I'm new to this site but have been building mopar's of all type for many years. I'm just completeing an nv3500 swap on my 00 Durango R/T and was wondering if anyone else has done this. Thanks

 

Sounds interesting. How about some details?

 

Well I used a trans for a 00 Dakota 4.7, flywheel for a Ram 2500 5.9, clutch kit for a 00 Dakota, and all the rest of the parts were just run of the mill Dakota parts. A few details on the swap though..... the nv3500 is 2" shorter than the 46re that came out of it. You have to have the rear shaft lengthened by 2" and front shaft shortened by 2". I had K&D performance do a custom tune to make everything work as stock. Any of the 5.2/5.9 truck use a lot of the same parts as a manual Dakota so a lot of it is just oem stuff....... there are a few small things that you have to do to make everything work right like shim up the neutral safety switch for what ever reason. You could reuse the brake pedal and just cut it down to fit the pad or buy a pedal set and use the whole assembly. In my case I had to grind the nose of starter to make it fit correctly. If anyone is interested in detailed info just message me an I can provide a detailed parts list with part#'s and sources. Thanks

 

 

Stock pedal set from a 97-00 Dakota. The offset on the pedals look funny bc I cut down the automatic brake pedal to fit.

The shift tower the trans shop sent me is actually for a ram 1500 so I had to bend it away from the dash. I might switch it to the later Dakota stub shaft that came with my shifter.
You reuse your oem trans mount minus the steel bracket that bolts to it.



Stock nv242d transfer case. It bolts right as most do. The R/T Durango's basically use the quadra-trac 2 system out of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Had to improvise on bolts for the bell housing. This is one of the ear bolts at the bottom of the block, below the dowl pins and above the starter.
Front diff bracket
Unlike the automatic which you can remove and install with this bracket bolted to it, you have to install this after the trans is bolted to the engine. This is due to the bigger diameter of the bell housing on the manual.
The nv3500 takes a special dust shield which I don't have so for now I'm going drive without it.
Interior all put back together.
I'm still lacking the top trim boot which has to be out of a 97-00 Dakota.

 

I have more pic of it all torn down that I'll have to pull off my camera. In addition to just the swap I also re sealed the front diff, new front brakes, replaced 3 brake lines, re adjusted the rear diff, valve cover gasket, injectors, cleaned the throttle body, and a new fan clutch. I have about 40-50 hrs in this whole thing.

 

Oh and I painted the frame and whole front suspension inside and out all the way to the back passenger doors.

I also painted the entire exhaust system with VHT flame proof paint, as well as most of the engine or at least what I could get.
Also be aware that the fire walls on these trucks rust out in a big way behind the inner fender liners especially on the passenger side.

 

Nice work, looks pretty special having that 5 speed shifter sticking up from a Durango floor.

A couple of us over on the 1st gen Dakota side went with the NV3500 as a swap into our 4X4's. The NV3500 wasn't used in Dakotas until '94 or '95, so we had some challenges to put them behind V8's in trucks that came with V6's. My NV came from a '97 Dakota with a 5.2 Magnum and I put it, along with a 5.2, in my '89. The other fellow is putting his NV3500 behind a 5.9 in a '87 Dakota. His NV was originally behind a 4.7, and that turned out to be a little different. Specifically, the bracket that connects the front axle, motor, and trans, on the driver side, had to be modified to bolt up to the 4.7 trans. My bracket worked, but my trans came from a 5.2 truck. So, since you put a NV3500 from a 4.7 behind a Magnum motor, I was wondering if you had to modify the Magnum bracket -or- did you use the 4.7 bracket?

 

From what I found out the nv3500's after a certain year had all the same mounting holes. The biggest difference is the gear sets offered in them. Ram 1500/Ram 2500 LD/Dakota. There is no difference between the bolt pattern on a 4.7 or any of the magnum engines. Or really even the GEN 3 Hemi's really. The brackets that brace the 4.7 are of course different but all the mount holes are there on 98 and later nv3500's. They all have 10 spline input shafts and 23 spline output shafts. They are really interchangeable especially on the later model stuff. It's more about matching everything up so it pairs up right.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what year his NV was, just that it was newer than mine. It bolted up to the engine OK, but he had to weld an extension onto that bracket at the bellhousing end.

I've read that the Ram 2500 version of the NV3500 had a closer ratio, actually 1st gear being closer in ratio to 2nd. In mine, 1st feels about right, and 2nd does as well, but 3rd is too far from 2nd; I get a very significant drop in rpm going from 2nd to 3rd. Looking at the numbers on Allpar, the Ram 2500 version doesn't do much to help there.

Thanks for passing along what you know.