Dana 70 front

[GordoSmasho]

So I picked this axle up for a song. It's a driver side low pinion dana 70. 67 wms 3/4ton brakes. Full time hubs and gears 5.13 with a LSD. It's missing the driver side spindle, hub, disk, and caliper. What I can see of the bom is this:
604372-6 4 11 9 9b

It is massive but I couldn't pass it up. I'm going to try and see if it will work for me. I'm sure it's more than I will ever need on 37" but if I ever want to go bigger I'm sure it will accomodate nicely. I have a 14b planned for the rear. So...

My plan is to weld up the diff and swap in some manual hubs. I'll probably run the 5.13s if they are in good shape. If not I'll be bumping up to 5.38s or higher. We will see.

My fear is it's too large for the height I'm planning to run. I will not be running any more than 4" of lift. Preferably 3". I'll be linking it up with the ruff stuff three link kit. And running Hydro assist.

Any and all input and suddestions are welcome. If I figure out this will work I will be updating this thread with info and lots of pics for others to draw from. It will be slow though. I will not be installing this axle set until next off season.

 

[Alboy97XJ]

3 inch lift and 40's

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Dude might as well go 39.5s

 

[goodwilljeeper]

Team Gordon!!! That's sick

 

[831_xj]

Hell ya! The ball is rolling..I'm jelly

I agree 37s isn't much of an upgrade for all the work do 40s bruh!

 

[kastein]

Goddamn. That is a big bastard.

Good thing it came with 5.13s because IIRC there are very few gearsets available for the ancient 70s... I may be wrong. 5 or 6 bolt spindles? IIRC those ran dana 60 outer stuff (again, I may be wrong here...) so it'll be either Ford or Chevy/Dodge regular old 60 spindles and hubs etc. I can't really quite see what's going on in the pictures, but worst case you can swap a matched pair of kingpin 60 knuckles-out (spindles, shafts, knuckles, brakes, whatever) off something else onto it.

Is it coarse or fine spline inner shafts? Always looking to add to the brain bank on axle knowledge. A friend picked up a coarse spline 60s/70s era rear 70 and ended up realizing there was absolutely nothing available to put into it aside from bearings, he couldn't even get gearsets. Ended up scrapping it and finding a 60.

 

[GordoSmasho]

They are definately 6 bolt spindles. I haven't dug in too deep into it yet. Hoping to get the bom info tomorrow. Parts mike seems to have everything I need for this.

Just looking at it I think I can shave at least an inch off the bottom of this beast and not even get into the diff cover. Haha

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Shave it and run some big ass tires, but enjoy the fact that you can beat the snot out of it and never worry about breakage.
hydro asset with that axle and 40s will be a must probably.

 

[Alboy97XJ]

i vote 40's Min... or run 42's so it will push me that much more to get some 42's:explosion

 

[Hoooper]

any concern about oil pan or track bar clearance with that thing at only a 3" lift? Bigger tires will help its ground clearance but dont do anything to gain clearance to the engine, steering, etc.

 

[GordoSmasho]

This is deffinately my main concern.

 

[CAJJ93XJ]

definitely plenty of room to shave it. theres a guy on here and pirate who shaves axles like these I'll try to find him so you can check out his work
throw the "lowcog" idea out the window. give yourself some room, run a 4.5" or 5.5" coil. don't try to cram everything in there. uptravel is your friend
and if you're still planning on running high back space wheels, like my H2's, don't be afraid to run a 37. being that narrow doesnt really necessitate a 40. it's a very street happy tire size with 5.13's/ax15. especially if you go radial.

but we all want to see you on 40's, of course!

 

[Hoooper]

little bit of measuring pumpkin size would help decide if its a big deal or not. Would suck to do a low COG build with d70 on 37+ to find out you need to bumpstop at 2" uptravel.

If it can be shaved top and bottom it could easily end up pretty small

 

[GordoSmasho]

That's what I'm thinking. I don't want to call it a lcog rig. That's not really the purpose. I just want my three daughters to be able to get in unassisted. And make it easy on my wife to drive it if she wants/needs to. I don't have all that much up travel now and I like the way it handles. My 35s measure out at 33.5 so I'm sure going to a true 37" tire will remedy some of the oil pan clearances as well. I will in fact be running and ax15/231/d300 setup as well so I'm sure 5.13s and 37s will work fine. I will definately be trying to keep it as narrow as possible. Probably end up with h1s or h2s.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

also consider the fact that you can move the Trackbar mount forward with a Ruffstuff mount and some frame plating and gusset the mount, and then kick the coil buckets back sort of like I did and you can very easily push that axle at least 2" forward, which will help a little.
You can also bump stop on the safe side to start, and then fine tune things as you go. thats the cheap and easy way, is add a few hockey pucks until you dial it in. You could start with the 3.5" coils and then add pucks to fine tune the height and bump stop/shocks/oil pan clearance/

there are pros and cons of the weight and width and the clearance, but I think for some of the stuff in reno where we have broken R&P's and lots of shafts you will have that piece of mind now and the tradeoff is worth the weight, width, and clearance losses and in some cases the weight and width will possibly help (and in others not, just like narrow weak axles can cause headaches as well) .

 

[CAJJ93XJ]

I don't think they're going to be able to get in or out easily anyway since it's a) going to be taller anyway and b) it's a 2 door lol
just put stuff where it fits. hell if it fits at 4" then run it there I guess. my 5.5" coils make me very happy I'm glad I stepped up. I originally wanted to run sagged out 4.5's and I can only imagine the horrors of shredding my tires on the inner fenders and using the shocks as bumpstops.

I'm certainly stoked to see this buildup. you gonna start next winter?

 

[GordoSmasho]

The ruff stuff kit is awesome. I'm getting the coil pad kit so the coils will be centered on the tubes anyways. I'll be plating the area for the trackbar mount and adding a cross brace as well. I have some good ideas on how to make it fit so we'll see. I'll be taking some good before and after pics and comparison shots to show clearance differences. Not only with the axle but link setup as well.

This axle and the 14b will be installed this winter in the off season. So the build up and what not will be done before. And it will be ready to bolt in for the most part. I have a second Cherokee to use as mock up so that's nice. Haha.

 

[GordoSmasho]

So I got the bom info. This particular axle was and industrial off hyway use build. It uses Chevy dana 60 outers. It is 68" wms (odd number but I measured three times). I took a few more pics to get a bit better look at everything. I'm going to run the 5.13s (for now) as the next available ratio is 5.86. There are some really wonky spring pads welded to this thing. They are only like 2" wide. But that is all I'll have to remove aside from rotating the knuckles a bit, which I'm sure will be a pain in the ass. I will deffinately have negative caster if I pull the pinion up at all.
Any thoughts on rotating the C's?
Started making a list of parts and prices. When this is all said and done I should have less than 1500 dollars in this axle (minus link bracketry and steering) including the price of the axle. And it will be fully rebuild with new everything except the gears and shafts.

Now some better pics

Dana 30 shaft next the 70 shaft

Any comments on the neck down on these shafts?

 

[Hoooper]

looks funny, nearly as small as the 30 shaft, but shouldnt matter. Force concentrates on the ends of the shaft, as you get toward the middle of the shaft the forces balance out to 0. Thats why you really only see shafts snapped right at the splines or at the U joints.

 

[CAJJ93XJ]

nice budget of 1500. that's great money for a huge axle that's already geared
as for rotating C's I love having my caster and pinion angle perfect. but it might be more work than it's worth.

if you do decide to do it I say just chop the diff away from the tubes and slug it on both sides and truss it. skip right passed that drilling plug welds malarkey