Posted by Eric B. on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at 12:08PM :
In Reply to: 1960 W100 Dana 44 front axle housing needed posted by Randy Palmer on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at 11:44AM :
The housing as a common wear item on these, as the balls tend to break, but so are the knuckles, as the drivers side tends to wear out.
If the tube is ok (those are almost never damaged) but the ball is bad, what I would do is find another closed knuckle axle, and have the balls swapped.
This is a hard thing to do right, but if you find a good machinist it can be done.
There are several different thickness balls, and I think 60s Internationals had thicker walled ones, yet they fit in the same housing.
This would make the axle stronger, and prevent trouble in the future.
Of course it would be easier to find another axle, but to my undestanding you would need an axle from a 1959-60 W100-W200 only, nothing else is the same. This is not a common item, and it may be pretty hard to find in good condition.
Keep in mind that if you want to swap the WHOLE axle drum to drum you would need an axle out of a 59-60 W100, as they are the only ones that used the 8 lugs, the 59-60 W200s are 6 lug.
Eric
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