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Dana 60 Upgrades - Busting Knuckles

Dana 60 Upgrades Knuckle Comparison
Note the extra amount of material... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades Knuckle Comparison
Note the extra amount of material in the area of the crack. Between the added material and the fact that the knuckle is made from a higher strength nodular iron than the OE issue, I don't expect to see a crack like this again. Also note that the old knuckle has had its four high steering-arm studs drilled and tapped from 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch. This is because the four 1/2-inch units failed several years ago, coming loose and shearing off.
Dana 60 Upgrades Knuckle Top Comparison
Reid Racing addresses the... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades Knuckle Top Comparison
Reid Racing addresses the option of using high-steer components by adding a lot more material to the top of the knuckle and providing a fifth mounting hole. The OE knuckles were never designed to handle high steer and this is probably why I had the shearing problem in the past. Also note the ribbing added in the area when the OE piece cracked.
Dana 60 Upgrades High Steer Arms
I utilized these high-steer... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades High Steer Arms
I utilized these high-steer arms available from Dynatrac. They can be purchased as blanks so you can drill and shape them to your liking. In the background is the righthand arm mounted to the Reid Racing knuckle with five 1/2-inch studs and drilled for my tie rod, which features 3/4-inch Heim joints. In the foreground is the blank for the left side, which still needs to be shaped and drilled for the fifth hole and the tie-rod hole. Below it is the orange arm cast into the Reid Racing knuckle which I feel is too low for big-rock wheeling. Using this mounting location for your tie rod would just be asking for a big rock kiss. I'll eventually cut these arms off the knuckles for a cleaner look.
Dana 60 Upgrades Axle Spline Detail
Since I had the axles out... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades Axle Spline Detail
Since I had the axles out to replace the knuckles, it was a good time to take a look at them. Although I'd never had a failure of the stock Spicer shafts (which were new several years ago when I built the axle), I was about ready to. Note the twist starting to form in the splines of the righthand inner axle. These were cut splines since this was a custom-length axle. Since the Spicer axles are mild steel and the hardening doesn't run too deep, this spline twisting is what happens after a while.
Dana 60 Upgrades U Joint Shafts
This is the answer to twisted... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades U Joint Shafts
This is the answer to twisted splines. Alloy USA chromoly axleshafts coupled with CTM U-joints.
Dana 60 Upgrades U Joint Detail
CTMs are fully rebuildable... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades U Joint Detail
CTMs are fully rebuildable and don't have any needle bearings to crush or contaminate. Like any high-performance part, they require a bit more maintenance in that they have to be greased fairly often. If you've ever grenaded a needle-bearing U-joint and wiped out an axle yoke in the process, you know that this maintenance is a small price to pay.
Dana 60 Upgrades U Joint Comparison
Here is a comparison between... 
   
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Dana 60 Upgrades U Joint Comparison
Here is a comparison between the OE Spicer axle on the left and the Alloy/CTM unit on the right. This picture paints a thousand words as you can see the extra beef in both the axle yokes and the U-joints. Couple that beef with the far superior materials the aftermarket parts are made of, and you can see how racing has improved the breed, providing 'wheelers with parts that will last longer than the period of time some of us have dreamed about their coming into existence in the first place.
Alloy USA Reid Racing
www.reidracing.biz
CTM

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