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Alan
05-02-2004, 07:00 PM
While this is truck related I have no idea what make is involved so this seems like a perfect place for this.

I was at the junkyard the other day, actually getting rid of stuff, and spotted a VERY stour rear axle waiting to go in the scrap dumpster. So, I says to myself, "Self, that looks like a Dana 70 duallie axle, best be checking that out."

Sure enough, a Dana 70, but an odd one, the case is offset to the right by a few inches. I'm wide open to any idea of what this might have come out of.

Anyhow, the yard owner was only going to junk it as he had no idea what it would fit. He told me if I had a use for it it was mine and so it came home with me. No idea what I'll use it for but it was too good to see go to waste.

I appears to have been sandblasted and primed. Brakes were frozen up solid and since somebody had already tried brute force and busted the inner edge of the drums all to pieces I didn't care if I wasted the drums. I took a grinder and cutting discs to it and cut the drum off one end so I could get one axle to turn. It appears to be 4.10 gears and an open differential. Really nice would have been 4.56 and posi but considering the price I'm not complaining.

I got the axle out of the short side and it appears to be a factory shaft. Those damn cone washers were rusted around trhe axle studs pretty bad but penetrating oil, heat, and a BFH finally got them backed out enough to get hold of them and pull them off the studs.

The plug welds between tube and housing look like somebody shortened the tube on that side but if they did they cut it to fit a stock axle length. I checked the distance between pinion shaft and wheel mounting surface and came up with just a little less than half the track width of the 14 bolt SF in my 3500. It might be a viable project to have the other tube shortened to match.

Brake shoes are 3" wide, wheel studs are 5/8" and look to be a standard 1 ton DRW pattern. The axle tube necks down just behind the backing plate , I never did think to measure the tube OD.

I don't have a use in mind for this yet, but I'm working on it. I'm thinking that if I used a 19.5" wheel with the same offset as a normal SRW 16" wheel I could end up with a narrow rear track and single wheels/tires that would hold up under a load way better than a 16" ever could.

I'm thinking 4.56 gears with a posi on the rear, a D60 with a selectable locker up front, a small block built for torque and mated to a 700R4 so I could have the low geared transmission as well as a OD for road travel. Springs enough to carry an 8611 and a Sidewing with about a 1 1/2 yd vee box.

Grand plans, dunnoif they will go anywhere but it's fun planning it all out.

Alan
05-03-2004, 05:19 PM
Here you can see that the right hand axle tube is distinctly shorter than the left one. All the plug welds holding the tubes to the center section look the same, so I assume that either this is the way it left the factory or somebody had both tubes out and rewelded them.

Alan
05-03-2004, 05:24 PM
Pretty impressive hub for a "light" axle. We had what I assumed was a D70 in an 85 F-350 but I don't remember it having such heavy wheel studs, nor do I remember it having the cone washers between axle flange and hub. The Ford also had a spring loaded nut that took a special socket to remove whereas this axle has a big hex nut and lock plate holding the hub to the spindle.

I'm wide open for any suggestions about what this may have come out of. This also has a locator pin sticking out of the wheel mounting flange, which (I think) is a Ford feature.

Pelican
05-03-2004, 05:52 PM
I'm going to guess it came from a special industrial vehicle, something that would be seen around either an airport, rail depot or docks. I've seen this type of special use equipment around freight terminals and that would be my guess.

Big Nate's Plowing
05-05-2004, 08:32 PM
the only thing that throws me for a loop is that they arent equal legnth shafts, that makes me think it might be from a military tug or fuel cart

76chevyman
05-12-2004, 03:17 PM
Well i was driving around today and there is alot of pail road work being done arond where i live. And when i saw thier pickups the first thing that came to me was Alan'a dana 70. I thing it was off a railroad maintaince truck. I bet if you measure from center wheel to center wheel and go measure center to center on the railroad tracks. it would line up. Because the trucks around here use the tires to propell the trucks down the track even though they have rail wheels too. Just thought i would give my two cents.

Rich:burnout

phoenix827
11-24-2005, 06:19 AM
how to revive an old thread! lol
1, that looks OLD to me, 60's?
2, my thinking is something with dual rear axles, the offset might be enough to sneak a driveshaft past another axle? Only app I can think of is military or industrial like Pelican said.
Hmm, dual axels on the s10?:grinz

mike tech
11-24-2005, 07:10 AM
By the looks of the hub it looks like a dodge or poss old

internation,light truck. the offset makes me think late 70s dodge
w350 or w550 it could be some industral tug or some thing.The taper
cones on the axle flange was old ford late 60s and early 70s ,dodge
used cones in the early 80s.