Mercedes-Benz Mercedes G56
6-speed manual · longitudinal · 2005–present
Also known as: g56, g-56, ram 6-speed manual
Mercedes-Benz's G56 — the six-speed manual behind the Cummins in Ram heavy-duty trucks.
⚑ A Mercedes gearbox in an American pickup is exactly as odd as it sounds, and it is a DaimlerChrysler artefact: Chrysler and Mercedes were one company when it was specified. Searching Ram material finds owner forums; searching Mercedes finds the engineering.
It replaced the New Venture NV5600 and is the lighter unit of the two — which is the standing argument among owners who tow, and the reason the NV5600 is a common swap back.
Fluid is the recurring subject and the specification changed. Chrysler called for ATF at first and later for a manual-transmission fluid; the wrong one produces exactly the notchy cold shift and bearing noise that get reported as wear.
It is the last manual offered in these trucks, so a surviving one is usually in a vehicle whose owner chose it deliberately and works it hard.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
1 generation. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.
Dodge
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about Mercedes G56.