I read the manual to remove the transfer case and it says to remove the rear crossmember. I have a 95 dakota slt ext cab 4x4. Problem is , the rear crossmember on these particular trucks is welded to the fram with the torsion bars running through it. There is now way at all to remove it. Has anyone had to remove a t-case from one of these before? If so your help will be greatly greatly appreciated. I cant get to work to support my family without this truck. Please read!!
Thank you, Tim
Do you have FSM (Factory Service Manual) for this specific truck (year/ model)? If not you might consider getting a one day access to the FSM (based on VIN number) online at
My two cents worth,
Alex
I am using a haynes manual. It seems to be made for the non ext cab trucks. Mine is the super cramped 318 auto 4x4 ext cab truck. What a pain it was to just change out the engine in it. But seems even though haynes says its for all trucks they only really cover the v6 non ext truck which was nonsense. I should have paid the 20 bucks for the one you suggested instead of buying that useless haynes manual. Anyways I already wasted 20 and cant afford to waste another 20 as I am out of work till this darn truck is running again. The T/case blew the chain so to save me money I am pulling the t.case and removing the chain itself to disable the front drive shaft. Hopefully it will get me a couple more months till I can affor to replace the entire T/case with a rebuilt unit.
Sorry to hear about the trouble -- yes, Haynes and similar manuals are pretty much useless. I made a mistake of buying one only to discover that what they were telling me to do something that was physically impossible. In general I discovered that I wasted hundreds of dollars replacing perfectly good parts b/c Haynes diagrams were "typical" and did not show all the components. Many other people online had similar experiences with non-FSM manuals. It really seems that you are having a similar issue.
If you in a dire situation you might consider checking with the local public library (many of them have catalogues online) to see if they have FSM for your truck.
Alternatively (or in addition) you might consider posting to the dakota specific forums such as
Two cents worth....
Wasn't it something like yesterday somebody was asking why third-party manuals got such bad reviews around here?
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