i have a dana 44 out of 79 f-250 for my sas conversion on my 96 chevy i orignally was gonna go with dana 60 but since i already have the dana 44 would it hold up to 42s i know dana 60 is the better way but since i already have the dana 44 i was gonna use it till something breaks i mostly will be seeing street and mud and i plan on adding 5.38 gears to help the 4l60e tranny do yall thing the 44 will hold up awhile or should i wait and get a dana 60?  

Your kidding right? 42's it kinda pushing it a little bit with a D60. I would not even take the time to mount a D44 to put 42's on.  

well at the moment i havent found a dana 60 in my area for a price i can afford and since i had it i was gonna use it for the time being so i can drive the truck  

I would not "use it" with 42's.  

well wanted to keep my orignal transfer case but might have to find dana 60 out of chevy and change the transfer case  

You might look for a D50 out of a ford super duty. Pig is on the correct side and it is closer to a D60 in strength (it is rated at about 90% of  a D60's torque capacity) than it is to a D44.  

what yr fords were they in and were they f-250 or f-350s?  

Mid 90's and to mid 2000's with PS and solid axle had D50 in F250.  

well finally got me axle dana 60 was driving my truck from work today and my trannie started slipping so now its gonna delay my sas conversion it is the 4l60e i called around local for rebuild price all shops told me 1200 for rebuild with heavy duty parts but they both said with either 42s or 39.5s and 5.38gears a 4l60e wont hold up i was gonna rebuild it myself using tci maximizer kit and tci torque converter pump and tci sunshell but they said doesnt matter how u build it a a 4l60e wont hold up called tci and they said same thing they reccomended a 4l80e but ill have to purchase a compshift for it to work what do yall think do u think 4l60e will hold up or not?  

What kills 4L60e's and 700R4's is tall gears with big rubber and the extra heat and strain it causes in tranny. Deeper gear help offset this. 5.38 is a bit tall for 42's so I would suggest 39.5 instead. Install a aux tranny cooler in series with radiator tank cooler (thru tank cooler then aux cooler then back to tranny) and it should hold up fine. I would advise against installing shift kits because they are actually pretty hard on tranny internals. (they stock shifts are smooth and modulated for a reason)  

so u think if i downgrade to 39.5s it will hold because everyone else i asked said spend the extra money and time and go with 4l80e  

I have a 98 Z71 Ford dana 60 up front and a 14 bolt rear with 5.13 gears stock 4l60e and stock t-case for now, its been done for two years and the tranny is the original with 160,000 miles on it.  Ive have not had any troubles with the tranny as for the dana44 i had on for the first year and a half and i blew up 11 axels and 3 sets of spider gears with 39.5s  

joejoe383:
so u think if i downgrade to 39.5s it will hold because everyone else i asked said spend the extra money and time and go with 4l80e

What many do not consider with a 4L80e over a 4L60e or 700R4 (a 4L60e is just a 700R4 with a electronic valve body) is that a 4L60 has a ratio range of 4.3 to one from highest to lowest gear and 4L80 has a range of 3.3 to 1. Also 4L60/700R4 vs 4L80 has a much deeper first gear (3.06 vs 2.48) deeper second (1.6 vs 1.48) and deeper reverse (2.29 vs 2.07). It has a taller OD too (.7 vs .75) and this all adds up to a great tranny to use off road with some serious axle ratios. It is a shame that GM did not tweak gear ratios when they made 4L80 (a 4L80 is a THM400 with OD added, a locking converter and electronic valve body)as it could have been a much better/flexible tranny had the tweaked it a bit. But then had they done that then Ally would have lost some of its edge with its 3.1 first gear. Years ago the after market offered about a 2.75 first and 1.57 second gear for THM400 and it would have been nice to see that incorporated into 4L80. One more thing, the real nice thing about using a 700R4 in older vehicle as a upgrade is that it needs no computer to work unlike 4L60e and 4L80e.  

wait for the dana 60!  

i finally got me dana 60 the other day now just trying to figure out if my tranny will hold up lol