Don,
I was wondering why I haven't seen the Convertible lately in the parking
lot at the plant. I don't think we've actually met, but I too work at
Goodrich (in the IT dept) and have been lurking around this list since it's
early days. Gen I and Gen II are really DML created designations. According
to ma Mopar, 87-96 is an "N" Body. 97+ is an "AN" Body. You being a Mopar
guy also, you would understand the body designations. The changes made in
91 were really just product evolution and not a redesign of the platform. I
almost positive all of the 88 & 89 Sports (including the convertible) came
with an 8 1/4" rear since they were all V6 models. The 7 1/4" rear was
usually found in the early 4 bangers. Your front diff is a 7 1/4" however
which makes your gear choices very limited if you ever decide to change the
gear ratio. The 91-96, 8 1/4" came with a 6 x 4.5" bolt circle vs. the 5 x
4.5" you have on your 89. I'm pretty sure you can just pop the c-clips on
your axle and swap them to 91-96 axle if necessary. The only other
difference I can think of is some of the later axles may have antilock rings
& sensors, but you don't need to worry about them. Just plug the sensor
hole with a bolt and ignore it. Not that it would help your situation much,
but I have the old 8 1\4" rear out of my '96. It too is bad, I think it has
a bad pinion bearing. I was getting a pretty bad vibration from it and
replaced it with a Dana 60 I had built by DTS. If you want any parts off of
it, it's free for the taking. I'm tired of tripping over it in the storage
bay. Just let me know.
Walt Felix
http://www.Walt-n-Ingrid.Com
1988 Dakota Sport 4x4
1996 Dakota 4x4 SLT CC
2000 Ram Sport 4x4 QC
1967 Plymouth Barracuda Coupe 340/5 Speed
1969 Ford Mustang GT Coupe 302/Auto
""Don Rey"" <don.rey@uconn.edu> wrote in message
news:008d01c43f7a$30619cc0$0a00a8c0@radon...
>
> How interchangeable is a complete rear end setup (ie axle lengths,
> spring/shock mounts, etc) between a 1st gen and a 2nd gen Dakota? I've
been
> under the impression that they're exactly the same, but I wanted to make
> sure and not make a stupid mistake.
>
> PS. Thanks for the responses to my last e-mail; I didn't realize how
> expensive and difficult it is to do differential work. I think I'm off to
> the boneyards per your suggestions.
>
> Thanks again,
> Don
> 89 Dakota Convertible 4x4 (rear diff blown)
> 74 Dart Sport 340 (cam blown)
> CT
>
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