1990 Dakota 2.5/ 5spd manual A535/NP2500 gear ratio ?

I like those progressive ratios; the faster you go the shorter the splits;
.61-.62-.69-.79
definitely works well with a low-powered engine to keep it on the pipe.
For a street V-8 tho, the short od might not be the best idea, and the deep low is really really low, wanting about 3.23s as max rear gear. with 2.94s probably better. With 2.94x 2.33=6.85, this is a great V8 second gear. And third becomes 4.23 so that's a good gear for a stout engine to trap in. But in the quarter, you're done in third gear..... so that V8 is gonna need a very wide power band, to trap in third gear...... So the ET is gonna reflect that.
If you gear it to trap in 4th, you might want 4.30s in the back.... and then the starter becomes 4.3x3.83=16.47....... which is, IMO, horrible on the street. And 4.30s x.79= 3.40 final drive , so not as useful as one might want.
I would like to see someone put this behind a 4bbl 273 tho. I think it would be soooo much fun with say; 3.55s. Hyup that would make road gears of; 13.60-8.27-5.11-3.55-2.80 or
with 3.23s; 12.37-7.52-4.65-3.23-2.55
I would build the engine up specifically to use that trans.