Dakota or cherokee rearend

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee 8 1/4 rear end in my 68 Barracuda. I started with the 2000 and a 3.55 gear for $100. I cut the spring perches off, flipped them over and had them rewelded back. Then I came across a 92 Dakota rear with 3.55 and Trac-Lock posi-traction for $50. So I swapped the ring gear and put the Trac-lock in the 2000 rear. Then I found out that Jeep went to a 29 spline axle around 1996. I went to pull-a-part and got 91 Cherokee 27 spline axles for $60. Everything fit in perfectly except I had to get a different u-joint for the 2000 yoke. They changed to metric? sometime around the 96 time frame. I bought a 78 Aspen driveshaft that fit perfectly with my 904. The 2000 rear has 9" brakes that the e-brakes fit right into. The 9" should be fine for a daily driver car.

Now, the Dakota rear is a little too wide for the a-body. I'm using Mustang GT wheels right now on the car and they fit really well. I put 73 Duster front discs on the car and IIRC, the front track is 1/4" wider than the rear. As far as the driveshaft, I believe the wheelbase is longer on the Duster, so that probably won't work. But you might look in some of the later Mopars for one that will fit. You can also cut off the shock mounts and reweld them if you want to reuse those, but I went with the 8 3/4 shock plates.

As far as I know, the late model 8 1/4 rear is compatible with the older 8 1/4. If you look for the Jeep Cherokee rear, look in the models that have the 4.0 engine. There are a lot of Jeeps, Dakotas, and Durangos out there that have the 8 1/4 rear. Both of mine had the 3.55 gear. I do have the 92 gearset that I would part with, but most likely the 4.0 and 5.2L late models will have the 3.55.

BTW, there are pictures out there where guys have swapped a b-body rear in the Dusters and they actually look better if you are running the smaller tires. They look like the tires fill the wheelwells better.

From what I've read and talking to Jeep people, I would not use the Dana rear. The Jeep people replace them with the 8 1/4. I was told not to bother with the Dana, that they had a hard time holding up to the 4.0 engine.