my friend just bought a 97 dakota 4x4 with a 5 speed manual trans. its a real nice truck, but the trans doesnt go into first. you have to hold it in hard or else it just grinds when you let the clutch out. if you hold it hard enough, it wont grind and it will drive. it also grinds into 4th.

also, he has a 97 5.2 liter Ram. will the engine fit into the dakota bay? i know the NV3500 was used on the 3.9 and 5.2 liter engines.

thanks guys!

 

dakotas come with the 318 in them. so yea the engine will fit.

your shifting problem could be in the linkage, or it could be bad syncro's.

 

if its the synchros, that would mean taking the trans apart. but what about linkage? does the trans have to come out for that? feel free to be technical, i am very auto-savvy.

 

It sounds like a shift fork/shift rail problem. And I don't believe they used the NV3500 on the V6s till 2000 or so, your truck should have an AX-15. Either way I think your tranny will probably have to come out, it's typically cheaper and easier to replace the tranny with a good used one than rebuilding it.

 

so should i look for an ax-15 or an NV3500? will the NV fit the V6 in the truck right now?

 

is there anything we can do by taking the plate off the top of the trans where the shifter goes in? what does that set screw do?

 

You don't want to use the AX-15 with the 318 at all. You will be lucky to get a few days out of it.

Don't plan on really getting an NV3500 to rebuild, get a working one. The NV3500 is terrible to rebuild, most places dont have the tools either. You will want to look for an NV3500 with the 4WD tailhousing from a Dodge or an NV4500 with the Dodge gas bellhousing and 4WD tailhousing.

The NV3500 has in integrated tailhousing/bellhousing design, meaning you cannot swap them out easily. The NV4500 doesn't have the same problem, but it is more money, but also considered bulletproof no a gas engine. Check out NV4500.com to read on its specs. But you should be fine with an NV3500, although I find them more difficult to track down in a DOdge version with 4WD.

If you get an NV3500 it should bolt up for you onto the V6. If you get the NV4500 you might want to get a 2" body lift to make it fit in the trans tunnel. I have yet to hear of somone using the NV4500 in a Dakota without increasing the trans tunnel clearance. It is a few inches taller.

 

I would drop the trans straight down. If you take the top plate off I don't think it will help you too much. Why do you need to take it off?

By the way, did you check the fliuid level in the trans? Hard shifting is a sign of low fluid also.

 

i am not too familiar with truck transmissions so i was wondering if adjusting the position of the setscrew under the plate on top would help move the gear selector forks at all.

my friend found an ax-15 rebuild kit with synchros for 260 so i think ill go that route. it'll cause a little downtime while the trans is out, but ill be learning about the trans more.

ill check the fluid but i dont see any wet spots on the trans. who knows.

 

Could also be contaminated fluid if you got water in it. There is a vent tube under the hood by the firewall. Not sure which screw you are talking about, best bet woudl be to check a service manual.

If you aren't familiar with the transmissions I don't know if a rebuild is the best idea. I wouldn't attempt it anyway after doing the research on it, not to discourage you or anything. Check the FSM and see what specialized tools you will need. I know on the NV3500 you need to heat and/or bake the parts to get the gearing off. If you find a place that will rebuild a manual tranny it usually costs around $800-$1000. Might be worth it to look into that.