i ahve been looking into dropping a NV5600 into my 97 4X4 2500 and i am looking for a place to buy a NV6500 is my best bet a local junkyard or ebay or what?

I found this site http://www.drivetrain.com/nv5600.html and this looks like a great kit but i don't have to have all that. do I? this also looks kinda pricey to me what do you guys think

BCB

 

The 6speed would be nice and there are few here who have done the change,there is a few glitches that has to be overcome, one the speedometer pick up, changing out the fly wheel expense. My question is just for curiosity is why? Are you having trouble with you 5speed? I know of two guys personaly who did it,and they only did it because thier trannys had lost fifth gear completley and they had other internal gear damages. Do a search as I remember there is a good write up on doing it and list all the parts. Goodluck,,Rick

 

i want to do this beacause 90% of the time i am in my truck i am towing and the jumps between the gears mainly 2-3, 3-4 are to big .

 

i just done the swap on my 97 a month or two back, & the only trouble I had was with the 4x4 linkage, as far as the speedo pick-up I just used my old transfer case & everything works fine, the wires going to your back-up lights will be a little short, but I put mine on a toggle switch anyway,(helps when you're hooking up or unhooking a trailer at night to ba able to leave them on), I went with a DD south bend while doing the swap, but I have a stock 6spd. flywheel if it would help you out any, the 4x4 linkage is still not fixed on my truck, couldn't find anyone who had done this on a 94'-97' truck, on the 98'-up trucks all you need is a longer rod, but on the older trucks the shifter/linkage bolts to the side of the transmission, & there's no where on the 6spd. to bolt the old shifter/linkage, the 98'-up trucks have the shifter made into the flor pan, so it stays put when you drop the tranny, mine wasn't like that, Quad4X4 said they had the parts necessary to fix mine, but never called me back with a quote on their price, guess I'll try them again next week???? PM me or give me a call if you have any ?'s I'll do my best to answer them based on my own personal experience, but the 6 spd. is alot nicer while pulling a load, & knowing that it's not as likely to take a crap on you & leave you stranded somewhere is nice also, but give me a shout if I can help you at all, Dusty (276)-759-5200

& I'm also located a couple hours from you if you wanna take a look or drive my truck before you take on the job & $$ of the swap!

 

thanks alot Dusty i might take you up on that offer to come up and look at your truck this spring.

 

good deal, maybe by spring I'll have the bugs worked out of this dang 4x4 shifter problem????? & let ma know if ya need the flywheel too, it needs to be re-surfaced, but only had about 70,000 miles on it when I took it out of an 02' so it should be good, just give me a shout if/when ya get ready, Dusty

 

you have a new PM

 

Bomb the truck if you haven't already. That'll give it enough extra torque that the gear spreads probably won't be a problem anymore, and you'll gain the power and mileage that comes from the changes you make to the truck.

 

If you're gonna bomb the truck & use it to pull, I promise you're gonna grenade the 5spd. anyway, don't ask me how I know??????? In my opinion the 6 spd. is by far the best mod I have made to my truck thus far, there's no need in making alot of power if you can't put it on the ground w/out stuff like those junk 5 spd.'s flying all to pieces. If the funds are available I'd recomend it to anyone w/a 5spd. I just haven't had good luck w/a 5spd. & hauling heavy loads regularly, & that goes for about 90% of the trucks in my area that get really used alot, they just won't hold together dragging 25,000 + lbs. behind them, if you're gonna use it, get rid of the 5 spd., Dusty

 

I'm not sure your experience is really average for the 5 spd. Plenty of people bomb with the 5 spd, and have no trouble. Just read around. I'm one of them-I have all the stuff in my signature, and I tow fema trailers a pretty fair amount. I have had no trouble with the transmission at all. Even if my truck were stock and I didn't have this experience, based on what I've read here and at dieselram.com, I would not be afraid to bomb with the 5 spd.

 

This is a thread I posted asking the very same question-should I put a nv5600 in place of an nv 4500?


http://dieselram.com/cgi-bin/ultimat...=002266#000000


Please pay particular attention to what the guy named "Tim again" says. The reason I say that is not because he supports what I'm saying, but because he fixes transmissions every day for a living, and not just dodge transmissions either. He has some interesting info on the 48re vs allison vs torqshift debate too, but that's another topic...

You will note that he says parts for the nv 5600 are getting very hard to find. I suppose eventually someone will start making them, but I'd want a bit more assurance than "eventually" if it were my truck. I guess what I'm saying is, think long and hard before you spend a lot of money on something that may be fantastically hard to get parts for if it ever malfunctions, when what you have is perfectly adequate. If you wanna really sleep soundly with the 4500, do the 5th gear fix and put a stronger input shaft in it.

 

I realize alot of guys are making alot of hp with the 4500, I had one in a 3/4 ton 96' 5 spd. that took a beating, but it didn't see near the loaded miles as this 97' I have now does, & I don't know if I would call pulling FEMA trailers being loaded HEAVY, but that is my personal opinion only, some of the trailers I pull weigh empty what a FEMA trailer does, then you start loading them & you find out real quick how stout your tranny is, I pulled my 5 spd. 4 times in one year, & I bought the truck with 82,000 miles on it from an older gentleman who rarely used it to pull anything & who baby'd the thing anytime he drove it, I can name a dozen trucks around my area that have had reapeated problems with a 5 spd, but once again these trucks pull alot & pull heavy loads, I can only think of one 6 spd. that has given troubles & it was synchronizers that were bad from being jerked around too much & jamming gears, if you feel comfortable trusting your 5spd. to do whatever the job your truck has then that's fine by me, I just got tired of mine breaking & from my own experiences with my 5 spd. & others around me it seemed that it was gonna get worse before it ever got any better, keep in mind that these are just my own opinions, good luck with whatever choice you make, Dusty

 

I have personally managed to break a dana 80. The nv4500 that was in the truck is still fine. It was my fault as far as I know...I took the truck to the dragstrip and ran it. It went 16.03 at 86 mph with a honda accord engine and automatic trans rolling around in the bed. I did burnouts before each pass similar to what I do in a car before I make a pass. I THINK what got it was that it was wheelhopping leaving the line. I couldn't really feel it in the truck, but a guy who was near the starting line said that it was in fact wheelhopping. About a week later, the spider gears in the limited slip unit showed up in pieces in the bottom of the housing. I replaced the axle with a spare I had, and kept on motoring. Now, before I owned the truck, it was used to haul hay. It did that for 150,000 miles or so from what I'm told. The truck and trans now have 247,000 miles on them.

 

http://www.quad4x4.com/

 

I got mine from Blumenthal MFG www.blumenthalmfg.com

I listened to everyones advice about BOMBing the engine to get more torque, more RPM, more power, blah, blah, blah to narrow the spread between the gears of my NV4500.
Read my sig for what fixed that problem

I didn't buy this truck to wrap out to redline before I shift...if I wanted to do that, I'd have a v10 With the NV5600 and 35K gross, I shift at around 2500...I could shift lower, but my chargers are a little laggy for towing that kind of weight! I don't like smoke on the customers equipment

It's a lot of money...even more when you have to buy a t-case to keep your speedometer...but if you tow heavy, often, and plan to do so for a long time, go for it! That's what these trucks are for...and this makes it more enjoyable, easier, less nerve racking...you get the point!

PM me for any questions about my conversion...it's not as hard as it would seem!
Chris