On Friday while driving home from a moving my daughter to college, my wifes Durango (98 SLT 5,9L and 9.25 rear - no factory towing) developed a violent shake in the front end. Due to horrible weather -37 with the windchill and having a 5hour wait for a tow truck (again due to the weather and not knowing the area for local tows) she decided to drive it another 75km like this at a reduced speed. Upon arriving home I slid underneath to find that the pinion bearing and seal were destroyed. I am also certain without looking that the ring and pinion are damaged as well (front end locks up while moving in forward and reverse).

So I started searching on what gears are in it so I can locate a suitable replacement. I found that the gears could be listed on the door sticker, the glove box sticker, a white tag on the left rear axle tube, or a tag on the inspection cover. All of which failed in supplying me with the needed information. Now I could jack up 1 side, mark it and count it, but we are getting white out conditions, 70km/hr winds and again very frigid temps.

So what I was wondering is - can I get the needed information by supplying Dodge Canada with the vin (or anyone else)? And if so would someone have Dodge Canada's contact information?

Thanks for any help!

Larry

 

The link is on this site somewhere where you can email dodge for the build sheet, I'm not sure where though. Somebody who knows for sure should chime in, and in the mean time i would browse the sticky threads and look.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

The link is for the US site (cannot request info for Canada on it), I need on for the Canadian Dodge site. I have looked on http://www.dodge.ca and cannot find even so much as a contact us link.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Larry

 

Call your local dealer, ask them for help determining the gear ratio. There is also a tag on the axle put there after the axle got built, so they could know for sure what size they were putting into what truck. You can do more Googling for 'axle tag info', but I just found this.

 

Thanks for the additional information. The tags are no longer present due to age and the salt used on our roads. As far as the dealer is concerned, they are not interested in helping me. They want me to bring the truck to them. I even went as far as asking for their head office contact information so I contact them directly. Still waiting on that on....

 

There should be a small metal tag the size of a dime or so on one of the differential cover bolts with the gear ratio stamped on it if no one has removed it.

 

Nope no tag on the cover bolt. That's ok though. By asking for head offices number it must have lit a fire under the local dealers **** because they promptly emailed me the build sheet.pdf = DMDP 3.55's

 

It's not rocket science. Jack up one rear tire, put the t-case in neutral, and rotate the tire until the drive shaft goes around once. The spider gears will make the tire go twice as far, so halve the number of tire rotations to get the ratio. I would have done this before bothering to ask here, but that's just me.

 

If you took the time to read my previous posts you would have seen that it is to DAMN cold out to take the time to do this, or I would have! Also you would have also read that I have gotten the required information and thanked those who were trying to help.

I am happy that you have taken the time to pad your post count by being of no help, and thank you for the time you wasted posting a response to a question that I did not ask!

 

That WAS good help. It's the only way to be 100% sure of whats in your truck, regardless what documentation may guess. I would NEVER buy a replacement gear set based upon reading what size mine is someplace online. Good luck with your adventure.