Hi all I'm new to the forum as of today. I'm currently building a bracket series dodge Dakota. I currently have a 2003 ford explorer sport trac rear end 4:10 gear 31 spline limited slip disc brake axle, my dakota is a 2000 single cab. I'm trying to find out if I need to shorten one of the tubes to match the other, any suggestions or recommendations on the install, any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

IIRC, the explorer 8.8 is pretty damn close as it sits and is considered a nearly bolt-in axle.

 

so I just need to get the perches off, make all my measurements and get pinion angle all set and weld them in place? I understand one axle tube on the 8.8 is longer, I've heard of people cutting one tube to the same as the other not sure if that's necessary or not.

 

The factory 8.25 and 9.25 are a 2" offset of center IIRC.

If you have both out, i would suggest putting them next to eachother.

Elsewise, just measure from center to pinion bolt to the inside of the stock perches, and duplicate those measurements on the 8.8 axle, and see if the outside dimms are offset.

In theory you can run more pinion offset if needed, to get the outside dimensions the same. There's nothing saying that 3" or 4" of pinion offset is bad - that's the whole reason for universal joints. They actually arent designed to be ran perfectly straight - the needles would get burned up from constant pressure in the same spot if they did.

 

I swapped a 8.8 into my 87 dakota.... I believe it will be the same for the most part...... Here is a link, and let me know if you have any questions i may be able to answer.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...-and-more.html