OK heres the deal, My buddy has a premium 97 12 valve 4x4 with the NV 4500 5 speed in it, he lost the 5th gear nut and has it fixed for now but he wants to do a 6 speed conversion so I am asking what all is involved with this job and where to find the needed parts??? Should he also go with the larger flywheel as he wants to turn it up to achieve about 600-650 ft.lbs. Also will the transfer case from the 5 speed work on the 6 speed. The classified adds didnt have much to offer for 6 speeds.....sounds like they are in demand.

Cheers, Kevin

 

I believe that Haulin in Dixie has done this conversion and he may be the man to ask. If he doesnt see this thread and chime in, I would send him a pm.
Good luck

 

It is a straight forward installation. You can use either your stock flywheel or a redrilled flywheel for the larger clutch. SBC has the clutch kits for either.

The transfer case will bolt up as stock. The rear cross member may have to be changed to the wider version. Mine had the right one. I did have to make a small trans mount adaptor as the only custom part. It is a square plate with the necessary bolt holes drilled.

The shift lever will go onto the shift lever stub on the nv5600. The know will not rotate any more

The drive shafts will have to be changed in length six inches. The rear shortened and front lengthened.

The transfer case lever rod needs to be cut and a piece welded to it to extend it.

It is the best mod I made to the truck for pulling.

 

This is great info, My buddies name is Todd and I told him to join up here so he can learn the real things of his truck, Hopefully he will read and respond with a few questions.............................Now where to find the 6 speed?

Thanks Haulin in Dixie

Cheers, Kevin

 

You are very welcome, I got mine from Ebay, just over $1000 plus shipping.

 

So did you go with the larger flywheel as well or stay with original?

Cheers, Kevin

 

The flywheel is the same size, just drilled different, I used a redrilled flywheel from SBC.

 

On a 97 you're going to have a small (5-speed) cross member like I did on mine. Haulin in dixies truck came with the bigger cross member since the 6psd was an option on the HO's (I believe that's right) Anyhow, I re-used my rear cross member by turning it 180 degrees (so the front of the member is facing the rear of the truck and I bolted it back in. It was almost a perfect fit. I had to cut out a small piece of the member with a torch and weld in a 2" piece of angle iron so finish it but I reused the stock 5spd tranny mount and hardware. The new bigger cross member is $400! So it's well worth the time to re-use the 5spd member.
The 5spd clutch fork works with the 6spd as well, as does the 5spd clutch master/slave cyl. The 6spd is practically a direct bolt bolt in for the 94-98.5's. The only thing other than the tranny and clutch I had to buy was a 6spd shifter from dodge ($216) I would have just made one but the factory shifter is rubber mounted/insulated and it takes out a lot of drivetrain vibration so I thought it was worth it. All in all it took me about 7 hrs to do the whole conversion. I did this in my parents drive way (on a hill) with 2 3-ton floor jacks and some tools. Very easy job.