sell the dana 44s first off i would never use a dana 44 rear end in anything when the ford 9inch is so much better

and the dana 44 front is good but anything over 35s and ur going to break it, save the money and go one tons from the start u can buy a 14 bolt with a locker and gears in good condition for 4-600$

now a dana 60 front is a bit more expencive but its worth it


and the cap aka top does come off, its to keep the rain out and exct kind of like a convertable and i do take it off at times

heres a cupple pictures with the top off for you guys

there kinda old tho

some more

and more

and finally some of my favorite pictures of my truck ever at pismo beach

let me know if theres some other pictures you would like to see, i have thousands of them from the time i started building my truck up

Got the calipers mounted on the rear, had to fab up a mount for the parking brake just like on the 9" since the mount that comes on the calipers is too close to fully engage the brake, the GM parking brake cable must be about an inch shorter.



I reused my stainless drop line and welded a nut to the axle for the T fitting to mount to. Also got a new driver side brake line from kragens and shortened it to 3.5" to fit.



passenger side plumbed up



Today I test drove it on the rear axle to make sure the Detroit works. Results are good, it locks perfectly. So I tore the carrier and pinion support out and tomorrow morning I'm going to press on new bearings so I can put the 14 bolt together once and for all

Sunday was the first day in a while where I really felt like I knew what I was doing and was happy with the progress. And that’s surprising given that I was setting up gears for the first time ever… Anyway that’s getting ahead of myself.

Saturday I put gear oil in the 14B and drove around to make sure the locker worked, after chirping the tires around some corners, I pulled one axle shaft and drove it up the driveway in one wheel drive, figured that was as good a test as I could manage. Also found out my driveshaft is too long, with NO cargo in the truck I can barely install it! Saturday afternoon I tore the axle apart.

Sunday I pressed new bearings onto the carrier and pinion assembly. Today I finished the pinion assembly by setting the preload which is accomplished by crushing the crush sleeve. This takes 300+ ft lbs on the pinion nut. To accomplish this, I ended up using a 1/2" breaker bar with about a 3 foot piece of pipe on it and I literally had the entire weight of my body on it to finally get the right preload. I used a foot long pipe with a pound of weight on the end to measure inch pounds, and used "feel" after talking to my buddy Kevin. He asked me if I used a torque wrench when I do wheel bearings, and I replied "of course not" and he said, well this is the same thing, its all feel

Here's the pinion assembly in the vice with my approx 5 foot long breaker bar.



Pinion assembly in the vice