I need some guidance, I recently acquired a 96 ram 3500, the seller told me there was no 5th gear, I knew about the issues with the 5th gear nut so I dive in headfirst, pull the t-case, yank the tail housing off the transmission and!.....the nut and gear are right where they are supposed to be, nice and tight, no wobble.....5th moved freely and I was able to manipulate it from under the truck by hand without much force, so I called my friend over who is mechanically inclined and had him check it out and watch the gear as I shifted it in the cab, it worked, it engaged and diss engaged 5th just fine. The lady I bought it from appeared to spend most of her life influenced by controlled substances (the truck was her dad's who put a lot into it before he passed away, receipts were still in the glove box including the one for the transmission replacement in 2011) so me and my friend said what in the methamphetamine was she thinking, it's fine! I slapped one of those 5th gear nut retainer that slide over the splines in it and threw it back together, took it for a drive the next day after letting the gaskets and rtv settle and set.....No 5th gear....it shifts great 1 through 4, reverse is a little hard, I usually have to put it in 4th then throw it in reverse and it's fine, it did slide out of reverse once on me and if I push it up hard and right into 5th when I let the clutch out I can hear a very faint grinding of the gears that won't go away if I push the clutch in, only when I pull it out of 5th entirely. Also, once the shifter is hard into fifth gear, it can be rotated a little counter clock wise in about a 1" circular motion but only travels about 45 degrees or a quarter of a circle if that makes sense? The clutch seems to engage really low, almost to the floor board. I'm not a transmission guy so I need some advice, I'm stumped! Why would it shift fine with the engine off (we watched it shift when it was torn apart) but won't shift now that it's back together? Thanks I appreciate any input!