I was in search for an axle shaft for my truck, and found that Dorman makes a much more affordable shaft for the 03+ Ram 9.25, but no one makes one for the Dakota. On a whim I decided I would just cross my fingers and hope it's the same length.. well it wasn't.

Our shaft is 32⅓" in length, the ram is 33"

The Dakota is also the only vehicle that uses this size. Not the Jeep, nor Durango 9.25 shares the part. It's truly a shame because the Dorman axle was only $100 and dodge wants $355 for it.. Luckily the factory online retailers only want $250 for it.

 

Is there enough extra length of splined shaft to cut 1/3" off each end?

 

So the 03+ Ram only has about 1.25" wider rear track? Coil sprung, 4-link rear end in a Dakota sounds pretty good right about now.

I've been wondering if the rear disc brakes and hardware off a 9.25" Ram axle would swap over to my Dakota.

 

In theory it might. The backing plate that holds all the drum brake hardware is held on by lugs pressed in ton the axle housing, accessible after pulling the drum. Then the backing plate can be removed.

The disc brake setup has a drum inside it, so there is a backing plate and dust cover on it aswell. If the bolt pattern for the two plates are the same, then there should be nothing keeping it from being a direct swap, other than modifying the parking brake cable to fit the smaller drum/plate.

 

Oh, about the spline. It's a C-clip diff so they would have to re-spline a section as well as cut and remachine the c-clip recess. Which would leave only 1/2" left of the spline, the portion just before the spline is the breaking point, which is narrower than the splines and can't be splined so to speak.