I've done some searching and it seems this topic (early 2nd gen front brake upgrade) is absolutely beat to death, but one thing I've not seen covered: is it an option to swap Ford knuckles onto the Dodge D60 front housing? I know the Fords have used balljoint fronts for quite some time, and I *think* the TTB Dana 50 also uses the same knuckles-out (at very least the spindles, lockouts, stubs, hub and brakes are shared). EDIT: found info on that. good for some parts but not most
If this is a doable swap I'd expect it to be popular since it would give lockouts, traditional bearings, and a twin piston brake option that I know from my Dakota is a very strong brake setup. So I'm guessing it's not a doable swap, otherwise it would be talked about.

Just thought I'd throw it out there. I searched and found no comment on it in this section of the site. I can't check myself since I only have a kingpin Ford 60 to play with. Has anyone got an ~92-98 Ford F350 to take a look at and at least compare balljoint spacing and direction, or am I going to have to hit the pick and pull this weekend to really chase this?

 

This page https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/pro...uter-Knuckles-

indicates to me that the Ford knuckles should swap on.

I couldn't care less about keeping things in-brand, so I think I'm going to see about finding a set of early ball joint ford outers with dually hubs to throw on. Maybe the dually chevy front a fried just got may have something useful on it too...

I'm both busy (lazy) and tight for cash right now but I'll keep this up to date with my findings. I hope if anyone has been down this path they'll share their findings too.

 

from what I can find and read, this should be as simple as finding a 92+ non-superduty F350 and grabbing the knuckles and everything outboard of them, along with the stub shaft, swapping the Ford stub onto the 32sp Dodge inner axle, and bolting it all up.

Both are dana 60 front axles so spacing should match, but I just looked up the ball joints and the lowers are (very slightly) different part numbers. Might just be zerk location or nut style and not something important like taper but without holding them I sure can't tell you.

Per RockAuto
1994 FORD F-350 5.8L 351cid V8 MFI (H) : Suspension : Ball Joint
(1) 4x4 upper: Raybestos 5001048B
(2) 4x4 lower: Raybestos 5051181B

1997 DODGE RAM 3500 PICKUP 5.9L 359cid L6 DIESEL MFI Turbo (D) : Suspension : Ball Joint
(1) 4x4 upper (also matches SFA 4x2): Raybestos 5001048B
(3) 4x4 lower (also matches SFA 4x2): Raybestos 5001181B

 

This could be interesting, have you done anymore yet?

 

All I've got into it so far is years and years of experience swapping parts where they don't belong (see the Dakota in my sig), and about an hour of reading and research

There are probably some dually Ford 60s in my P&P. They keep a lot of fullsize trucks, and nobody wants those axles to swap into a wheeler, so they hang around a bit longer. One way that having a dually could help me out here. My best option is an hour away and closes early though, so a visit will have to wait for Saturday morning.

I've got pretty fresh ball joints and unit bearings on my 3500 but the brakes could use some help and I want to check the ujoints, so I may chase this sooner than later. Hoping someone has looked further into this and posts up. We shall see I guess.

 

confirmation that the 92-97 is the right model year range, and that they run traditional bearings not unit hub garbage:

https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/pro...ll-joint-axles

 

Sweet getting read to do both and if blow out the unit bearing (with 320K very likely) i can put something that can be repaired in the future.

 

Ive been trying to get confirmation for some time now of exactly that swap.

So far, nobody can tell me if it will work, and I have not been able to lay my hands on parts.

If you can find a set, try it, I know I would.

 

I''m watching this, too. I've been looking for ford parts, but haven't found any f350's local. i'd like to throw the whole dana 60 under the front of my jeep, but having sevicable parts on the tow rig would be good, too.

 

a little more RockAuto digging and a Pirate 4x4 find and I've come up with the following:

Looks like the knuckles SHOULD bolt on.
May increase track width by about 1.5" per side
'-94 F350 has 12.5" rotor and twin piston caliper, looks like it's key-mounted
'95-97 F350 has 13" rotor and twin piston caliper, looks like it's pin-mounted
'97 3500 has 12.5" rotor and pin-mounted single piston caliper
'04 3500 has 13.85" rotor and pin-mounted twin piston caliper.

So this doesn't get the brakes up quite as big as the nice bolt-on 3rd gen swap that the '00+ Rams get to do, but it's certainly better than stock.


I don't know if there are big brake upgrades available for that generation Ford. I don't have time to dig for that now.

 

I lied. I made time....

The Ford guys all talk about how great the 95-97 brakes are. they mostly seem to suggest Hawk ceramic pads and Powerslot rotors. Unless the rotors are easier to change on their dually setup than they are on mine there's no way I'm running ceramic, I want rotors that are that much of a pain to change to last.

 

Correct, I did that once .

 

hey just coming in on this, so what you are saying here is that the, steering knuckle, hubs (manual im guessing). all the braking comopnents (caliper mounts, calipers etc...) and ball joints will bolt onto my 1994 dodge ram 4x4. why didnt I know about this sooner??? hmmmm think I may have to go to the local wrecking yard to look for some parts... tie rod ends should bolt right into the knuckle correct??

 

I Know This Is Going To Work, IT'll Be a GREAT Upgrade. How do I know, cause I've got all of about a 1,000 miles on my "TOTALLY REBUILD STOCK FRONT END" new tie rods, idler, upper/lower ball joints, rotors, Bendix Fleet brake pads, 1 new hub/bearing assembly and whatever else was involved in this $1,000 or so rebuild.

Yelp, it'll be a fantastic upgrade.

Good luck.

RR

 

Guys, we KNOW it will work, just depends on if the Furd outer bolts on.

Do a search of user Joops, where he shows us how to combine the F350 spindle out on the Dodge D60.

It has been done, just not as easily as some of us want.......