There is still somewhat of a debate on exactly which front axle the newer
Dakotas have. I spoke to "TC" at Reider racing and he said that he had a
Durango in that had what he called an "oddball" front diff. (I'm assuming
it's the same on the Dakota) Older Dakotas I guess had a Chrysler design 7
1/4" front axle. He told me that newer Dakotas have a Dana 35 (also approx
7 1/4")differential. He verified this by taking casting numbers off the
case and components and crossing them to Dana numbers. This makes sense
because mine has Dana stamped right on the front cover. As far as a chrome
diff cover, probably not available unless you get your stock cover plated.
This is why he called it and oddball cause the "standard" Dana 35 has a
perfectly round cover, while the Dakota version (mine at least) is more
squared. This is just what I was told and if this is the case, there should
be no problem getting lower ratio's (4.56 etc.) for the Dana 35. There may
be exceptions to the rule I.E. V6 vs. V8 and manual vs. auto, who knows, but
it seemed consistant with my 98 V8 5spd.
John McKinney
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Parthemer [SMTP:srp@home.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 06, 1999 9:34 PM
> To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
> Subject: DML: Front axle question (was towing help!!)
>
> What's the size of the 4x4 front diff?? Can I get
> a chome diff. cover for it? I know the rear is a 8.25,
> and that I can buy the Chrome cover for that.
>
> Sam '99 4x4 & RT
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dakota-truck@buffnet4.buffnet.net
> [mailto:owner-dakota-truck@buffnet4.buffnet.net]On Behalf Of Bernd D.
> Ratsch
> Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 9:13 PM
> To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
> Subject: DML: RE: Re: RE: Towing Advice: Help!!!
>
>
> Are you talking about the 7.25" front axles or the 8.25" rears? I've
> checked myself on the fronts and only found up to 3.90's. Ted-O did the
> same on his as well. The 8.25's have: 3.55, 3.90, 4.10, and 4.56:1
> ratios.
> (4.56:1 requires a different carrier though.)
>
>
>
> -
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:16:38 EDT