Wild and Free

My wife just her old 03 ALH TDI VW Jetta 5 speed with 280K and we never once touched any part of the fuel system or the tranny heck it still had the original OEM clutch in it. Was still running awesome when she sold it this spring. But I feel your pain, I had 3 second gen rams and then I got an 05 3rd gen and now have a 2010 4th gen half ton and will never look at a 2nd gen again, as you pointed out it keeps one busy with the constant work and upkeep, my 05 has been rock solid in comparison. I would keep it simple and just repair the 6 speed and life will be good again.

That is a temporary fix, you will be re welding it time and again if you drive and tow a lot. I have seen guys pull the t-case and re weld and try other things a dozen times before throwing in the towel and updating the shaft. Guys who don't work them hard or just daily drive can get by for a long time welding but the harder they get worked the less effective a weld is. I know there are other fixes available like different nut and retainers but guys I know who work em hard still had the same issues.

You will be in the same boat if you pick up an NV 4500 if it doesn't have the updated main shaft, they had chronic issues with 5th gear nut coming loose from normal harmonics. If you do look for an NV4500 and you find one that came out of a 6.5l GM diesel you must remove the counterweight on the main shaft. I have seen several guys put them on GM diesels and forget to install the mainshaft counter weight and snap their crank shaft on the old 6.5 diesels.

The NV 5600 is a pain in the butt as compared to any other mainly because of the retarded shift rail system some drunk engineer dreamed up.

Another company I used to work for rebuilds them and has access to parts as well. They have several locations. They even offer exchanges on the NV5600, they have them in stock usually. http://www.inlandtruck.com/

Here you go. http://www.quad4x4.com/qu12001.html http://www.quad4x4.com/NV5600_Transmission_Parts.html

I would keep the 6 speed then if possible.

Depends on how you use the rig, if you are not too wild on your mods and power or towed a lot and needed the extra gear to stay in a particular power band I would keep it, if just a daily driver or competition or modded rig with a bit more power I would go with the 4500. For the swap I think they use a different master slave cylinder setup, can't remember if the tranny length dimension is the same, I think so but not sure, if it is the same there would be nothing else I can think of other than clutch if the shaft diameter is different. If the tranny length is different then you will need front and rear drivelines from a 5 speed rig as well.

Whats the issue with the NV5600? Would be an easy swap otherwise.

A bit of useful info.

Just a touch of heat just before good firm wraps work well in those instances.

I never use a fork for taking steering components apart, one usually does more damage than not with them. Just wrap on the housings with a good hammer several times and they more often than not break loose that way alone.

Looks like drive pressure will not be an issue or maybe its a Pre - waste gate.

You need to move it towards the firewall one or two clicks and see how it feels and fine tune from there to your desired shift point feel.

I find using a GPS unit with a speed indicator built in is a lot less work. Just Velcro it to the dash where the speedo is.

Remember the higher the CCA the lower the reserve capacity meaning if a battery has 1000 cca versus a 750 cca the 750 will have more reserve meaning you can crank on it longer before it runs out of power, some newer battery designs have changed this in recent years but is always a good thing to look at when comparing. I shy away from Walmart batteries, seems they offer 1 or 2 year free replacement but no prorate from my experience trying to warranty batts there. I buy batteries @ local parts stores and do not look at the price I buy the battery with the longest pro rated warranty I can find, we have a local jobber I have been buying from where they offer 2 year free replacement and 80 month pro rated warranty. I too usually average around 10 years on my OEM batteries in my vehicles, my 05 still has the OEMs in it @ 120K miles, my old 02 went around 120K and 10 years before I replaced them, they were still going but when sub freezing temps set in the voltage would drop off to the point that when it started and the grids ran the Fass pump wouldn't get up to pressure. I had an old timer tell me once many years ago, " You can tell the difference between the good and bad batteries, they put handles on the crappy ones to make them easier to change every year", I have noticed some truth to that over the years.

Like stated above the lesser brands do hold up a bit longer on a 2nd gen so going with carli or other high end ones on a daily driver 2nd gen would be a waste. On a 3rd gen I would definitely go high end quality as the geometry is different and they are flat out hard on ball joints especially the uppers. I have had guys buy moogs to replace stockers and within a year or even less the moogs were in worse shape than the Oems. I went with Carli on my 05.

Build a fence to keep the criminal Idahoan types locked in, most every week there are crime stories on the local news of folks from Idaho causing trouble here in the ND oil patch region.

After running a silver 62 for several years on my 02 auto with 3.55 gears while towing and sled pulling and a few drags both 1/8 and 1/4 mile, I am convinced it would be an awesome towing turbo in a manual trans rig and especially with 410 gears where one can keep the rpms up higher and have better control over it versus a higher geared auto.

Good read, that is a good pic of what I was eluding too. I was doing some digging on Amsoils site last nite for a customer and came across actual engine break in oil from them with a similar diagram, been a dealer for years and never looked at the stuff before, they also offer engine assembly lube. http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/motor-oil/gasoline/break-in-oil-(sae-30)/?code=BRKQT-EA http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/motor-oil/gasoline/engine-assembly-lube/?code=EALTB-EA

Find out if it is the mechanical portion of the valve that is the issue or the electrical portion of the coil that is going bad, this would help determining which direction to look.

I will rephrase then, think of it as cylinder bore grooming as a break in period, there will be a very very small amount of ring surface wear so to speak as it knocks the peaks down from the boring and honing process that is why there is blow by at first before the peaks are knocked down creating more surface area for the oil film to help the rings float on that oil film can not compensate for in the beginning. The misconception is that ring to cylinder it metal to metal all the time which there is contact in the beginning known as seating but it is more about the cylinder walls than rings as the rings are way way harder than the block and forget that there is a micro film of oil that the rings actually ride on much like main and rod bearings and an even better example is the cam in a B series where there are no cam bearings in the middle section of the block, the cam rides on a film of oil only.

I love it when people all think rings have to "Seat" They run on a micro film of oil in the cylinder liners via splash lube or cooling nozzles ect, when the cross hatch disappears and they get excessive blow by and or use oil is when they have officially "seated" which is then ring to cyl wall contact with little to no oil film left or dirty oil or dirt through the air intake has caused wear to the ring and cylinder ect which is what cause the engine cylinders to wear, there is no Seating of rings, bad misnomer old wives tale. If one thinks every engine on the planet gets babied for days and week that goes back to "Work" then there would be no use to rebuild they would just buy new. All equipment gets warmed up to full temp checked out and maybe run on a dyno with a slight load in some cases then thrown back into full load service. Heat is the enemy of new engines and why all run and require syn versus dyno more stable and better lube characteristics with the extreme temps new rigs run due to emissions standards and tight tolerances and also syn oil will be a lot cleaner out of the jug than dino, if anyone ever looked at the bottom of a dyno oil jug or quart that has sat for a while would be horrified to see the natural silt sediment which has settled out of it, not good for todays tight tolerance engines. Also Heat is the friend in breaking in a freshly built engine as Live oak pointed out.

Whenever you decide to make the first regular oil change interval run once you feel its broke in and cleaned out. I personally would do it the first change after the break in and clean out oil dump. But then again I would have done the break in with syn as well but that's just me, I just go out back and give the ol money tree a couple more bumps. Heck oil is trading at $38+- a barrel the last few days, they are almost giving it away now.

One dark night outside a small town in Idaho, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink of an eye it exploded into massive flames. The alarm went out to all the fire departments for miles around. When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out intact." But the roaring flames held the firefighters off. Soon more fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret files. From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby New Meadows rural township volunteer fire company composed mainly of Michifs. To everyone's amazement, that little run-down fire engine roared right past all the newer sleek engines that were parked outside the plant. Without even slowing down it drove straight into the middle of the inferno. Outside, the other firemen watched as the Michif old timers jumped off right in the middle of the fire fought it back on all sides. It was a performance and effort never seen before. Within a short time, the Michif old timers had extinguished the fire and had saved the secret formulas. The grateful chemical company president announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave fire fighters. The local TV news reporter rushed in to capture the event on film, asking their chief, "What are you going to do with all that money?" "Well," said Michael Nelson, the 44-year-old fire chief, ". . first ting we're gonna do is fix da brakes on dat damned fire truck!