Was the issue of the 5th gear nut corrected before the 3rd gens? There's an 03 SO with the NV4500 for sale near me. It's similar to what I'd order if I buy new so I might check it out. Is this issue possible with the 03's?

 

I believe it is still an issue i don;t think dodge or new venture gear did anything about it since it was a low production unit and was going to be offered one more model year (2003). BTW the unit is a NVG 4500 and its a pretty stout unit thats basically their only flaw that the Cummins brings out in them, i would recommend one. I had a 2000 3500 5 spd ctd 160,000 miles and it blew the 5 th gear nut, my fault i lugged the engine and floored it with a trailer. I fixed the gear nut after i drove around for a while w/o 5th gear, its pretty easy to fix

 

The 5th gear problem was fixed.