When gearheads get together and talk about axles (and yeah, we do that from time to time) the Dana Corporation name pops up frequently. Jeep guys love their 30s and 44s. Drag racers and Mopar freaks have sworn by the 60 for decades and the truck pullers abuse 70s and 80s all day long. Until now, hot rodders had two options when it came to Dana axles. They either went to the wrecking yard searching for an ever shrinking supply or they ordered a customized unit from a specialty axle manufacturer. Now there’s a third option.
That option is Dana’s new “Genuine Crate Axle” program which will allow a buyer to score a brand new Dana axle, straight from the factory for less than the custom shops and with none of the pitfalls of wrecking yard seconds. Front and rear axles are available for every model but the Dana 80 (because they never made a front 80, but they do make a front 70 which is used in medium duty trucks). Gear ratios from 3.73 to 5.13 are available in the standard steps for every axle.
These are factory pieces, not modified and otherwise upgraded from the custom shops so if you are building a street/strip car and want to put a Dana 60 in the back, this may be a good option. If you are building a 3,000hp pulling truck, even the mighty Dana 80 ain’t gonna cut the mustard for your program, so it would be better to call on a shop to build you a custom piece. We think it is cool that Dana has introduced this program and placed themselves into the aftermarket in this way. We wonder what took them so long!
Pricing will be announced soon and these axles will be available in the first quarter of 2012.
One of the coolest booth demonstrations going on at the show was happening in the Dana display. They had one of their engineers building a complete axle, multiple times a day. He was showing people how to get the tooth pattern right, install the pinion, etc. Check out some photos below!
It would be cool if DANA made the 60s that would retrofit into old Chrysler A, B and E body cars from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s, especially if it was near OEM pricing. I’d want one for my 1967 Dart to replace the puny Chrysler 7-1/4″ unit.
But will the 60s have pinion snubber mounting bosses?
I’m all over a D44 front for my 410+hp CJ7! No more broken D30’s, junkyard hikes and working w/shoddy “axle pro swindlers”!
a dana 60 for fullsize mopars would be sweet
Did they use a case spreader, or just hammer the carrier into the housing?
Looking for new dana80 for \’92 dodge w350 dually w/4:10 gear ratio. This will replace orig. dana70 full floater,which has spun carrier bearing/races. Pleas advise on availability/date and pricing.
Looking for new dana80 for \\’92 dodge w350 dually w/4:10 gear ratio. This will replace orig. dana70 full floater,which has spun carrier bearing/races. Pleas advise on availability/date and pricing.