Would a NP 435 Four Speed Transmission work in a my 1998 dodge ram? And could it be made to a 5 speed?

 

idk wanna sell it

 

What are you going for with this? The simple answer is no. Theres no easy way to put a np435 behind a cummins that i'm aware of. Anything is possible, but I'm not sure why you'd want to. It doesn't shift well and it has no stock OD. I guess if you dropped the $$$ into custom parts you could do it and run a gearvendors, but for that price you could much cheaper put a GV underdrive behind a 4500 and have an even lower 1st.

 

The short answer is YES it can be done.
It starts with a Getrag bell and turning down the NP435 bearing retainer's outer diameter, to fit the bell's hole.
You then transfer the 435's pattern to the bell, drill and tap.

The clutch is a bit more involved.

There is no way convert a 4 speed to a 5 speed, but using an auxiliary trans, or gearvendors, would get you overdrive.
Even the old mid-late '70s Dodge 1-1/2 ton-up 5 speeds were a direct drive 5 speed.

Mark.

 

It is indeed also possible to scratch your *** by reaching over your shoulder, if you can have someone pull your arm down hard enough to dislocate your shoulder and stretch your tendons to the breaking point. That does not mean you should do this-it's much simpler and nicer to simply reach around behind you to scratch. That's pretty much what you're proposing to do. Simply putting in the better shifting, stronger, 5 speed nv4500 that requires no fabrication (because it already came installed in many of our trucks) would be one way that's much easier than swapping in an np435. Swapping trucks would be another possibility. Not to rain on your parade, but I would rate the practicality of the 435 swap up there with stealing a herd of goats and directing them to push your truck around instead of using the engine to move your truck. It's your call.

 

Sugar for the coating, anyone?

V8440, with your reasoning, there should be no converted vehicles with diesels.
Noone should try to stretch the limits, or find solutions beyond an already "proven" combination.
Look at all the Jeeps, Toyotas old Chevs, Fords and Dodges that people have, which use what was best suited to FIT (not that it was "durable") the chassis/combination that is available to them.

So, the GM SM465 conversion that's available on the Cummins 4 cylinders is a dumb idea?
They got many, many Grumman Stepvans literally millions of miles.
How about the idea of a 727 behind a 6bt Cummins, if you want impractical, a real POS slipping SOB, yet they somehow survive behind a 6bt?

Both of these trannies were considered decent trannies behind their respective gas engines, and somehow they worked for the Cummins.
I believe Ford used a NP435 behind their 6.9 engines in the mid-80s and I'm almost positive that some of the Grumman 4bts had the Ford NP435 conversion done, as well.

Heres a REAL example of what I would call a REALLY, REALLY BAD combination, but IT HAS HELD UP VERY WELL:

A 1990 Dakota A535 4 cylinder 5 speed transmission behind a 3.9 Cummins in a Dakota.

Just because it SEEMS impractical doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to explode all over hell.

Mark.

 

No, that is NOT AT ALL correct. You did not understand my reasoning. No worries-I didn't really fully explain myself in that post. My reasoning is this: It is one thing to convert a vehicle to a diesel. You're likely doing that for a benefit-better mileage, more torque, etc. Totally understandable. This guy was asking about putting a transmission that's weaker than the nv4500 (for which there's plenty of parts to install) into a truck, and asking about the (impossible) task of making it a 5 speed. I read between the lines, and what I came up with is that he wants a 5 speed in a dodge diesel truck. You then answered his question of what it would take to put that transmission into a truck. Assuming my interpretation of his end goal was correct, his proposed way of doing it would be absurd. It would be irresponsible to not tell him that there's a way 6000 times easier to accomplish his end goal than reinventing the wheel, and coming up with one that's square to boot.

So, compared to (relatively) simply bolting in a stronger, already-has-5-speeds transmission the truck is designed to accept, his way of doing it makes no sense. Now, if he comes back and says something along the lines of "no, I have a particular reason for wanting to put that exact transmission into this kind of truck, and I don't care how hard it is to do" then it's time for him to start doing the steps you outlined to make the swap work.

Further taking a clue from what he wrote, I don't think he had any overriding technical reason to want to put that particular transmission in, other than the fact that he maybe already has one and thought it might be easy. The clue that points me in that direction is the fact that he asked whether it could be converted to a 5 speed. That indicates a lack of familiarity with the subject. There's nothing wrong with that-I'm not knocking him for that. There are plenty of subjects that I'm that unfamiliar with.

To sum it up, no, I'm not against doing swaps and transplants. It's just in this case it looked like his reasoning was leading him in a direction that would bypass the much easier way to achieve what his goal seemed to be.

 

Oh, I agree!
After having actually put a 435 behind a Cummins, it's a bunch of hoops to jump through for the effort to accomplish(?) it.
I do think it would be a "get by" deal, and with so many 5 and 6 speed options out there it's not really practical.

However, it HAS been done and I'm one "idiot", if you will, who will admit to having done it.

Mark.

 

I dont know much about this but I do know they put np's in fords, so check out this page possibly one of the 4spd adapters will allow you to use this tranny. DESTROKED: Cummins Conversions

 

I wouldn't call you an idiot, just as I wouldn't call the original poster here an idiot. You knew what it involved and decided to do it. It's not like you hurt someone else by going through all that trouble. I just wanted to make sure that he knew that a 4500 would pretty much just bolt in, because it sounded like his end goal would be best served by doing that.