Well I've been scrounging up parts for some time now to change out my top cover on my NV4500 from the 94-96 bottle top shifter, to the 97-02(?) 4 bolt removable shift tower top.

I scored a good deal on a nice top cover, but it was missing the shift tower.



I tried one of the after market shift towers through a seller on E-bay. Like this one....



Got it here and all looked good, until I tried bolting it to my top cover. Turns out the machining, and assembly on the unit is garbage! I could not tighten it down without it jamming up on the shift rails, and the overall dimensions of the stub were 30 to 60 thou larger then the OEM piece....so it would get stuck in the shift rail gates. Needless to say I shipped it back for a refund!

I have been searching for a decent used OEM shift tower for some time now. I finally got a complete set from a 99-02 is Ram. Here's what I got.



Everything but one bolt. Not in bad shape overall, but the darn shift tower boot was torn. I specifically asked the seller about it, and was told it was good, but clearly not.





So I spent a few hours combing the internet for a replacement piece....I could not find one anywhere. I did find a few possible solutions though. Seems the G56 guys have been using a Universal CV Joint boot to get around the costly OEM dust boot. But there dust boot is round, not an oblong oval. They have been using a Dorman 614-001 or 614-002 (silicone boot).

 

I was going to give the CV Joint boot a try, but thought I would try hitting the wreckers today and see if I could scrounge something up.

I did find something that i think will work. It was in a 2000 ram with a 5.9 gasser and a 5 spd (NV3500 or NV3550?) I would guess. The shifter, inner and outer boots were the same as the cummins NV4500 units, and the shift tower top dust boot was very close. So I grabbed the inner boot, and the shift tower dust boot for $15 and scurried home.

Old inner boot, vs todays new inner boot....





And the original OEM NV4500 shift tower dust boot vs the NV3500 shift tower dust boot.







As you can see the NV3500 boot is slightly longer/taller then the NV4500 boot. But other then that it's identical.

 

Unfortunately the NV3500 dust boot does not have the proper cut out and groove down low to fit the NV4500 shift tower properly...but near the top it seems to be the same, just a longer "skirt" on it.

Here is the new dust boot just sitting on top of the NV4500 tower. You can see the groove the boot needs to slip over.



If you slip the boot over the groove it just sits there. Don't think it would stay very long in place.



I tried to think of a way to hold it in place...considered filling the groove with silicone, or some sort of adhesive. But thought that it might cause me grief down the road. Then I thought a couple zip ties might apply enough pressure to hold it in place.





This I think could work.

 

I then squeezed the boot down all the way over the shift tower body, so it was as close to sitting in the OEM location as the original piece. The groove in the upper portion of the NV3500 dust boot is very close to fitting, but due to the "stretch" over the body it is distorted enough to not "snap" into place.







I then decided to try the zip ties in this orientation. I like the way this sealed up better then the early set-up.





I think this is the arrangement I'm going to try. At least it seems to seal properly, and should stop any dust or debris from getting into the tranny.

So if you have a torn shift tower boot, head to the wreckers and see if you can score a boot off a gasser 5spd.

 

Can I ask why you decided to swap to the 4-bolt top? I have put four NV4500's in 1st gens and three out of the four were the bolt on tops. The fourth is a bottle neck that is in my RC. I honestly don't notice a difference in shifting in any of them. One of the bolt on style is actually the sloppiest out of all four. So much so my dad asked me to find him a replacement shifter tower and top hat. On a side note on all four conversions I used the OEM 1st gen inner and outer boots. Give a factory look that I like. Nice write up

 

Really I have not had any issue with my bottle top shifter set-up on my tranny. The main reason is so I can upgrade the the 4 bolt top cover to a short throw shifter. Supposed to reduce shifter travel by 20% or so.

 

Ahh, well I guess that makes sense.

 

Hey Brian I'll send you a PM may be able to help you out with a boot .

 

AAAH no more baseball bat in a rain barrel.

 

...Nice analogy...