I have a 2000 Ram2500 extcab short box 4x4 Diesel with an auto tranny and I just picked up a free 2000 Ram2500 reg cab long bed 4x4 Diesel with a 5spd. (it feels like I won the lottary) The body on the manual tranny truck is done. every panel is either rusty or badly dented. other than that it runs and drives down the road nice. and has less k than my truck. My automatic truck is near mint. I want to swap the manual tranny into my automatic truck. am I going to run into a bunch of snags or is this pretty straight forward swap?

is there any good links to this swap?

I can't afford to be with out my truck for to long so I need to know up front of any major problems.

and yes I've searched. but with out any detailed results.

Thanks Ben

 

One thing I'll say, if you ran a bunch of wires through that nice little rubber plug in the firewall, that's where your clutch assy goes and you'll hate yourself for having to re route them all! Sounds like you've got an ideal setup having a whole truck to pull your pieces off of not having to take a trip to the salvage yard when you forgot one little thing or the little thing you didn't know about.

 

Crap... I do have a bunch of stuff running thru there. The PTO cable for my high idler and a bunch of wires.
Thanks

 

If you've got the donor truck, that probably is the worst part. I spent a few hours routing hoses and wires through another hole.

The driveshafts aren't the same between yours and the donor I think, check wheel base to confirm. I used my old shafts when I swapped over, overall transmission setup is about 1/2" shorter with the manual vs. auto, a little tight getting the front in but I haven't had any problems in about 20k.

Cutting the hole in the floorboard, seems like it's too far forward when doing it, but if you have the donor again.....much easier. Make sure you get a new (something nice) clutch and flywheel, and if it's in your budget check out the 5th gear nut and fix it if you can/need to. Master/slave also, imo. With all that on top of the free truck you'll still be waaayyyy ahead of the game!

Other then that, pretty straight forward. Spreading the frame is the easiest way to drop out the crossmember, either with a hydro ram or a bottle jack and a block of wood cut to size. Good luck.

 

Also, especially if the ratios are the same, swap the rear end, Dana 80 versus the 70 that is under your Auto truck......

 

I might do this swap aswell.
I'm up in the air as to what to do... I plan on putting all my auto stuff on the manual truck.
Then re-boding it with this other truck I found, reg cab 8' box auto ram with a great body no motor, tranny, grill, rad for $250.
But it sure would be nice to have all the parts from the donar truck sitting on the shelf in my shop. especially since I have a 53 block in my daily, and the donar truck doesn't.
The donar truck came with 8 grand in reciepts. It has a ton of new parts. Injection pump. clutch(9k ago) front end work, brakes, rear dif.... but the body was so banged up it was going to be 8-10 g's to fix so he gave up on the truck and bought a new one to represent his business.

If I didn't have 4 kids I would just re-body the reg cab and call it a day. but I need the extra cab.

I never dreamed I would have to spead the frame to get the crossmember out.

Thanks for tips. and keep them coming.

 

Wow, where are you finding these deals?! I'm jealous, any truck with a good body around here, regardless of motor or not, will fetch a few grand.

Spreading the frame isn't totally necessary, it can be hit towards the back where it will drop out, I just don't like messing with the fuel lines on the inside frame rail, so I spread em till it drops out.

 

[QUOTE=gorms;2952986]Wow, where are you finding these deals?! I'm jealous, any truck with a good body around here, regardless of motor or not, will fetch a few grand. QUOTE]

I barely watch the road. I look behind every barn, drive down every back road. when I see what I want I go back cash in hand a price in my head I want to spend, and a means getting the vehicle out of there when i strike a deal. Don't give them time to think about it. the biggest trick is keep an eye on it. Most of the stuff I buy isn't sitting out for sale, its just sitting.

 

I *think* the short cab long bed and ext cab short bed share the same driveshaft as long as the five speed doesn't have the nv241hd trans case which will have a different slip shaft at the case-but they use the same u-joints so you can swap that.

Both of these vehicles are pretty close to the split for slip rotors, if one is slip, I'd rather have it for the possibility of third gen brakes. With the five speed I'd swap both to have 3.55's unless you tow REALLY heavy and run big rubber.

If you do tow really heavy, since it'll be out I'd give some consideration to the 5th nut issue and input shaft upgrades. Just since it's all out...

 

I would be interested in finding a set of manual 4x4 duelly axles to put under my 02 2500. anybody know if this is even possible?
thanks.