Narrowed D60 front axle and Sterling 10.25 rear axle builds

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

And it's done!

A Sterling 10.25 with a WMS to WMS measurement of 61.75"!

61.25" without drums/discs on the hubs.

I had to trim each shortside shaft 3/8" at the splines to make it all fit together.

No pictures of the actual narrowing process unfortunately... was working on this late last night and was kinda in the zone fab wise...forgot to grab my camera.

Basically what I did was bevel each cut end so I could hit it with a 3 pass weld. I made sleeves that fit inside of the axle tubes out of 1/8" wall 3" OD tube, slid them into the axle tubes 2", tack welded them then pounded the outer portion of axle shaft/spindle onto the sleeve. Trued them to eachother using a straight edge and some angle iron (Gwaii style, thanks Tom) and tack welded everything. Checked it all, and finish welded in 1" increments on opposite side to minimize warping until it was fully welded. Ground the welds smooth and blended everything so it looks like it was meant to be. Turned out pretty good.

 

[DANIELVINCENT]

dude that looks damn good keep up the good work man i narrowed my Dana 44 to 61 inch about and it looks sick, now its time for me to find a 60 and do what you did!!! keep up the good work oh and how did you shorten your shafts for the front cause mine is about an 1/2 inch off so idk if i can cut it myself or not??? thanks

 

[gwaii]

Basically what I did was bevel each cut end so I could hit it with a 3 pass weld. I made sleeves that fit inside of the axle tubes out of 1/8" wall 3" OD tube, slid them into the axle tubes 2", tack welded them then pounded the outer portion of axle shaft/spindle onto the sleeve. Trued them to eachother using a straight edge and some angle iron (Gwaii style, thanks Tom) and tack welded everything. Checked it all, and finish welded in 1" increments on opposite side to minimize warping until it was fully welded. Ground the welds smooth and blended everything so it looks like it was meant to be. Turned out pretty good.

i cut into my ranger diff and the donor diff,and found the same tapered inside as you did.
i also found that when i shortened the one side i used a thin sleeve as you did(that was like 10 years ago...i'd forgotten the procedure i'd used).i still need to clean the tubes and get things tacked together,but it's on it's way.

you've got yours looking good,hope to have some pics of my overwidth one up soon.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

The front shaft (long side) I got already cut down from another member on here. It was cut and resplined by a machine shop.

The rear axle shafts just needed the ends trimmed so they didn't hit the cross shaft. I did that with a zipcut on an angle grinder.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

i cut into my ranger diff and the donor diff,and found the same tapered inside as you did.
i also found that when i shortened the one side i used a thin sleeve as you did(that was like 10 years ago...i'd forgotten the procedure i'd used).i still need to clean the tubes and get things tacked together,but it's on it's way.

you've got yours looking good,hope to have some pics of my overwidth one up soon.

I can send you the 3" piece I cut out, should be right to make yours wider!

 

[gwaii]

I can send you the 3" piece I cut out, should be right to make yours wider!

i could use the long axles more

seems i have a whole bunch of the short ones,i'll have to head down to the yard and scrounge up another long side or two.

glad to see you've got things coming together on this project...should be pretty bulletproof when all together.

a quick note on the brakes...i found they got kinda spongey with the ranger master on the 1 ton goodies-a switch to a master from a '02 sport trac solved the problem,it has a larger bore that suits the bigger bottoms nicely and bolts up to the ranger booster.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Good to know on the master cylinder, I was figuring on using a 1/2ton master atleast.

 

[CHKNFKR]

i cut into my ranger diff and the donor diff,and found the same tapered inside as you did.
i also found that when i shortened the one side i used a thin sleeve as you did(that was like 10 years ago...i'd forgotten the procedure i'd used).i still need to clean the tubes and get things tacked together,but it's on it's way.

you've got yours looking good,hope to have some pics of my overwidth one up soon.

Overwidth? What are you up to now? Which project is this part of?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

He's making a sterling with 2 long side shafts.

 

[CHKNFKR]

I gathered that, just wasn't sure if it was for the ranger or a new unpublished project.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Ranger as far as I know.

 

[gwaii]

Ranger as far as I know.

yup...the ranger.(sorry bout the threadjack,ryan)

changing conditions in wheeling(beach vs trail)have allowed full width axles under the ranger,and as i need to widen the rear back to stock to match the d60 front,i figured why not go for the gusto and throw in two long sides.this also keeps the center pivot...well....centered.

 

[CHKNFKR]

Gotcha, sort of anyway. Won't that make your rear track width wider than the front?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

(sorry bout the threadjack,ryan)

No worries.....not much else happening in this thread right now anyways

Gotta order more parts for anything more to happen....

 

[gwaii]

Gotcha, sort of anyway. Won't that make your rear track width wider than the front?

about an inch.the 10.25 is actually a bit narrower than the d60 stock.they'll be closer to matched after widening.