And to add to what crazy said, the factory gears in our trucks are 3.90 and 3.55. If your's is a 4x4 than you absolutly have to keep with the same ratio unless you change both the front and back, if its 2 wheel drive it's up to you on the ratio. You'll get better acceleration with the 3.90 but you'll get a lot better gas milage on the highway with the 3.55

 

LOL I guess its perfect timing. The newest edition of Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road They wrote up an artical about welding spiders.

 

awesome! thx for posting

 

seriously though, go with a mini-spool, they usually run about $100ish and you can pull them out incase you want to go back.

 

i know this is an old tread, but i was looking into the options of my rear end, and i wanted to clear this up with you... my dak came from the factory with a 3.50 ratio in the rear end. i dno if it was a special option, but i just wanted to let you know, the 3.50 ratio was there. i have the factory 8.25 diff too

 

Yeah, my neighbor who has a '95 Dakota 4x4 with the factory towing package has 3.50 listed as the ratio on the info sticker under his hood. That confused the heck out of me when I saw it cause if you look at any differential supply website, nobody sells a 3.50 ratio ring and pinion. I don't know if it's a typo on Dodge's part or not, but I'm still having a hard time believing it based on the fact that the parts don't exist.

 

3.21 acording to the options list i pulled for my vin on dcx. posi 4x4 5.2 .