Hey everyone, time has finally come to buck up and make an account to get involved with the community here. And what kind of new poster would I be if I didn't drop a technical problem egg on the first go?

I own a 97 Ram Van 3500. Initially it was only meant to act as a cheaper alternative to renting a U-Haul in moving across the country (well, it was about the same price, but hell I got a "free" and healthy 360 Magnum out the deal), and it performed splendidly despite having to tear apart the Dana 60 in the back before pushing off because of bad knocking while turning. It was only meant as a patch job to get through the 24 hours of driving, and I'm certain it wasn't done as correctly as it should have, where time, money and experience were concerned. Fast forward a year later, I had used it a few times to run heavy duty errands and unfortunately being forced to use it to go to work some days regarding other vehicle problems. Though on the last day that it ran, the pinion had been edging it's way forwards I understand now, and the nut found it's way off and the driveshaft came loose, while the pinion punched into the ring and carrier, locking everything up.

I've never really much liked the gearing for my application, nor has the 46RE transmission given me any kind of joy. Plans were penciled up every now and again to look for a manual replacement, but I was still picking away at learning more about rear ends and gear ratio work before everything went south. I don't plan on doing any heavy duty applications for my van, though there are intentions in the future of building the Magnum up. Since I'm now getting short for time on learning simply on my own, this is where you guys come in.

So my two main questions here are this; what manual transmission will be readily available for the 360 Magnum? I've got mixed reports of whether or not a NV3500 will be able to hold up, or if I must move to a NV4500. And secondly, with the knowledge of what transmission gearing will be paired with the 360, what ring and pinion range should I be looking at for an immediate replacement? If the stock gearing will improve with a transmission swap, that would be good enough for me, but now that I have it all apart and it needs replacing that knowledge would go a long way in saving me some money and headache.

 

On a one-ton van, you want the NV4500. It's a much stouter trans than the NV3500.......

Gearing in the rear depends a lot on tire size. If you have 31's, or smaller, 3.92 might be a better choice than the (likely) stock 3.55's that were in there. If you have larger tires.... bump that to 4.10 gears.

Big question is though, did the housing itself sustain any damage when the gears let go?

 

Beauty, thank you for the clarification. I'll start shopping for an NV4500. Found a 35 for a few hundred bucks I was sorely tempted to go snag, but good thing I didn't.

Right now I'm sitting on 28 inch guys. I'm not 100% sure how much that's going to change in the near future, as 16's don't exactly give me much in the way of the Cragar/BFG combo I'd love to roll on, but for now I'm going to suspect I don't go much bigger than that. Eventually I'm going to bring the thing down by two inches, so a taller tire size might not be as viable. From what I've dug up, the two stock options were a 3.54 or a 4.10, but the way that it hauls feels more like a 4.10. Though honestly, I'm not entirely sure myself and it could just be the transmission's doing. Kind of difficult to judge with the tach I planned to install still sitting in the box, and from the mix of sedated exhaust and air conditioner sounding engine from the doghouse as to where my RPMs are at. Basically what I feel; too much torque and RPM for very little speed.

The housing all looks intact. I haven't completely pulled the carrier and pinion just yet since it's pretty snug in there right now (hence why I can't recall what the ratio is of the R/P), but nothing looks to have taken a hit aside from the carrier and some teeth.

 

You can get a build sheet for your van from here. Just click on the 'equipment listing' link, and then enter your VIN. That will tell you what gears it came with from the factory.

 

Totally slipped my mind to do a VIN scavenge, thanks for reminding me about that. Does say it came with a 4.10 in it, that's good to know.

So would dropping down to a 3.55 or 3.73 get me into the ballpark I'm looking for of a more balanced power and mileage side, as opposed to torque and towing capacity?

 

I don't think I would go as low as 3.55s..... I *think* 3.73 is available, but, 3.92's most certainly are.