So I ran across an old friend the other day. We were bsing about trucks and offroading. I was telling him that I wanted to put D60s under my JK someday. He then informed me he has a older front D60 from an older 3/4 ton dodge and a corporate GM 14 bolt laying around his house that he's not doing anything with and that I could buy them if I wanted. My question is how hard would it be to swap those in my JK and what would I need. Is there any write ups on here on how to do it?

 

With the assumption you know how to weld, or else you wouldn't really be asking this, it depends on if this is a DD or not. If it is, you'd really have to do your research and Plan for every bolt, nut, and shim. And that's not even thinking about getting your tone rings made and abs nonsense in line with the computer.
If it's offroad only, then who cares about tone rings, abs sensors, and other computer based 'safety' crap. Measure ten times-cut once.

 

I have a "YJ " with Chev D60/14 bolt. It's a fairly easy swap if you can weld and don't have to deal with a modern vehicles electronics. It could be done, but at what cost? The Dodge axle (assuming older than '93) will be a passenger side drop, so you'll need to address that as well(Atlas?).

With the popularity of JK, I'd assume you could just about buy some bolt-in axles through he aftermarket rather than trying to make those work. The axles are beefy, but lack in technology.

 

I could buy aftermarket axles but they are way outta my price range. I'm prolly gonna be able to pick these up for around 700 for both and river raider make a swap kit with abs sensors and everything.

 

I say do it if you can weld then go for it i want to learn to weld lol

 

A guy in my club did a junkyard d60 front and he's close to finishing his 14 bolt rear. I know he specifically was looking for certain year f250 or f350's as their axles were a better fit for some reason. It took a lot if man hours to get it done but it cost him a lot less than buying a 60. Well, minus the time spent!!

 

That's what I'm thinking. I don't mind it taking me a while. Cuz honestly they prolly won't go under untill the jeep is paid off. Which gives me plenty of time to build them up and do my research.

 

There are guys on the forum running 14 bolts. My understanding is that you can get a D60 tone ring to fit on a 14 bolt that is compatible with JK electronics. But I don't have the particulars.

 

Fords are driver drop. Only year F250 had a kingpin 60 is 77-79 "Snowfighter" (citing knowledge from www.*********.com D60 bible by BillaVista) which is almost a bolt-in axle into a YJ (read, very valuable and fairly rare). I think if you could get the tone rings to swap on, you might have something that'd work with the JK electronics. I'm assuming traction control controls each individual brake so you'd have to plumb brakes accordingly. I'm not familiar enough with JK electronics (I've had mine two weeks now) to know what else would be dependent on the tone rings or other axle sensors. Chev D60 (and Dodges up to '93) will be passenger drop.

One could have a machine shop build adapters to attach the tone rings to the 60/14 bolt axles, but in your personal time and machine shop time, that's not exactly cheap either.

I'm curious to see if you do use the 60/14 bolt combo. You'll love the strength, availability of lockers (well, the 14 bolt isn't exactly stellar there....ARB, Detroit---which one do you want?) gears up to 5.38 (again, the 14 bolt is the limiting factor---5.38s weren't commonly available until a few years ago) and overall beef of the setup. I just went from 40" tires on my trail rig (Chev 60/14 bolt) to 38" tires on my trail rig. I wouldn't suggest running the Chev ton axles with less than a 35" (and with the size of the diffs, that'll be similar ground clearance to stock with 32" tires---maybe worse?) tire. I beat on my ton axles a bit and they rarely even whimper.

Another option would be to peruse '94-'02 Dodge axles. 60/60 or 60/70 with unit bearings in the front. Some have a disconnect passenger axle (possibly all?) similar to a YJ. Drop is on the correct side for the t-case and they do have tone rings (I'm SURE you'd want to make sure they match what the JK computer is expecting). They are the traditional 8 on 6.5" lug pattern. Ford axles are a good solution until '99 with a D60/Sterling rear. Traditional bolt pattern again of 8 on 6.5". After '99, the wheel bolt pattern changes to 8 on 170mm and you get unit bearings.

My take is this: I'm going to just use the JK as a sweet little trail rig I can drive around the west and have fun with. Capable trail rig with 35-36" tires. Treat the axles like you would a unibody and have a few spares kicking around for when they bend. This will handle almost all but the toughest trails and I'll stay out of comp rig type terrain. Not that it can't be built to bitchin' trail specs, but to get to run the last 8-10% of trails that require a rig on ton axles, it's not worth it to me.

I'm far from an aftermarket axle buyer. I've built my tons in my "CJ" from junk. I've got almost as much in them as an aftermarket axle even getting them cheap like I did. I was able to build in stages, which was advantageous. For an over-electronic rig like a JK, it seems like the aftermarket axles are the way to go or to just wheel the rig with what's available for moderate upgrades and run the trails it can run. By the time you get your axles built, Moab will likely be off-limits to off-roading due to the Red Rock Wilderness act (new Dept. of Interior Sec. almost assures that passing).

3/4 ton Dodge will likely be a D44 if it's '93-older and passenger drop. '94-newer is likely a D60 (driver drop) with unit-bearings and center axle disconnect (CAD). Verify the axle before purchasing this. I'm not sure many (any?) '93-older Dodges came with ton front axles. The Dodge ton axle is about 4" narrower than a Chev 60 (69.5") and shares a bunch of parts with the Chev. If it's '94-newer, I'd do a bunch of research and see if it'll work for you. In my estimation, challenges will be tone rings, unit bearings with bigger tires (assuming 38"-and up) and the front axle disconnect.

I hope to see it done, because a cheap uprade path would be uber sweet

 

So what's I'm picking up from everyone is that it will almost be more of a pain than pleasure. Which is fine with me I'm just wondering if it would be worth the effort or not.