My name is Brandon Diaz, I have a '94 ram 1500 short bed riding on 305/70r16's in the back and 285/75r16's in the front. I broke my dana 44 in the front with 3.54 gear ratio and I went to pickup a new front and rear axle with a 4.10 gear ratio in each and everything else is stock.

1. Has anyone done anything like this before? Is there anything I should worry about before I complete the swap?

2. Also I wanna change the 4x4 vacuum to a manual. Any ideas on what I should do or look into before I try this as well?

My hope is to use this vehicle as a tow/ offroad vehicle.

Thank you.

 

What axles did you get?

And google Posi-lock.

 

1. yea you can do the swap just fine, if just swappin in the whole axles, then the front will be easy just bolts right in. make sure you get the right driveshaft hookup, should be driver side. as for the rear, the drive shaft hookups might be different if your puttin a dana 60 or 70 in there. other things that might be different is if your gettin the rear axle from a 2500 the spings are wider, so you will have to grind down the perches on the axle to make the u-bolts fit for your 2.5" wide springs. or you could swap out the hangers and shackels and use all 2500 but thats up to you. also the wheel speed sensor might be different, just makes sure you use the one that for your truck, not the 2500 one or whatever. will just have to splice the connectors.

2. look up a Posi-lok system for the CAD replacement. thats bout all you can do to get rid of it. unless you wanna make it fulltime 4x4 then you can do a shift fork flip for free. what it does it make the axles always turn though and the front driveshaft. but it wont actually pull until you engage the t-case. i did this on my ramcharger, but i also manual locking hubs so i can still disconnect it and nothin turns, but i did away with the CAD bull****. its nice, but only if you have locking hubs. on yours you prob would wear out parts quick. posi-lok would be the best way to go man.

 

thx ryan and dodge dude.... The axles I picked up are a dana 44 for the front and a dana 60 for the rear off of a '97 dodge ram 1500. The previous owner had re-geared the axles to be 4.10.

 

1500's don't come with 60's, rear most likely, if 5 bolt, is a chrysler 9.25. If its 8 bolt its a 60. Don't use 4x4 with the different sized tires....

 

If your replacing a D44 and Chry. 9.25 with a the same thing, you're no better off. You're much better off replacing those axles with a D60/60 set from a 2500, even with 3.55 gears in them you don't have to worry about parts breaking quite as often.

 

I could be wrong , but aren't the 4 tires all suppose to be the same size on a 4x4 ?

 

I'm pretty sure you're correct Zman, I've always been told don't do that because it results in blown axles and t-cases if its left long enough. Probably why his axle broke in the first place...

 

I know they are suppose to be the same, was just being a smart azz.

 

I haven't run the sizes, but maybe their diameter are the same and it's the widths that are different. (which they are)