Jana 76

To start with there are several versions of D70's (70, 70U, 70HD, 70B, etc.) but they all use the same ring & ring & pinion, The differences are just bigger bearings and bigger castings and different housing dimensions, depending on gear ratio. All the commercially (desirable) Dana 70 high and low gear sets can be fitted into Dana 60's with our Jana Hybrid kits.

1st. We have to get the larger gear in the housing. Since the D70 ring gear is 3/4" larger in diameter the than the D60 ring gear, there needs to be 3/8" clearance around the D60 ring gear in the housing to clear the D70 gear, most 60 housings are cast with approximately 1/4" clearance, so only an 1/8" of grinding in a few spots is necessary.

2nd. We have to get the pinion in and it needs to go roughly 3/8" farther out from the center line of the ring gear. To do this, an adapter pinion head bearing is used setting the pinion depth deeper into the bore. This then moves the tail bearing, seal & yoke farther out but luckily there is still room to get the parts in with the proper spacers, shims and adapter rings.

3rd. The 70 Pinion gear is also a bit larger thus the carrier needs to be moved away from the new pinion gear about a 1/16" for clearance. Again a narrowed adapter bearing is used to accomplish this without any loss in bearing load carrying capacity.

Benefits:

Your Ring & Pinion is 33% stronger with no loss of ground clearance.

Dana rates the 60 @ 6000 Ft-lbs maximum momentary output torque. 35 spl HD.

Dana rates the 70 @ 8000 Ft-lbs maximum momentary output torque. Non HD.

That's a 2000 ft-lb increase in capacity.

Also, if you have alloy axles, then your current weak link is the most difficult and expensive part to repair ie: the ring & pinion.

If you compare the cost of a Dana 70 gear set and carrier/locker to the cost of a Dana 60 gear set and carrier/locker, you will find they are within few bucks of each other. Now if you’re going do this right then you need a new installation and bearing kit as well, this is going set you back about $150 more than a standard bearing kit.

We of course can sell you everything necessary for this hybrid conversion. But there are also plenty of wrecking yard finds for the cost conscious. The question I get the most is: “Will this or that Dana 70 carrier I find work with the kit"? The answer is that they all will work, some easier than others. To keep this simple let’s make the following assumption, you will be using gears 4.56* or up numerically. Now because of the larger pinion diameter the carrier needs to be a bit farther away from the pinion to get the backlash correct. There are 2 basic series of carriers for the 70s. The ones for 4.10 & down, and the ones for 4.56 & UP. The offset of the carriers is 1/8" but we only need to move about 1/16". The Narrowed carrier bearing supplied allows us to do this as follows:

If you have a 4.56 & Down carrier, it will be to close, move it away (Inst Narrow bearing on Ring gear side). If you have a 4.10 & up carrier, it will be to far away, move it closer (Inst Narrow bearing on Pinion gear side) The prior Cost benefit analysis was based on starting with a bare housing, Now many folk will already have a lot invested into their Dana 60 already when bam! crunch! the ring & pinion breaks! Your 1st thought will now be "I need a 76" your next thought may be "I have a bunch of money already in my Locker, spool, ARB etc .......hummmm....... is there any way I can use my current unit with the 70 gear set." The answer is yes In some cases, but it takes some machine work. The ring gear bolt pattern is different and the ring gear register is also different. We can plug your current ring gear holes and redrill the new bolt pattern, along with supplying a press on concentric adapter ring. $200-300. If you have an ARB we change out part of the case with 70 ARB parts & do a little machine work.


Kit Price $360
J76 Pinion setup BRG(recommended) $50
3 quarts Severe Gear 250 $72