I lost a tooth on the pinion gear last night and with 290K on the axle it looks like it might be cheaper/smarter to just upgrade to a D80 rather than do all new bearings and pinion gear plus the time to set it all up and hope I did it right.

The truck is the D350 with DRW already, the axle I found is out of an 02 DRW with disk brakes, not sure if it was a reg bed or cab and chassis. I did some searching and found lots of great info on the shocks, mounts, shortening the drive shaft and all that but still have a few questions that I want to make sure on.

what the best thing to do for wheels, keep mine or find new ones?
do the stock 16" dual wheels clear the disks on the D80?
should I change the 9/16 studs to 5/8, will they center properly or is there a better way?

does the master cylinder need to be changed to handle the disk brakes? I see some say to change it then its not mentioned in other threads? Either way what is the upgrade option?

I guess that's about all for now...........

 

I've been reading about the wheels and found a post where someone used a thin spacer against the axle face then tapered the holes on every other lug to allow the coined wheel to fit correctly.

Now to find out if the 9/16 flange nuts are strong enough to hold the wheel in place if it was centered using the two tapered nuts like what is supose to be done now? I dont suppose those two piece flange nuts will like the 250-300+ ft-lbs to hold it in place?


Is everyone else that swapped to a Dana 80 using different wheels now or what?

 

Everyone I know whom uses a D80 dually rear axle on a first gen went to the newer style wheels. Better that way. Might have to do with some other proportioning valve or lack thereof to get proper braking force for disks out back too. Or a new style master cylinder retrofitted in.

 

Thanks, I'm reading all the hydroboost swaps now. Guess thats the way to go, do the setup with a master cylinder thats made for four wheel disks. I would be more excited about this if the brakes didn't work but they actually stop real good.

That pinion gear swap doesnt seem so bad now with all the rest of the stuff to make this work.

 

If its mostly stock I'd fix the 70, rear ends aren't as scary as most guys think, just proper set up. There is tons of information out there, and it looks like you have other trucks to drive so you can take your time.

 

the rear wheels are actually hub centric and do not require the use of two tapered nuts to center--only the front wheels require this. the only reason the stock fixed flange lugs require 325ft-lbs of torque is to overcome the friction. if you were to start using 5/8 swivel washer lugs they would only require 140ft-lbs torque in fact the securex nuts have this stamped right on them. the 2nd gen 9/16 lugs would be a bit less.

 

What year and axle are you referring to? i've read here in several places that the rears need to be centered as well.

 

all of them. you can confirm this with a visual inspection as well as physical measurement with a set of calipers. I have read the tsb dodge issued covering this and they were purposely vague. likely because they did not want be responsible for a possible recall for putting out the ridiculously missmatched and potentially dangerous product that they did. so rather than coming clean and stating what the real problem was they came up with the band aid fix of using a couple tapered nuts to center the front wheels. now they did not state this because they could have been on the hook to replace all the front hubs on every dually 1st gen. the front hubs on the d350 dually had no wheel locating flange whatsoever, pathetic. and on the w350 dodge sourced gm spec hubs to to save a couple pennies. I have probably read a lot of the threads that you have seen and nobody ever has seemed to mention this info. I had to figure this stuff out on my own while preparing to mount a set of alcoas on my w350. I have taken measurements from my w350 and from my 95 3500 which has a Dana 80. also have compared the coined wheels and 2nd gen. if you take a close look at your rear hubs you will see there is a machined surface to locate the wheels.

 

So are you saying that the 1st gen wheels will fit on the D80 and be centered by the hub? If so then it would be fine to use a set of 9/16 flange nuts to bolt them on?

Any idea on the diameter of the flange on second gen swivel nuts? are they as large of an outer diameter on the flange?

Just curious, what did you do to mount your alcoas for studs and nuts, will they fit with the 5/8 lugs?

Thanks

 

If the D-80 is from a C/C it will be 5-6 inches to narrow for a dually with the original bed. Dont know about the wheel situation.

 

yes the coined wheels are located by the hub. the coining did not really do a lot and was a poorly engineered design. I am not sure if the 16" wheels fit over the disc setup they may have changed to 17" when they started using rear discs. I just checked and found that the 2nd gen lug nuts do not fit over the coins. the id of the washer is not large enough. I would just grind them flat as they really don't do anything. look at the design of the male vs female coining. they are not a precision fit. its a garbage design that was poorly executed and upon close scrutiny serves no real purpose. these are my findings you should take a look at yours and I think you will find I am correct. I am using securex 5/8 swivel washer lug nuts with stock 5/8 studs. I am using them on my stock coined wheels now and they will also be used on my alcoas. my alcoas have a lug bore of the.67" and fit over the 5/8 studs perfect.