I finished this over the last 8 months well still driving it most of the time only laying it up for 2 weeks while I sprayed it. All new metal and I did a 5 speed conversion I was able to complete in 12 hours and have the truck back on the road. Couldn't figure out how to post pics to my profile.

 

That really looks nice!! Would like to hear more details. example, did you build that hood yourself? What 5 speed did you use, ie. year and was it from a Dakota? The pictures really do look nice.

 

Thanks. The hood is an AAR hood I found on Craigslist. The transmission I used was an ax15 I believe. It was the v6 one but I got it with everything I needed for $200 and its been holding up just fine and shifts great behind my 5.2. I powder coated a bunch of stuff myself. The bumpers are black chrome. I sprayed the plastic grill with Dupont chrome black out. The wheels are off a 98 I striped and powder coated those with a metallic black and I changed the calipers over to the 98 ones and coated those also (15" wheels) as far as the engine its still the original 5.2 with 210,000 and it runs great I have some stuff I'm cleaning up for it and maybe a few upgrades bit I'm going to see how long she'll go. Last compression check was 150-155 on all cylinders. The only engine work I've had to do were valve seals and distributer drive gear and bushing. Not too bad for how many miles I've got.

 

I've got the whole underside cleaned up also. The cross member was pretty rotted from the doaner truck so I had to weld new metal in.

 

 

I used the v8 flywheel. You need that one because of the timing marks on it. You also need a different crank shaft sensor there's a shorter one for manual transmission. As far as the transfer case goes I used the one that came with the ax15 because I rebuilt it before I did the swap as far as I can tell there both the same other than the 4 wheel drive shifters are different and I thought I read something about the input shaft being different as well. The mount, linkage are not the same. The drive shafts are also different. Longer rear and shorter front. And the pilot barring was a dealer item $10 I think. I also haven't connected the reverse lights yet because the plugs are different and I needed to bypass the neutral safety. One of the guys on here did a really good write up on swapping out to a nv3500 everything he did was the same except I don't think there was any mention about the Tcase the shifters where just something I noticed while taking it apart.

 

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen-dakota/191960-46rh-to-nv3500-swap-5-2l-4x4.html

This is the write up.
Some guys say the ax15 won't hold up to the 5.2 but I haven't had any problems and I tend to have a pretty heavy foot plus most of the guys on the jeep forums that run them behind a 5.2 seem to have good luck. Its important to use yellow metal safe gear lube though. GL5 lube will wreck them the synchros are brass. I went with it because there's alot of 5 speed v6 Dakota's around for parts trucks.

 

Did you use the v8 11in. clutch or the v6 10.375? The reason I ask is based on a motor change I am planning for mine. I will start a new post about my plans in the next few days and would appreciate your input. But I don't want to turn your post into another subject.
BTW I really enjoy reading build threads!!


Here is one you may find interesting as well. I have learned a lot from this one as well. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...le-dakota.html

 

That trucks really clean! I found a convertible one out by me but I couldn't get the guy to part with it.

Here's the fly wheel I used its the v8 one. Both diameters will work with the bell housing the big difference is the timing marks for the crank sensor are different from the v6 to the v8 so that's more related to what engine you have and not so much the transmission. I also used the clutch for the 5.2