I have a 99 3500 with a manual 5 speed. While driving down the highway tonight at about 60 mph my 5th gear just went away.
The motor immediately revved up and it has no power whatsoever to 5th gear. All other gears are fine. I'm leaving Tuesday for 2 weeks of vacation and can't pull a fifth wheel camper with my wife's Saturn! <G>

Any ideas or help would be very sincerely appreciated.

Steve G in KC

 

there is a tsb on the problem. sometimes you can get away with just a few parts. best to pull it apart to see what you need. you have enough time to fix it for your upcomming vacation. the transmission may not have to come out. is yours 2wd or 4wd? you should fill out your sig with more info.

 

Thanks for the reply. Mine is 2wd (I'll work on my sig!)

 

I had the same thing happen last night I came around a curve started to speed up and lost 5th I found the TSB on dodgeram.org It say you need some specialty tools and around 3 hours

 

It must have been the night for it to happen! I too found the TSB (21-10-98A) thanks to this fabulous resource! Now to find someone that can get me in to their shop in less than 2 weeks!

 

If you wanted you could take it down to OKC and have Blumenthals put in a 6 speed, Takes them about 6 hours or less for a 2wd.

 

mine is going in next tuesday for repair dosen't sound to expence I hope you can find someone to fix yours soon!

 

I just got off the phone with a shop that made me an appointment for 8am Tuesday morning, just in time to salvage my vacation! Thanks for this resource, it helped me to save my family's vacation. Now how valueable is THAT?

 

pickersteve,

The "fix" may or may not be permanent. Some guys just weld he nut on to make sure that its permanent.

 

Thanks for this tip Dr. Evil. Are there any dangers in having the shop that performs the repair to do this? If not, then I will certainly discuss it with them. Appreciate the tip!

 

see what they recommend.....you must have a competant welder do this to get proper penetration. Im not completely sure if it would weaken anything or not.

 

Had the same thing happen to my 96 twice. The first time 5th gear which is located in its own housing on the back of the transmission was put back on, tourqed and then spot welded with two spots 180 degrees apart. This repair lasted just over 20K miles. Second time it happened I had the transmission rebuilt with a new input shaft and an aftermarket rear shaft with a keyed collar to take the torque. Sold it to a neighbor when I bought my 03 and it is still going strong. In fact if it had been an extended cab I would still be driving it.

I was told that the main thing that causes the nut to loosen and spin off is input shaft spline wear. That is why I insisted on a new input shaft with the rebuild.

 

Take a look at these. Maybe it may answer a few questions. here here