Lol, yeah, the only place I found the fluid for it was at Dodge, and it was exxxxxxppppppeeeeeennnnnnnsssssssssiiiiiiiiiiivvvv vvvvve.

What's wrong with towing in 5th? It's not like the weak overdrive unit on the automatics. I pulled my new to me 2wd home a month or so ago (about 5500 total pound trailer weight) running 70-75 mph in 5th for over an hour and it did great!

 

i was just curious as to it being used in different trucks.

ya i so want that power back i cant stand the automatic but i love the truck and am willing to do the swap.just need to find a truck to do the swap with.lol

 

Ah, well in that case, yeah... most 3rd party transmissions were used in many applications. The Tremec T-56 6 speed was used in the viper, corvette, camaro, I think the mustang as well. Thats the transmission I'm in search for right now for my 2wd to put behind the 408 stroker I'm building. Unfortunately, they are not interchangeable between car makes either.

 

is this 2wd also a dakota? that sounds like its going to be an amazing street machine...have some suprised people when they pull up beside you at the stop lights then leave um sitting in the dust.

ya for my dakota i would love to find a 360 with a standard behind it and drop it into the dakota.i have done lots of research as to doing this.i found it interesting that you dont need to change the injectores or computer from the 318 as it will run the 360 no problem.just not at full potential.so if i find one while looking for a transmission for my truck right now ill be doing the 318 to 360 swap.

 

I can find synschromesh in pretty much any autoparts store here, and it's about the same price as gear oil..

As you know 5th is typicaly the weakest gear in a 5 speed and of course 4th is the strongest because it's 1:1. 5th typically still builds more heat and usually isn't lubricated as well as the other gear, many manufaturers recomend against towing any decent amount of weight in OD whether it's and auto or manual. I perosnally wouldn't tow over 2K in my truck and use OD. I would like to find an owners manual though and see specificaly what it says about towing, maybe I'm underestimating the NV3500.

 

Gotcha. That makes sense, but for me I choose the gear by rmp. For example, at ~45 mph my truck is at ~1900 rmp in 4th. If I were towing something at 45-55 mph, I would never consider using overdrive. Its the gears that kick up the fluid since there is no pump, so the faster they spin, the more lubricated they get, so trying to pull at say 55 in 5th at around 1500 rpm, it wouldn't get near as much fluid and therefore not have the neccessary lubrication and probably overheat, but I was pulling that trailer at a speed that had the engine up over 2000 rpm in 5th, and would have been ~3200 had I used 4th... way to high for me to keep the engine at for over an hour. I figured the transmission was getting about the same amount of fluid at that 2000-2100 rpm than it would have gotten in 4th at 45-55 mph with just a bit more friction, so I assumed it was safe.

 

I checked and it does not talk about towing with a manual transmission. The only reference to OD while towing is under the auto OD "When to lock out OD, when driving in hilly areas, towing a trailer, whenever frequent shifting may occur."
It seems they are more worried about the rear end over heating during towing, then they do about the OD. Since more references are made about the rear end then the OD during towing.

In the towing section they say to shut off OD "When driving in hilly areas to prevent the transmission from overheating."
Of course that is all off of the owners manual and not always the best resource of information.