i come from the mustang world and with the fox body you can take the new brakes and spindle from a newer mustang and swap it to have better brakes and rim selection

can you do the same with a dakota? for ex get the parts off a dodge ram?

 

What are you trying to accomplish here? Better braking? Just want it to look cool?

The early Daks were on a 5 lug pattern, but I'm not sure if everything will all switch over. Axles and drums might swap in the rear end if you find one with the pattern you are looking for. Which rear axle do you have? 8.25? 9.25?

What are we looking at for the front end? Is it a 4x4 or 2 wheel drive?

I've heard of guys doing a 5 lug conversion but it usually requires some modification of several components (redrilling rotors, modifying brake calipers, etc...) I personally wouldn't do this swap if that were the case. What happens when you're on the side of the road needing replacement parts and can't just get them from the parts store. Brake calipers might not be a big deal, but if it comes down to redrilling the hub assy then I'd never do it on my truck. I've had to replace CV axles twice and both times I was away from home with a limited tool kit. I would have been screwed if I had to modify stuff as well.

 

What I'm going to do on my truck is to see if i could use spindles from a '90 Dakota and make some tubular control arms.

 

this could work in the front. Could probably use Ram spindles if you wanted.

I have a friend that makes custom 4130 axles from scratch blanks. He has a spliner and hub driller, bad thing is that his only spliner is a 35 spline, he is working on getting 30, 33, 27, 29, and 40. But as soon as he does, I can have him make custom dak axles as a 5 lug rear.

 

my objective was i was hoping to get a little column a little column b
the brakes on my dakota suck and i figured the brakes from a ram would stop the smaller truck better
plus some of the stock wheels from the rams look a lot better than the stock rims on my truck

 

I'm planning on putting a Ford 9" under my truck so It would already be 5 lug.

 

yes but not everybody wants to have to do that and deal with the VSS on the third member and axle width issue and spring perch alignment and pinion angle.

 

And we still don't know if it's a 4x4 or not...

 

no its not 4x4 its 2wd red auto 5.2

 

2wd? Well. Who cares then. Do whatever. Its a throw away truck. Lol.