Quote Originally Posted by idahoram50 View Post
I am thinking about doing this to my ram 50. Mine has the 5 speed manual now. Do i still need to swap the transmission?
Thank you
I'm knee deep in the swap now, so I'll be happy to help. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to hit you with a slew of questions, as I am only familiar with what I'VE done. First of all, I'm going to have to assume that you have a first gen 4wd as you specified it as an '84 power ram. That implies that your trans is a KM 145. If you hope to keep it you will inevitably run into reliability issues, as a little research will show. Let me know what your trans code is (it should be on a metal plate under the hood on the firewall, as well as on the trans itself.) and we can move from there. I don't know anything about the 1st gens but in my case the motor dropped straight in on the mounts no problem. There is a reason that they switched the trans for the v6 rams, and I'd highly suggest that you replace it. More directly, the bellhousings look mighty different to me.

For reference, here is a picture of the V5MT1-1 bellhousing, a picture of (I think) a KM 145 bellhousing, and a picture of that id plate on a 1990 power ram 50 with the 5-speed. The wiki states incorrectly that the V6 Dodges had a V5MT2, but the plate states otherwise.
PICT2793-Transfer-Case-Conversion-July-2009-Sharpened-Ninja-1.jpg20150363_sag_km1459_pri_larg.jpgWP_20150728_010.jpg


The silver lining here is that If you DO choose to get a V5MT1 (out of a 1st gen V6 Mitsubishi montero, a V6 dodge raider, or best of all a V6 ram or mighty max) The sticks will line right up with your existing hole and you should be able to use at least the front driveshaft, maybe the rear as well. Let me know if you have a hydraulic clutch as well.

Feel free to contact me if you need to know anything about the swap and remember that pictures help.

If you can drive to southwest Oregon with the means to haul a trans, I happen to have a good spare V5MT1 that we could negotiate on... Can't ship it though.

Also, check out this link http://www.car-part.com/ if you need ANY parts. (You will almost certainly need a parts car and if they list something mundane like a dash or door panel for one of the previously mentioned possible donor vehicles, they probably have a whole truck sitting there waiting to be scavenged)