Sherwood507

Sorry for the late update. I was able to replace 5th gear and make it home without issue. It was a heck of a lot harder to torque that nut to spec than expected, but I got it and it seems to be holding fine for now. Thank you everyone for your help!

2wd, that's what I ended up doing. Luckily I only had to rebuy a couple things I had at home. I was trying to figure out all my options. Like if I wasn't able to get get the parts in time or if the main shaft spline was shot. Turns out that's not the case, as you can see below. Oh, and thank you for your article on removing the tail housing, that helped a ton! During disassembly some of the bolt didn't match the article buy @Doubletrouble, leading me to believe it's been rebuilt at least once before and after getting the tail housing off, it's clear it's been rebuilt. It has a fully splined mainshaft and updated spit nut. Right after removed the tail housing: After a quick wipe of the main shaft: Closeup of 5th gear: The gear slides right on the spline of the main shaft and I couldn't feel any axial play. I realize it might be so small that I couldn't feel it anyway, but no noticeable play was a win for getting this thing back together and home. Given the damage to 5th gear, I'm going to get a new 5th gear. I'm also thinking about having a machine shop grind down the lip on this nut, reinstalling it and putting a new nut behind it as a jam nut. Any recommendations on where to get the new parts and/or my plan would be appreciated!

It wasn't so bad driving back to Fort Myers in 4th, but I estimated it'll turn our 17 hour drive into a 20-21 hour drive, so we may have to stop and stay overnight halfway. Thank you for seeing if you can find a place! I brought a few tools to troubleshoot/replace an ABS sensor, but I still need about $200 worth to take the tailstock off, so I'm leaning towards taking it to a shop. I'm just leary of bringing it in and finding out it needs a new mainshaft. If that's the case, I'd like to try and rebuild the transmission myself when I get home. I've never done one before and since there's a lot of good info on here, I'm confident I can do it and have a little fun in the process. Do you think driving with 5th removed could do any damage? I'm good with sticking to 55mph on the drive home, but I'm also wondering if the 5th gear nut supports the transmission case and/or loads the bearings in a way that cause more problems driving that far without it.

Does anyone know of any issues with removing 5th gear from an NV4500 and driving long distance without it? My wife and I are in Fort Myers, FL visiting family. A couple days ago we we on our way to Tampa and I lost 5th gear. We were about 70 miles from where we're staying, so I made sure the other gears sounded normal and we turned around and headed back to Fort Myers. Seeing as we're about 1100 miles from home, and planning on heading back to Ohio in two weeks, I'm trying to weigh my options on the best way to proceed. I'm thinking that I can just take out 5th gear (and the nut), put everything back together, and deal with the repair when I get home. I just wanted to see if there are any unforeseen issues with doing that? I'm open to taking a crack installing a new mainshaft when I get home, I'd just rather not have to try to do it here, or have to take it to a shop. I'm open to having a shop look at it and perform the work, but haven't found any places in Fort Myers that I'm confident have dealt with this issue before. If anyone knows of a place in the Fort Myers area they trust, let me know!

Vehicle Nickname: 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 Laramie SLT Quad Cab Cummins Dually 5-Speed 2wd Date Added To The Garage: 2025-01-12 Garage Link: 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 Laramie SLT Quad Cab Cummins Dually 5-Speed 2wd