[argonaut]

Chris,
You know that I'm running that same large hub D44 front and 14BFF (w/ Gov-lok) rear in my 66. For me, the 4.11:1 with 35" tires is a good ratio for the little 402 big block. I assume you are trying to get 3.73:1 in with your 283 and 33x10.5 tires that you'll go to eventually.

I will say that the 14BFF is a heavy muther effer! and the carrier housing is very big around so sits very low to the ground. I don't know how the D60 stacks up in this regard but it could be a deciding factor.

What are your future plans with it? If not planning on a big powerful motor, or brutal offroading, or large diameter tires, or heavy towing, then I wouldn't worry so much about the ultimate strength of the axles, splines and locking devices, etc. but that is just me.

Because I have a weird engineering brain I think it would be cool to have matching Dana60 front and rear, that's if you were ever planning on going to a D60 front. But again, a D60 front probably isn't that necessary unless doing heavy offroading or towing.