true. But it gets close- unless you go overly huge, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out the OEM equivelent. Not like they make gearsets for every one-one hundredth of a point.

My math above (for being from thin air, came out awfully close) said 3.22. nearest is OEM is 3.21.

 

Its all stock minus the air filter. I did the math, a little differently (by taking my tire specs off the net: 751.1 rotations per mile and back calculated by using my already identified 3.21 ratio.) And the preliminary winner is the AX15, however I will repreform this "test" when not driving in a city trying to watch RPM and MPH and the ROAD. I will also do it using a camera so I can just take a picture and figure out the nitty gritties after I have parked . After I take pictures, I will cross check my prelim #s with 4th gear, as it is listed for every tans in question as being the 1:1 ratio.

So, not to beat a dying horse, but to get back to the second part of my original question. Is there an easy way to identify these three from each other by looking at them, ID tags, stampings, casting styles, bolt placement...? (because it sounds like all are possibilities for different Dak's) I am more than happy to crawl under most any truck to get the low down on what it can do. To drive this home again, I am looking at getting a newer Dakota (04) and would rather look under it than trust a seller to know their trucks. Im far from an expert, but try hard not to be ignorant about what I have and how it should/does preform.

Thanks for all the posts thus far, and let me know if I am going overboard with this~just trying to be thorough.

goat

 

I remember the name of the thread, its like a 3.9 to 5.2 swap that Matj1990 started.

 

im still not understanding the point of all this. no matter what you do the trans from an 04 is going to be different, and aside from being able to embarass the guy you're buying the new truck from I dont really see the point.
if you just want to know what is in the 04, get the vin and have a dealer run you a build sheet. it will tell you everything thats on the truck from the factory.
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTb_1GMZ...s.org/ax15.jpg
if you can tell the difference, this one is supposed to be an ax15

http://i12.ebayimg.com/04/i/07/b0/7e/cb_3.JPG
and this one is supposed to be an nv1500
maybe you can find something thats unique to one of them and decide when one you have. i didnt really look at them too hard.

 

I'll consider it a dead horse, thanks for all the feedback

 

or a goat in your case?

lol j/k

 

good call big B

Da gOAt