Building a Killer Hybrid Steering Axle

By David Smiley

In the world of rockcrawling, buggies and trail rigs alike are using custom axles for awesome strength, ground
clearance, small width and even to run reverse drivelines. Custom axle work can be as simple as shortening the long
side of a Dana 60 or it can be as involved as building a hybrid axle from scratch – exactly what I will be focusing on
as I take you through the custom build of an axle designed around a Ford 9-inch third member and Dana 60 outer
components for a ’94 Jeep YJ. This type of hybrid axle is commonly known as a 609. We used some of the best
components from True Hi 9, Crane High Clearance, Rockcrusher, Strange Engineering, CTM Racing and Yukon
and built a killer 609 in the process.

Going Custom
The combination we selected gives the builder a wide variety of options in all aspects of building the axle. The Ford
9-inch third member is available in high pinion and low pinion configurations and can be setup with anywhere from
28-40 splines depending on carrier. The Dana 60 outer components can be a kingpin, ball joint or custom fabricated
and work with several bolt patterns and wheel offsets. A 609-hybrid axle can be built as a front steering axle or as a
rear steer axle. As such, we will not limit our discussions to building a front 609 but rather we will explore building
any steering axle. The axle will find its home under the front of the Jeep YJ, which already has a rear 31-spline
9-inch and is running 39-inch IROKs. The 609 will be replacing a well-worn HP Dana 30. We will build our axle
entirely from aftermarket components; however it could almost as readily be built from junkyard components.

New vs. Junkyard

The axle will be setup as a driver’s side-drop 65-inch wide axle with 3/4-ton brakes and a 5 on 5.5-bolt pattern. We
set out to build the axle for less than $5,000 dollars while using some of the strongest parts that are currently
available. This axle wasn’t designed around fully custom parts that most people couldn’t acquire. Many of the new
components we choose have cheaper new and junkyard substitutes for different budgets. For this front axle all of the
major components will be new. This will be a more expensive route than going with junkyard parts, but will save a
great deal of time in sourcing the parts and preparing them for reuse. When the axle parts were first being sourced, a
junkyard rear 9-inch from an E150 van was pulled. To the untrained eye, the junkyard housing seemed like an ideal
candidate until several problems were encountered. The first is that the housing is setup for approximately 3.25 inch
tubing rather than 3 or 3.125 inch tubing (as in a D60). It is also very wide at 26 inches, making it hard to use with
leaf springs. Machining would be needed on any tubing to work with the housing. After pressing the original axle
tubes out and purchasing 4130 3.25 inch tubing, we discovered that the large tubing is much more expensive to
machine in many shops because of their lathe capacity. Once the machine work and labor on the housing was
factored in, we found that the junkyard option wasn’t cheap at all. Other 9-inch housings from Broncos and F150s
are setup for 3 inch tubing so those are still good options.

The Axle Components

A good way to design a 609 axle is to start at the housing and work out. We could have sourced one of several new
housings, a junkyard housing or even fabricated a 9-inch housing. We ruled out junkyard housings because the axle
tube opening tapers as shown in Figure 1 (This is picture 3) and this can allow the axle tubes to flex. This design
also makes it harder to align the axle tubes straight, which is critical for any axle. A call was placed to Strange
Engineering and they have an excellent solution to this problem. Figure 1 shows their housing next to a junkyard
housing and highlights an inner gusset that accepts 3 inch DOM tubing perfectly. This inner gusset makes tube
alignment a breeze and also makes for a much stronger axle. The housing is constructed of no less than 1/8-inch
steel and the design is well thought out. Strange Engineering built it big enough front to back to accept their ultra
strong 9.5-inch gear set, but still allows slightly more ground clearance than a junkyard 9-inch housing. When using
a typical 9-inch gear set, their housing provides for more oil capacity and provides more space between the gears
and the housing. This will offer some piece of mind when we’re bashing the axle against rocks. The one caveat with
this housing is that the banjo bolt area is fabricated as two 1/8-inch thick plates. The inside plate doesn’t allow the
axle tubes to slide all the way into the housing, which is needed for front inner axle seals. We solved this problem by
using a 3-inch hole saw and carefully removed the material through the ends of the housing. Removing this material
isn’t critical as long as care is taken to not damage the 3-inch hole in the gusset.

One of the first steps in building a custom axle is to determine what the wheel mounting surface (WMS) width will
be. We choose 65 inches because this closely matched the current rear 9-inch axle. Once this decision is made,
knowing a few variables greatly helps in deciding on the critical dimension of the axle tubes.

The distance from the WMS to the end of the tube will be the same on each side of the axle so this can be subtracted
from the tubing length. We mocked up the entire Dana 60 style knuckle assembly and determined in Figure 2
(Picture 1) that this dimension is 9.875 inches. The opening of a 9-inch housing is also a known value of 10 inches.
Using these numbers, the overall length of tubing can be determined. Table 1 shows the pertinent values for these
calculations. The measurements used in this discussion are also guidelines for what to ask the vendor when using
ball joint or custom knuckles.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

To determine the over length of tube, take the WMS and subtract out 19.75 inches for the size of the knuckle and
hub assembly. Then subtract out 10 inches for the space inside the 9-inch housing where the third member sits. This
will setup the axle tubes and therefore the inner axle seals very close to the bearing caps. These calculations yielded
an overall tube length of 35.25 inches in the case of our 65-inch axle.
To determine the length of each tube, the axle’s pinion location must be decided. We need the pinion approximately
23 inches from the driver’s side WMS. A Ford 9-inch pinion is offset by 1 inch from the centerline of the housing
and the direction varies. This means that the distance from the pinion to the left piece of tubing is actually 4 inches.
Starting with 23 inches from the pinion to the WMS and subtracting out 9.875 inches and 4 inches yields 9.125
inches for the left side tubing. From above we need the overall tubing to be 35.25 inches so the long side (right) tube
is 26.125 inches. We placed a called to Metal Express and they were happy to sell us two pieces of pre-cut 3x3/8s
wall DOM tubing and ship it to us. A Strange Engineering housing requires 6.25 inches of tubing inside, so our
9-inch short side tube leaves just enough space for the inner C. An early style Ford “banjo” housing can be used to
get the third member even closer to one side of the axle or leave enough room for a leaf spring perch.

The next step is to get the DOM machined for inner axle seals. In non-steering axles, such as factory 9-inch axles,
the seal is provided at the end of the housing in the form of a bearing plate and seal to keep the bearings are
lubricated. In a steering axle, the primary seals are almost always in the housing to allow for run out in the axle
shafts at the knuckle end. In Dana housings, there is a spot machined into the housing just outside of the bearing
caps for an inner axle seal. The easiest and most accurate way to machine for the seals is to find a local machine
shop that can perform the work. Bring them in the pre-cut tubing and a set of Dana 60 inner axle seals with an OD of
2.625 inches and they should be able to provide a machined surface for the seals to lightly press into. We contacted
RBM Machine and they were able to machine our parts in less than a week. The best part about using a Dana 60
seal, is that they are easy to find at auto parts stores and the seal flairs out to guide the axle shaft in without the seal
being dislodged. We sourced our seals, along with some hard to find spindle nuts, from Douglas Brown at Extreme
axle sales.

We next had to decide what inner Cs and outer knuckles we wanted to use on our killer 609 axle. We got in touch
with Shane Yost at HBRK 4x4 who hooked us up with a great deal on Crane inner Cs, outer HSC knuckles, kingpin
rebuild kits and Spicer spindles. We decided to go with Crane components for the awesome strength of their 8630
chromoly construction as well as their lifetime guarantee. We are using full hydraulic steering and would like to get
the components up away from the rocks as much as possible. Crane’s high clearance HSC knuckles serve this
purpose very well and they also supplied us with their keyed high steer arms. Their inner Cs can be machined to
work with several tubing IDs and we got 3-inch inner Cs to match our tubing.

Our next call was to Larry Davis at MAD4WD to supply us with his Rockcrusher Dana 60 all billet machined hubs
setup for a 5 on 5.5-inch bolt pattern. We purchased the hubs, rotors, studs and 3/4-ton brake brackets from
MAD4WD. Their setup will work with any Chevy 3/4-ton brake caliper with a 7-inch spread between the caliper
bolts. Any local auto parts store will have Chevy Dana 44 calipers that can be used, but there are two sizes of caliper
piston so be sure to get the larger one for ¾-ton trucks. When we dry-fitted all of these components, it was
determined that a stock Spicer spindle doesn’t have a notch to work with our brake setup. We quickly solved this
problem with an angle grinder, but MAD4WD has Rockcrusher spindles that already have the cutout.

A bulletproof High Pinion Nine

One of the biggest decisions in building a 609 axle is deciding what third member to use. If we were building this
axle for a moon buggy we would go with a flipped housing and third member. For our application we could have
used an LP third and be prepared to eat drive shafts. But this isn’t any axle, it’s a killer 609 hybrid, so we contacted
Chris Weivoda at True Hi 9 and he hooked us up in a big way. The folks at True Hi 9 have many years of
experience in racing and they found an opportunity to build something truly new for the offroad industry. They
worked with a company who contracted with Richmond Gears to make reverse rotation 9-inch gear sets for racecars.
At the time, the gear sets were being used in low pinion housings to counter the reverse rotation of double
quick-change gear sets.

True Hi 9 realized that with these gears and a specially cast housing they could build hi pinion 9-inch third members
with all of the great features of a traditional 9-inch and then some. The housings have several unique features that
are great for rock crawling. First, they are setup to so they can be used in the same housings as LP thirds. Secondly
the cases are constructed out of nodular iron for 31 or 35-spline applications and use Strange Engineering cromoly
bearing caps and stronger spanner nuts. Chris and company didn’t stop there and incorporated a thrust bolt setup
similar to racing 9-inches that keeps the ring gear pressed against the pinion in even the most extreme applications.
Finally they retained a full 9-inch R&P and one of the best features of a 9-inch third, the third pinion bearing. A full
steel Daytona pinion support system is used on the True Hi 9 case. Their case has more casting around the third
bearing so that it can’t crack under heavy loads. By the time you read this, True Hi 9 will have released the third
generation of their HP casting which has even more material around the third pinion bearing. They haven’t had a
single third member come back broken but they want to be sure their design is bulletproof. Many of Chris’
customers are upgrading from broken low pinion 9-inch thirds. We sent them a 1330 yoke from our junkyard 9-inch
third and in a little more than a week we had a 35-spline Detroit third member stuffed with 4.56 gears at our
doorstep. At over 80 pounds, this third is more than bulletproof and the pictures don’t do it justice. Our unit is setup
for a higher front application oil fill hole. True Hi 9 has a special oil baffle system to keep the gears cool in rear
applications. The pinion is a full 4.5 inches higher than an LP third. Lets face it, an LP third member is $1,200
dollars, a True Hi 9 third member $1,800 dollars, but not loosing a drive shaft on the trail … priceless!

For anyone asking the question of why not just use a Dana 60 center chunk, we had several reasons. The 9.75-inch
ring gear on a Dana 60 is larger than a 9-inch, but the nine is thicker and has a deeper toe to heal dimension for
greater tooth contact. The third pinion bearing allows less deflection and the pitch of the R&P allows for more teeth
to be touching simultaneously. A steel 9-inch housing is easier to work with than a cast 60 housing and can easily
be shaved to gain even more clearance than a stock 9-inch has over a 60.

Assembling the Axle

Once all of the major components have been sourced, we can begin assembling the axle. When building Dana style
axles, the tubes have to be pressed into the housing first or cut down in place. With our Strange Engineering
housing, we can be a bit smarter. We started with the tubing and pressed the inner Cs onto it, which is easy to do
with the short side tubing. We fabricated a quick jig out of wood to keep our long side tube straight while pressing it
on. The nearly 2 inch cross section of the Crane inner C ensures that it will be pressed perpendicular to the 3-inch
DOM. We turned to Eric Shearer at Freaky Tree Offroad to stick weld the inner Cs to the tubing with a 300-Amp
CC/CV machine. Eric just had stitches the day before for a mangled thumb, but his welds were still perfect. With the
smallest material thickness being 3/8 inches, we wanted to ensure good weld penetration. After welding, we pressed
in the lower kingpin bearing and cover because it’s much easier to get the inner Cs and tubes in the press before
assembling everything.

Next we slide the assembled tubes into the Strange housing until the end was just flush with the inside lip. Set this
all up on a flat bench so the axle is level. We used an angle finder to ensure the housing was straight up and down
and the top was at 0-degrees. We tried not to forget that the ring gear bulge should be on the right side when looking
at the housing’s open side, but for a flipped 609, the bulge is on the left. It would be embarrassing to weld the
otherwise symmetrical housing upside down to the axle tubes. Placing the angle finger on the machined top inner C
surface, we set the caster at 8-degrees. Since the housing will be tipped slightly forward when it is in the Jeep, this
will result in a caster of 4-6 degrees; perfect for our application. Once we were comfortable that everything was
accurately setup, Eric went to work with a 200-amp MIG welder to burn the tubes to the housing. Care was taken to
tack weld both tubes to the housing first and to allow time for cooling in between welds so that everything remained
true. These welds seal in the gear oil so we made sure to weld everywhere. A weld on the tube above and below the
inner gussets will also strengthen the axle. We trussed the top of the long side axle tube to further strengthen the axle
and provide a mounting spot for the 4-link suspension we will fabricate later. The truss was built from a
combination of 1/4 and 3/16s inch plate and stiffeners were added inside so the truss wouldn’t fold over. To aid in
gear oil changes, we swapped out the lowest three studs on the housing for nuts welded to the inside. We can then
remove the button head bolts to drain the gear oil for changes. In the final phase of the axle build we decided to
shave about an inch off of the bottom of the Strange housing and plate it with ¼ inch steel that was then gusseted
inside the housing parallel to the ring gear. We also protected the ring gear with a 1.5 inch wide band of steel
running along the housing bulge.
At this point in a typical axle buildup we would leave the axle bare and start fabricating suspension mounts. For the
article, we completely assembled the axle. The one thing we didn’t do was press in the axle seals because they could
get damaged during fabrication and various assembly steps. When we installed these at the end, RTV was used to
ensure a good seal. Measuring for axle shafts is another critical step when building a 609 axle. We only had a LP
third when we measured for our shafts and True Hi 9 told us this would work fine. Keep in mind that the Detroit
locker doesn’t have a carrier pin so that shafts can be ¼ inch longer if you measure with the real third member. With
the third in the housing, insert a tape measure all the way into the carrier pin and at the inner C measure to the
outside edge of the threaded kingpin hole. This is the centerline of the inner axle shaft yoke and is the measurement
we need. We took the time to dry fit a stock outer 60 stub shaft into our HSC knuckle and spindle so we could
measure to the centerline of the stub shaft ears. There was a “washer” that goes between the stub shaft and spindle
that altered our dimensions. The kingpin inclination could have thrown off our measurements so we made sure to
measure parallel to the end of the axle tubing. With measurements for both sides, we called Casey Groth at Wagoner
Machine and he walked us through the rest. He cut the splines long and made sure he knew where the axle seals
were to machine the shafts smooth near the splines. Thanks to Casey, we had a set of 4340 Yukon shafts shipped to
our door inside of a week.

The Smiley Nine!

There are several good sources about building Dana 60 outers so we won’t go into details there. For our axle we
were lucky enough to purchase a set of CTM u-joints from someone who won them in a holiday raffle. We did find
that having a 20-ton floor standing press was quite helpful for everything from pressing on the Crane Inner C’s to
pressing in our beefy CTM u-joints. We topped off our billet hubs with a set of 4340 Mount Logan Offroad 35
spline drive slugs that have a beautiful blue anodized finish.

Many home fabricators with readily available tools can accomplish this entire buildup process. The only step that
requires outside help is machining for the axle seals. Hopefully this article will encourage some readers to build their
own 609 axles and go rock crawling with total confidence. We had help along the way from several vendors, friends
and Internet resources. The axle took us several weeks to build, but now that we’ve built one, the next could be done
in a day or two with all the parts in hand. Our 609 axle is totally bulletproof and we’ve worked hard “testing” it on
many East Coast trails. We dubbed this the Smiley Nine from the owner’s name and the fact that we’re grinning
from ear to ear every time we thrash on the axle and it works flawlessly.

Sources

Crane High Clearance

303-651-7757
www.highclearance.com

Extreme Axle Sales

845-598-0545
highonda@optonline.net

Freaky Tree Offroad

703-568-9546
www.freaktreeoffroad.com

HBRK 4x4
208-323-HBRK
www.hbrk4x4.com

MAD4WD
330-549-9082
www.mad4wd.com

Metal Express
410-918-0199 (Baltimore Location)
www.metalexpress.net

Mount Logan Offroad

435-752-4272
www.mtloganoffroad.com

Strange Engineering
847-663-1701
www.strangeengineering.net

True Hi 9
877-287-7674
www.truehi9.com

Wagoner Machine
918-341-1722
www.wagonermachine.com
Project Measurement Value
Space between shift rails 1.5 inches
Length of long housing bars 11 inches
Length of short housing bars 3.5 inches
Offset to centerline of rail holes ?
from front input side of case
Case Cover Material .5 inch by 6 inch Aluminum
Shifter Housing Material .75 inch by 1.5 inch Aluminum
Cable Shift handles and NP231 case .375 inch by 2 inch Aluminum
patch
Length of NP231 Patch 7.5 inches
Table 1