261k miles and my NV4500 finally died. Not the 5th gear nut. I lost both 3rd and 4th gear. I was just leaving my place pulling the trailer back to New Meadows, ID with the a truck on the deck. Got into 3rd and the stick was rattling oddly. Poured the fuel to her to get rolling and it popped out of gear. Difficult to get into 4th. I knew the transmission had lost a bearing or something. Got up to New Meadows flats and check everything over no leaks. 1st gear works fine, 2nd gear works fine, 3rd pushing against you and BANG! Then tried 4th its missing. Rowed to 5th and barely had enough power to get the truck going. I had another 5-6 miles to go before cell service. I got a hold of the owner of the trailer and truck and told him to meet me at the 45th parallel.  So we swapped truck and and loaded mine up and I got trailed home.

 

I know Jon (Dynamic Transmissions) doesn't do manuals but I still asked if he knew of anyone. I talked to Muddy of Idaho Turbo Diesels he told me to call Six States Distributing. So I called there main office and they can get me a NV4500 for $1500.00 with a $1530.00 core. (Holy Crap Core Price!) So I found out Six States has a Boise Office but just missed them they are closed.

 

Just for fun I called NAPA and there price was $2359.00 with a $484.00 core. No go there...

 

Funny I didn't break the input shaft because I still got 1st, 2nd, 5th and Reverse. Just 3rd and 4th are gone.

I'm short the tools and experience.

 

Again gambling with failure rates, money, and being broke down again in no cell service range and walking. Not an option for me. Same reason I didn't rebuild my 46RE because I've never done nor did I want the risk failure from my rebuild. I've I lived in the city and was close to buying tools, and parts and rarely left the city I'd be game. Like on CF one guy pointed out HF got the bearing puller. Great! now drive 6 hours to get one tool. See there is a bit more too it the distance I live from anywhere, time to travel there and back, fuel cost, etc.

 

Kind of like just to get a carrier bearing cost me a trip to Ontario, OR, fuel, 7 days wait for my shaft to be serviced, another trip down to pick it up. Why? I do not own a press and had no way of removing the bearing. Other than that bearing was only $90 bucks from NAPA.

cost of time, fuel,

Not having every tool and experience play a role in this whole problem.

 

  On 4/25/2016 at 3:13 PM, IBMobile said:

You don't need no stinking special tools. 

 

I've seen the comment far too much... So where is the wonderful write up showing how to do it then? There is so little information how to do this. Then talking on CF a guy is talking about beating the bearing in with PVC pipe? Doesn't sound really great idea and guessing at bearing preload.

http://www.zieglerdigital.ca/public/downloads/nv4500rbman.pdf

 

Edited April 25, 20169 yr by Mopar1973Man

Oh well, if you aren't comfortable with it, don't do it.  

 

I wouldn't do it right now due to time if it were me.  Same reason I'm not replacing all the bearings at the moment in my junkyard dana 80.  I could do it, but I don't have the time to change the carrier and pinion bearings.  

 

 

If it was dead of winter when I don't tow trailers yeah... I'd have all the time in the world to gather information, tools, etc. Right now I'm looking down the barrel of firewood season before the heat of the summer comes on. Attempting to plan a trip east but that now delayed till the truck is fixed. Still my lack of knowledge spooks me. I rebuilt plenty of gasoline engines. As for transmission I've never open one. So this is a first for me to look in and see. Then watching videos about syncro's and other transmission work most of the time the special tools start popping up again. It another one of these hidden secrets that no one talks about.

 

After seeing Dynamic doing my 46RE automatic rebuild that seems fairly easy to do but again one special tool required which is a press to take the overdrive clutch apart. So I would be apt to doing repairs on the automatics now but still leery of doing a full rebuild because of lack of knowledge. So applies here with the manual NV4500 it does look fairly straight forward but all the Redneck methods of beating bearings on or off the shaft doesn't sound good. Chisel and hammer to tighten the 5th gear nut? Just not my idea of beating everything thing with hammer.

 

Just watch around 20 seconds...

 

No wonder people have such problem...

  On 4/23/2016 at 2:45 PM, AH64ID said:

 

Hopefully you can find something in the shifting mechanism to fix, but if not I would reconsider the 6 speed. 

 

Give it a few more miles... there is a reason that 5 speeds quit being offered. The added gear between 1 and direct sure is nice for towing and these mountain roads. I have driven a 5 speed on the roads around here and you can KEEP it... the added gear may be an extra shift but it sure isn't worth the gear gap. 

 

The 6 speeds have a ~10% lower 2nd gear which makes starting in 2nd much easier and 1st is nearly always skipped unless towing above around 15K GCW. 

 

If your spending money you should strongly consider the 6 speed. 

 

OD is actually different on the NV4500, NV5600, G56 AD, and G56 AE. G56 AD is 0.79:1 (great for towing) and the AE is 0.74:1. 

 

45 mph is a great example. (265/75R16 and 3.73's)

 

NV4500 is either at 3069, 1838, or 1378. 

NV5600 is either at 2555, 1838, or 1342. 

 

NV5600 for the win when towing. 

 

Above 50 the differences start to minimize as there are enough rpms in direct to use it on most hills, but if you have to slow for a corner... well you get the idea. 40 in a NV4500 is either 2728 or 1634, neither of which is great for acceleration or steady hill climbing. 

 

Or look at fixed rpms, like 2200. 

NV4500: 10,18,32,54,72

NV5600: 10,16,26,39,54,74

 

 

I do know several people that prefer the 5 speed for empty driving but for anything with a trailer they all prefer the 6 speed once they get a couple miles on it. 

 

 

I never understood why Dodge didn't publish a fluid change interval for the manual transmissions. 

 

 

Don't know how I missed this thread from the start!!!!

 

Anyhow, I agree with John in this above^^^^^ quote.

 

I've owned 2 Dodge/Cummins trucks.................a '99 with the NV4500 and currently a '04.5 with the NV5600.  IMNTBHO, the NV5600 is vastly superior for towing.  I don't tow heavy like many of y'all do, but I do tow a lot.  The NV5600 is way better towing my 3-4000lbs. work trailer around vs. the NV4500 due to the extra gear between 1st and  4th.

 

Good luck with your tranny Mike!!

  On 4/25/2016 at 6:43 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

If it was dead of winter when I don't tow trailers yeah... I'd have all the time in the world to gather information, tools, etc. Right now I'm looking down the barrel of firewood season before the heat of the summer comes on. Attempting to plan a trip east but that now delayed till the truck is fixed. Still my lack of knowledge spooks me. I rebuilt plenty of gasoline engines. As for transmission I've never open one. So this is a first for me to look in and see. Then watching videos about syncro's and other transmission work most of the time the special tools start popping up again. It another one of these hidden secrets that no one talks about.

 

After seeing Dynamic doing my 46RE automatic rebuild that seems fairly easy to do but again one special tool required which is a press to take the overdrive clutch apart. So I would be apt to doing repairs on the automatics now but still leery of doing a full rebuild because of lack of knowledge. So applies here with the manual NV4500 it does look fairly straight forward but all the Redneck methods of beating bearings on or off the shaft doesn't sound good. Chisel and hammer to tighten the 5th gear nut? Just not my idea of beating everything thing with hammer.

 

Just watch around 20 seconds...

 

No wonder people have such problem...

Damn, Who let my brother out?

Oh man that video made me cringe.    .......  ........ 

 

I hate doing work without the proper tools, drives me bonkers!

  On 4/25/2016 at 9:51 PM, notlimah said:

Oh man that video made me cringe.    .......  ........ 

 

I hate doing work without the proper tools, drives me bonkers!

 

Exactly. No wonder there is such big issues with 5th Gear Nut. Heck if your using a chisel and a hammer how do you know you torque the nut enough? Count the hammer whacks? What size hammer what weight of head? Way too redneck for me...

 

Here is the Redneck bearing tool.

 

Not something I want to be doing to the bearing is beating them back on the shaft. It worked for this gent but....  I'd rather have the time to get the right tools and maybe look into a press for different things.

  On 4/25/2016 at 10:44 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Exactly. No wonder there is such big issues with 5th Gear Nut. Heck if your using a chisel and a hammer how do you know you torque the nut enough? Count the hammer whacks? What size hammer what weight of head? Way too redneck for me...

 

Here is the Redneck bearing tool.

 

Not something I want to be doing to the bearing is beating them back on the shaft. It worked for this gent but....  I'd rather have the time to get the right tools and maybe look into a press for different things.

Agreed!! Sometimes makeshift stuff is ok, but not on something as picky and critical as an nv4500!

Edited April 25, 20169 yr by leathermaneod

Oh dear lord hammer and bearing should never be in the same sentence. 

There's never a need to press a non-sealed bearing in a manual transmission. Put it in the oven up to about 250* and it drops on like it's not an interference fit. 

  On 4/26/2016 at 3:54 AM, TFaoro said:

There's never a need to press a non-sealed bearing in a manual transmission. Put it in the oven up to about 250* and it drops on like it's not an interference fit. 

My wife gets all pissy when I have transmission parts laid out on the kitchen counter though. 

  On 4/26/2016 at 4:25 AM, Buzzinhalfdozen said:

My wife gets all pissy when I have transmission parts laid out on the kitchen counter though. 

  Rookie move!! Shop to the oven, then oven to the shop. Light a candle if the kitchen begins to smell like oil  

  On 4/26/2016 at 4:29 AM, TFaoro said:

  Rookie move!! Shop to the oven, then oven to the shop. Light a candle if the kitchen begins to smell like oil  

 That's where I went wrong. Now I just gotta get the kids to quit whining about the funny tasting chicken nuggets. 

If you think the whining is bad about the oven and car parts, just wait until you try and use the dish washer to clean parts........