Dakota or cherokee rearend

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This has come up before. I dont remember what conclusion we came to. I can measure the rear in my Cherokee in the morning.
 
Forget the Dakota rear. It won't work without some major mods. The Jeep rears will work. If I remember right it is the Cherokee and Comanche rears that your looking for from the late 80's to mid 90's. I don't remember the exact years. As near as I could figure the only thing you had to do was move the spring perches to the bottom of the axel.

Jack
 
if you look hard enough you may find an 87-92? cherokee with a dana 44. thats what i have in my 87 cherokee and i have 3.55 gearing. with the 44 you can get different gears. so its just a matter of finding one.
 
only found in some 87-88 cherokees with tow packages, those rears get 400-800.00 in the jeep markets.....use a 97-01 cherokee (not grand) 8.25 chrysler rear, they come standard with 3:55 and some have 3:73 gears.these are also the large spline axle styles, and have 5.25 bolt pattern. all you have to do is put your spring perches on and youre all set. this rear is 1/4th narrower on each side then a a body rear.
 
mowerparts said:
Anybody know if a 5 lug Dakota or Cherakee(SP) fit under a Duster. Bolt in or do you have to make mods.?
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I asked this question a long time ago. Dakota rears will not work they are to wide and not really that strong compared to some of the other rear end choices. I have been told that Dakotas have a weird lug spacing that is hard to find rims for, but I am not sure if they ment the 5 or 6 lug (I find this hard to believe but I have heard it from a couple of different sources).
 
The 87-91 Dakota's have 5 lugs on a 4.5" bolt pattern. It's the same 8.25" (the 4cyl trucks had a 7.25") rear end DC used extensively from the early 70's on. I do not believe it's any wider than a B-body axle which people have put under A-bodies but will require the use of wheels with a lot of back spacing. You will need to relocate the spring perches for sure but it's a relatively stout axle that has lots of performance parts available for it.
 
My 93 Dakota rear was 63 5/8 wide drum to drum. The pinion was offset to the passenger side approx. 1-3/4" to accomodate the engine and trans. being offset. I don't know if DC offset A bodies like this or not. I never checked my Cuda before I took it apart and it's still in pieces. The Dakota used a 6 bolt wheel pattern of 6 on 4" after either 90 or 91. Before that it was 5 on 4-1/2.

Dave is right. It is basically the same 8-1/4" rear. Their fairly strong but no 8-3/4.
 
BOSS VEGA V8 said:
only found in some 87-88 cherokees with tow packages, those rears get 400-800.00 in the jeep markets.....use a 97-01 cherokee (not grand) 8.25 chrysler rear, they come standard with 3:55 and some have 3:73 gears.these are also the large spline axle styles, and have 5.25 bolt pattern. all you have to do is put your spring perches on and youre all set. this rear is 1/4th narrower on each side then a a body rear.
Click to expand...

5.25 bolt pattern? im interested in this myself. whats the boltpattern? 5x5.25? or what? where can you find rims for those also, i like the look of my stamped steel rims (factory :) ) with beauty rings. my 2.45s are killing me, and 3.55 is what im shooting for.
 
The Cherokee rear has to have the long side axle tube cut down to the same length as the shoter side, and a second short side axle replaces the longer one.
This makes it fit overall length and centers the third member for 2 wheel drive use.
The perches have to be moved, and the ebrake cable needs to be changed a little bit where it connects to the cables for the rear.
The driveline has to be modded with a matching yoke to the rearend.

It might be a PIA, but you get better gear selections, rear disc brakes and posi track out of the deal.
Of course you have to start with the right year of Cherokee to get the disc brakes.
 
Trailbeast, speaking from experience, the cherokee axles are equal length.. The ford 8.8's (which is a very popular swap into the cherokees due to its strength) had to be cut down. Ive got an XJ rear end in my garage right now and it lines up almost perfect (minus moving the spring perches) with the 7.25 in my A body.
 
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.
 
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