B-350 Questions

[Bratko]

Hey all great site. I am a new member, as well as a first time Dodge Owner. I picked up a ’94 one ton cargo van at auction. It’s not pretty, it lived in the rust belt and it shows, But for under a grand, it seamed like a good deal. All I needed to get it running was a CPS that went out. It’s now running like a champ and throwing no codes, and it been from near Chicago, to Texas, and now its in Cali, never missing a beat. It’s a LWB Maxi full window van, but the VIN code is a 31 which I think is a cargo van or “truck” not the 35 code for a maxi wagon, a strange way to order a cargo van huh. The previous owner (our government) seamed to maintain it well. I’ve got a few questions. I was hoping to find a full floating Dana 60 out back but instead I found a semi floating corporate 9.25”, what gives isn’t that a ½ ton rear? Also the T.O.N under the hood specified a “normal” duty A-518 trans, what is the “heavy” option? I plan on occasionally towing some construction equipment behind my van what is the max CGVR, as I never got an owners manual? I’ve gone through it and found no surprises (mechanically). My next move is to install a trans temp gage while I am pulling the pan and doing a trans service, hope there will be enough room inside the pan to put the temp sender backside. With some time and money, I’ll do the body work, and spray it my self, and hopefully have a nice poor mans toy hauler. Kindly thanks for any info.

[97B2500CCV]

On your drivers door jam you should find a sticker with the tire size, tire pressure, and what the load rating for your van is. The 9.25" rear axle is also used on the 3/4 ton vans as well, not sure about the 1 ton vans. Hope this helps some.
Kenny

[B-300]

I have seen 1 ton vans with 9-1/4" rear ends (8 lug) in salvage yards.
The 518 is the stronger of the automatics made for vans. If a HD model exists it might have an external cooler.

[Bratko]

Thanks guys for the replies. That's just it no door jam info. The sticker under the hood gives me the axle ratings, I was just wondering what I can get way with towing a tralier. I'll be pulling a car tralier with a 4500lb car from cali to texas next month, and the inside of the van will be loaded up pretty good too. I'm glad to hear I'ts got the good trans, and it does have a good sized cooler in between the radiator and the a/c condenser, i'm still a little worried about the 9 1/2" inch rear, although it has 3.92 gears inside. Thanks again.

[97B2500CCV]

If you are still wanting an owners manual try E-bay. I bought the manual for both my van and car from off of E-bay.

[Dodgevanman]

Dodge was weird with the options on vans. You could order up a cargo van but then add windows as an option and the VIN would reflect cargo van rather than a wagon.

The Dana rear was an option whereas the 9-1/4 was standard on 1 ton vans. On 1/2-ton and LD 3/4-ton vans the 8-3/8 rear was standard and the 9-1/4 rear was optional.

[Bratko]

Thanks for the answers, as a new dodge owner i'm trying to get my mopar info base up to speed, if this thing makes it back to texas from cali with the car and trailer, it will for sure be worthy for some mods/restoration to make it real solid low budget tow/rec/toyhauler.