I'm working on a new to me 74 Dodge W300. It has a closed knuckle Dana 70 front axle. I'm going through everything, cleaning, draining and greasing etc.

I'm trying to remove the lockout hubs on the front axle. They are internal Warn hubs. I can't seem to get the hubs off. They are different than what we have on our 89-93 Dana 60 fronts.

Am I just not beating on the aluminum hub hard enough to separate the lockout assembly from the hub/drum assembly? I'm wanting to take things apart to clean and regrease. It has studs, I've removed the nuts and lock washers. By chance does this lockout have coned washers (wedge locks) like the rear axle shaft has? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

Seems like the front axle on my military Jeep has a similar setup and, IIRC, a good healthy whack with a plastic mallet did the job.

 

Closed or open knuckle D70F? My 1972 came with a closed knuckle front D70 but it looked quite a bit different and didn't have warns...

 

needcharacters

 

Yep it's a D70F closed knuckle. That would really be a score if it was an open knuckle 70F. Here's another pic. Also is a pic of the rear D70. The front looks the same. I've never seen a two piece open differential. As far as I can tell, it's not a locker or LSD, no clutches or springs etc. With both wheels off the ground, I turn one tire one way, the other goes the opposite direction. Sure sign of an open diff right?

 

Yup! And looks nothing like my Power-Lok D70 rear.
But Dana could have changed the design ALOT.... in 28 yrs!



RJ

 

Maybe it is like a "gov lock" where there has to be a difference in wheel speed from one side to the other before it locks?

 

Bill I have a L/S carrier out of a 70 if you want to compare them for interchange.

I'll be heading that way when I get that steering box done for Low Performance.

 

Well it's closed back up now and filled with oil. I have a 70 2-U (35 spline) with a Detroit Locker and 3.54's. I'd like to know if that Detroit would work with the 4.88's in this 70-B rear.

 

A dana 70 closed knuckle front diff has the same size drive axle u-joints as a dana 44.Other than the size of ring and pinion they are nothing special.Now a open knuckle dana 70 is the one you would want but extremely rare to find they were only used under special build conversions as far as i have been able to find out.If your going to use the truck hard in 4x4 than your better off finding a dana60 lotsa after market stuff for them.As for the centre carrier most all dana 70s and 80s open diffs have that style.Whats good about them is you can buy all kinds of lockers to fit inside that carrier.

 

Man I tossed an closed knuckle 70 like that a few yrs back to the scrap yard, then like 2 days later some guy wanted to buy if for like 500 bucks.. I was so ticked off!!

 

Hmm so it has 4.88s? I think that is the more common gearing. Mine in the '72 was a factory 4:10 but now it has the 1990 D60/D70 Diesel axles. I didn't keep the D70 up there for the same reasons the others have said, too weak at the axles and that huge low hanging rear tie rod is connected to the balljoint as one piece! Ended up trading the axle for a bunch of other power wagon parts n knick nacks from the mopar truck parts dot com guy who is actually just up the road from me...

 

Yeah 4.88's. A friend of mine has a twin of this truck and it's a 4.88 geared truck. This truck came with a 72 D300 parts truck. It was a slant 6, np435, D70 but with 4.56 gears. I need to pop the cover on that one and see if it's got a locker.

I'm not bragging about the D70f. I've read on all the 4x4 forums about how weak it is. I have no experience with it. I do wonder though if it's reputation is similar the internet reputation of the 'weak' Getrag 360, or the VE pumped Cummins will not make more than 300hp etc.

BTW, here's a couple more pics, I finally got it off. I just wasn't beating on it hard enough, as usual. Not having a large rubber mallet or dead blow hammer, a friend of mine gave me the idea of a block of wood and regular steel hammer. Can't believe I didn't think of that before.

 

There was an old ford gasser at one of our pulls, that was running that front end. It snapped something on the drivers side, not sure exactly what.

So is it 35 spline?

 

"I'm not bragging about the D70f. I've read on all the 4x4 forums about how weak it is. I have no experience with it. I do wonder though if it's reputation is similar the internet reputation of the 'weak' Getrag 360, or the VE pumped Cummins will not make more than 300hp etc."

Like most things.....it boils down to: How big are your tires? Locked differential? How much power are you making? How much weight on it? How hard are you going to beat on it?

There is nothing wrong with a Dana 44 if it is not used too hard. Same deal here. Just don't go sled pulling with Curt! But if you have a slant 6 and small tires.......you could.