes.
 
Goatman said:
I wouldn't mind not shaving the housing the extra 1/4" to get the bigger 9" ring gear. The problem with the brakes would still need to be worked out to be able to use the 15" alloy rims. If starting from scratch on a project, just get 17" rims and use the stock brakes.
Click to expand...

16's will work find also.

If you get a chance see how much interference there would be with a 15" wheel. The old Fords wouldn't work, but I knew a bunch of Chevy people that got 15's over their 60 stuff by grinding the calipers.
 
Lincoln said:
16's will work find also.

If you get a chance see how much interference there would be with a 15" wheel. The old Fords wouldn't work, but I knew a bunch of Chevy people that got 15's over their 60 stuff by grinding the calipers.
Click to expand...

I thought you could get 15" steel wheels to fit, but not alloy. I know Currie says that some 15" wheels will fit their brakes, but I'm assuming that cast alloys will not because they're thicker.
 
David Taylor said:
All right I have to ask, how much do they weigh ? :)

Just some food for thought. It's going to be big money but this is what looks good to me.
I have no way to swing it myself but sombody here might.
From PBB.

You'll see a full article on spidertrax's new axle in JP coming up I think next issue.

The axle pics on their site are of my front axle The entire thing with a 2.5" psc ram, shafts, 3rd...everything...weighted in at a whopping 318lbs.

Now that's what I'm talking about. 318 lbs !!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

This picture makes me moist:

media.nl
 
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