Hey all, I have a 1997 Ram 1500 with the 5 speed manual tranny. I was driving down the freeway today about 70 mph and 5th gear decided to stop working on me. I seemed to lose all my gears, it goes into them all but does nothing. The only gear I seemed to have left was 4th so I limped the truck home. It goes into everything fine just doesnt engage. I also was not running a front driveshaft does that have anything to do with it? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Does it sound at all like a person is strapped to the tranny with a grinder in hand going to town down there? I have usually lost gears in pairs, like 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, 4th. Sounds like you need to source a new or rebuilt unit to replace your current one. It could be synchros or shift forks or bad bearings in there causing problems but diving into a manual tranny is WAY above my pay grade lol.

 

Yeah it was almost like a faint grinding noise, like it didnt wanna go in but already was in, if that makes sense. what gets me is why 4th gear still works but nothing else including reverse, and there was a little fluid dripping out of there, hopefully take it apart and check out the internals tonight.

 

There's a bolt on the back of a shaft that likes to come loose, and drop parts into the trans...... you have the NV3500, right? chances are good, the insides are not going to look pretty......

 

yeah im not sure which tranny it is, i know its the longer of the two driveshafts in the front, the truck is going on 200,000 miles, it just does nothing besides in 4th and makes that faint kinda grind like it isnt fully in besides 4th gear. Could it be bad synchros or what is that bolt for the shaft that you are talking about? easier to rebuild whats inside or get a whole new trans?

 

Look inside, and take it from there. I think they are somewhat difficult to find... not sure about what else they were installed in. You more than likely have the NV3500, if it is the stock trans.

I think it's a retaining nut of some variety on the shaft that fifth gear is on..... You need to pull the trans in any event, probably should be readily apparent, given your symptoms.

 

It's common to lose everything but 4th actually, since it is on the input. I was driving down the freeway in my friends '89 ranger 4 banger when the exact same thing happened. Toasted the whole tranny but 4th. Unfortunately I stopped, and with that 4 cylinder i couldn't get moving again. 5.2 would be a different story though. Good luck in the replacement search in the junkyards. If you want a good rebuilt unit look up these guys. They are priced much more reasonably than anyone else I could find. I bought my NV4500 from them, and it's been great so far. Safranz, another DF member, bought a replacement NV3500 from them at about the same time, and was happy with the price and delivery.

 

Yeah 4th is direct and routes power straight through the mainshaft. Something must have happened with the countershaft to lose all the other gears.

 

yep, trans is toast. my buddys 93 ranger did the same thing. lost all gears but 4th. it was run dry, and the rest of the trans disintegrated. i had to drive it from milton, nh to rochester, nh(about 15 miles) using 4th gear only, including stopping at stop lights and such. thankfully it was a 4.0, and could get it moving pretty easily.