Hello list
A winter or so back we replaced the 8 1/4 axle with an 8 3/4 .
The housing we used was from a 1968 Fury 1 police car.
As a side note, my brother and I have both installed C body rear axles from
Furies and a Chrysler 300 into Challengers and Barracudas. This was a 100%
pure bolt in only having to shorten drive shafts. If one looks at all
the published
data on the web this should not be possible. We've done it 4 times, 3
challengers
and one baracuda...it worked every time....the data is wrong.
On the '92 Dakota we had to relocate spring perches and weld on the
dakota shock mounts,
but the outside of drum to outside of drum was a perfect match to the 8
1/4. The
driveshaft fit as it was. Mopar and NAPA both have U-joints to match a
small-big yoke
mis-match if needed.
We drilled the two back wheels and spare to mount on the 5 on 4 1/2 circle.
A cleaner way would have been to go to earlier front disks and all wheels
could have been 5 on 4 1/2.
We lost the ABS which had never worked properly (in my opinion) to
begin with.
(it died with the first 8 1/4 's demise...we replaced the sensor and
control box after
the first spider gear shaft retainer bolt failed. The sensor came out
looking like a slinkey.
The first 8 1/4 failed from abuse.....the second 8 1/4 failed because it
is a puny POS axle
that I wouldn't have in a dart or valiant much less a truck. It has its
defenders that will
say it is strong as whatever, thank goodness for good luck and all that
goes with it.
I'm still kicking myself I didn't change it out after the first failure.
The ratio we got from the police car was a 3.23 vs the 3.55 of the old axle.
We lost about 2 mpg in town and picked up 2-3 mpg highway .
The truck climbs mountains better at 85-90 than 70-75...I am told.
If anyone wants particulars on the rear axle swap they can contact me
off line at
charger69rt@cox.net
As a parting note I've put some Dakota wheels on ebay ..."dakota wheels"
should find them,
pretty much the price of shipping.......
rob from phoenix
92 dak
69 charger rt
70 challenger rt
65 satellite
bunch of other dodge stuff
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