Dana 60 in my 73 duster?

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flathead31coupe

flathead31coupe

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I am looking to have a dana 60 cut down That someone had given me to put in my duster...my ? Is do I make it to fit the one that is in there now or make it a shorter in length to help with tire selection
 
I would decide your wheel and tire combo first and then cut the rear end to fit. That's just my two cents
 
As of now, I am running Mopar rallies 14 inch, which has a indy profile, Mickey Thompson n 50 on the rear now. But I am not having any luck finding a replacement tire for that size. So I may have to go up to 15 inch rallies. , I just didn't know if cutting the rear end down to a specific length would help me out in the long run. Or make it a stock replacement width Dana 60.
 
We had a stock Abody 8.75 and fit an 8 inch steel wheel with a 275/60r15 28 inch tire in the wheelwells of our 73 Duster. If you move your springs in you can run bigger wheels. Do you need that? That being said it'd be a good starting point for dimensions. I couldn't say if the factory A body Dana's were the same length as the 8.75.
 
There have been a bunch of different D60 configurations made over the years.
Figure out what you have, different axle splines etc.
 
flathead31coupe said:
No Drag Racing. I was just wondering if it would benefit me since I'm having the rear end. Cut down to make it Narrower
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Just depends on what you have and what you want. A 275/60/15 will fit with the stock spring locations and stock wheel wells, although a 1/2” spring offset from DoctorDiff would give you some more wiggle room and if you have to weld on perches anyway you might as well.

As for the rims and the width of the rear, figure out what rims you want and the backspacing they come with and go from there. Stock A-body 8 3/4 housing width, with BBP axle and drum brakes, usually works pretty well with a 15x8 with about a 4.5” backspace. With disk brakes or less backspace you’d need to go narrower on the rear end.
 
Pick a tire/wheel combo you want and build the rearend to work with them.

Keep in mind that if you ever go to a big tire down the road, shorter backspacing (i.e., a narrower rearend) could make taking the tires/wheels on and off a lot easier.
 
I would think you need to decide on rear tire size first.
 
flathead31coupe said:
As of now, I am running Mopar rallies 14 inch, which has a indy profile, Mickey Thompson n 50 on the rear now. But I am not having any luck finding a replacement tire for that size. So I may have to go up to 15 inch rallies. , I just didn't know if cutting the rear end down to a specific length would help me out in the long run. Or make it a stock replacement width Dana 60.
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I regret going stock width on my Dana in my 68 barracuda. Also regret not relocating the spring perches. Yeah it can be fixed, just a pain.
 
flathead31coupe said:
I like the way the 50s x14 look. But haven't found replacement tires that size
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I get it, but that size is almost non-existent as you are finding. Fifteen inch tires are much more common and may even be cheaper in the long run.

You think you're having a tough time finding 14 inch tires, try finding a decent 13" tire for an early Dart. Mostly trailer tires, but I did find a set of Hankooks.
 
Changing rim size means nothing. (Diameter) You can get a tire that's exactly the same width and overall diameter for a 14" wheel as you can get for a 15" I'm looking at possibly going 16" for same reason as 15s are getting harder to find around here. Not a good reason to go thru all of this for a rear end swap.especially having to have one narrowed, new axles to compensate etc
 
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