Here's an easy way to pick up a little ground clearance around the leaf springs on a 4X4 Dakota, a U-bolt flip.
The U-bolts on the Dakota rear axle are mounted with the nuts pointing down, which can hang up on rocks and logs when 4 wheelin. Here is a cheap easy way to do a flip. 1993-2001 Jeep Cherokees share the Chrysler Corporate 8.25 rear axle use the same width leaf springs as a Dakota. On the Cherokee the U-bolt nuts face UP. A trip to a wrecking yard/dealer for a pair of Cherokee spring plates, new u-bolts/nuts from a spring shop/auto parts store (ask for 93+ Cherokee u-bolts) and a few hours under your truck and you can eliminate one more place to snag the rear axle.

A few more Cherokee/Comanchee Dakota cross over parts:
87-90 wheels, both have 5 on 4 1/2" bolt pattern, also Ford Ranger/Explorer, and 80 and older 1/2 ton Ford and Dodge trucks/Ramchargers.

Leaf Springs, we make cheap AAL's for Jeep XJ/YJ's by cutting the spring eyes off of Dakota main leaves, the lower leaves will interchange.

V-8 Grand Cherokee rear disk brakes will mount to any MoPar 8.25 axle housing, although you'll have to redrill the rotors for 6 bolt axles and emergency brake cables will have to be fabricated.

Rear shocks, Dakota and Jeep XJ share the same mounting styles.

Tail lights, Comanchee and Dakota are the same.

Rear Bumper, Comanchee and Dakota are the same.

Rear Axle, Cherokee/Comanchee and Dakota share the same axle dimentions right down to the spring pirches. Dakota has a larger drum. A D44 was available in 89 and older Cherokees (very hard to find), an aluminun D44 was available in the Grand Cherokee, they are JUNK, but thats where you'll find the disk brakes.

 

Yes this is a great way to gain ground clearance. The easyest way is to get the setup from a 2wd dakota, top plate and u-bolts (If still good), or get new ones at most autoparts stores. I will post this up in the FAQ2.


Here is a pic of mine to show how its done.

 

AHH, looks like the same spring plate as a Jeep Cherokee, guess I'll have to look at the 92 a little closer.

 

good info. i might look into getting disk brakes, i have the ground clearance thing covered

 

Do u need the spring plate? I want to to this on my 01 1500.

 

For the Dakota yes you do. For the ram I'm sure it's going to be the same. Your best bet is to get a plate off of a 2wd. They are reverse. Again I don't know for sure about a ram.

 

A correction. The vast majority of XJs have D35 rears, but tube/u-bolt size is probably the same.

Mine was already converted because my axle is from a 2WD Dakota, I know this because I can tell the spring perches were cut off and relocated.

 

For any one that reads this just remember one of the reasons the use square u bolts is because the axle tubes are not all that strong and you can crush the tube or wear a hole through it like I have seen. Same reason they use two center oins on the newer 3/4 an 1 ton Dodges They had to do this because you can't us 5/8 ubolts on these axles you can crush them.

 

Lol, guess again dude. The reason they use square bolts is because they fit over the square pack of leaf springs like so...

DSCN0264.jpg?t=1252265633

The cars/trucks that use round ubolts have them going over the axle and not the leaf springs like in Crazy's picture up above.

If you honestly think that these axles can be crushed, then tell me why I have had my truck sitting on jack stands positioned on the axle housing for a week at a time. If anything will crush them, it would be the weight of the truck sitting on about 1 square inch of jack stand.

 

actually your wrong, up until about 1990 they had the Dana 35 under the rear, 1991 and newer had the Chrysler 8.25 under them. the Dana 35 and Chrysler 8.25 u bolts are different.