I'm looking at buying an 04 Diesel Ram. The dealership is advertising it as a 6 speed manual. I entered the Vin number on the dodge site to get the equipment list. According to the equipment list, the truck has a 6 speed manual. The 8th character in the Vin is C which I am understanding is the 5.9 HO and matches what is on the equipment list. Looking closely at one of the pics in the add, the shift **** has a 5 speed pattern. I asked the over the phone to verify for me and sure enough salesman says it's a 5. The truck only has 58,000 miles on it. Why for the difference? Is it possible the equipment list is wrong or is it more likely that the trans has been swapped?

 

Could very well be that the previous owner swapped out shift ***** before selling the truck...

 

And it is also possible the 5600 puked its guts and was replaced by a 4500 due to parts availability.

Only way to know for sure is to crawl under it and ID the trans, photo, etc.