Chris,My tranny is just plain sloppy. The synchros seem to be weak. I have
learned to double clutch to downshift, because it seems much easier. When I
am coasting, and rounding a corner, try to throw it down into second, it
just takes forever for the synchros to spin up and for it to finally fall in
gear with lots of pressure from the shifter! I wouldn't attmept to shift
into first at anything more than a 2-3 mph roll. I've tried it at 10, 20,
and 25 mph. At 10 mph, it took 4 seconds of me applying hard pressure for it
to go into gear. At 20 mph, it took a little more than 7 seconds. At 25, I
held it for 12 seconds, and when I thought it was finally going to slide
into gear, it just kind of got hung, and I could feel the gear "buzzing".
Not grinding, I didn't push it that far, it just kind of touched the other
gear. On cool mornings, it will grind second on the first couple of 1-2
shifts. Sometimes when I try to go to 3rd, it will get hung. I have had to
stop in the middle of the road because I couldn't get the shifter to go
anywhere. I just stopped, eased out on the clutch until the shifter jumped
out of wherever it was hung, and started over in 1st!. I have a cavtation
noise in 5th gear, at rpms ranging from 1000-3000. It seems to be as bad or
worse at lower rpm's. I have a lot of bearing noise at low rpms that gets a
little worse when warm, but is always present. Reverse has a mind of it's
own too. Sometimes, I will go to throw it in reverse, it falls into gear
perfectly, no resistance, no excessive pressure required. But sometimes, I
will try to hit it and the shifter just won't go back. I have to move it
back to Nuetral, clutch out and back in ,then it may or may not require a
lot of pressure. I have 13,197 miles on the truck right now. The low rpm
bearing noise started at about 800- 1000 miles, or the second day I had the
truck! The rest wasn't far behind. The cold shift grind just developed this
past winter, as it was getting cold. I don't think that an NV 4500 would be
too big a problem, but the only real problem I see is the size of the tranny
tunnel in a Dakota. Oh, and you're 4x4. I'm not sure if your current T-case
would mate to the NV-4500 output shaft/tailhousing. I have reason to believe
the bell housing would bolt to the 4.7L, becuase the NV-3500 bolts to a
318,a 318 bolts to a 46RE, a 360 bolts to a 46RE, and the NV 4500 bolts to a
360! Did you follow that?? Oh, I asked one dealer(not the one I use) if the
tranny would have to just grenade itself in the middle of the highway before
they would listen to me and do something about it, and they replied with-"
If it still gets power from the engine to the rearend, it's fine by us!,
Talk to us when it won't transfer power any longer. Our advice is to drive
the living hell out of it until it falls to completely out, then deal with
it!" Ha! What kind of service is that?? Luckily I don't have to deal with
people like that at the dealer I really use. I have a couple of friends who
have had or do have 318/NV-3500 Dakota's. Buddy #1- his '97 318/NV-3500 reg.
cab blew a tranny at 11,000 miles. It was replaced under warranty and he
traded the truck with 18,000 on it and it had the same symptoms developing
again. #2-'98 318/NV3500 reg. cab. Blew tranny #1 at 9,000 miles, took over
5 moinths to get a replacement, blew tranny #2 at 18,000 miles. Replaced
again and truck has 23,xxx on it now doing fine! #3- '98 318/NV-3500 reg cab
blew tranny #1 at 7,500 miles, tranny #2 at 13,000 miles, tranny #3 at
17,000 miles and it is getting bad again right now with 25,000 miles. WhenI
first carried it to the local dealer(didn't buy it there) for the 4.7L idle
fluctuation, it had 1100 miles on it. The service manager was looking at my
truck and he says to me "I see it's a V8 with the 5-speed. Do you want me to
go ahead an order another tranny to have on hand when yours gives way? Do
you want to go ahead and make an appointment? I' rarely see one that's
lasted more than 10,000 mi." That made me feel real good about my brand new
truck! He still messes with me everytime I'm down there. He'll ask me how
many miles are on the truck and when he is going to get to drive it into the
shop! Sorry for the length! Just venting a little here! HTH,
Will Coughlin willcoughlin@hotmail.com
'00 reg.cab,2wd,4.7L/NV-3500HD5-spd/3.92sg(9.25")
http://www.geocities.com/willcoughlin/index.html
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Chris Lang" <langerdak@hotmail.com>
The Bug is here! It really bothers me that my truck is being torn apart and
I'm sure it will be a problem in the future as well with some annoyances due
to the replacement. A NV 4500 would be very nice to have in the truck... I
wonder how much more it would be to put one in over a 3500. I just picked
the truck up and the dealer said the syncros are gone for third gear and
there was a LARGE amount of metal shavings in the fluid. I do occaisonally
slam the gears and grab rubber on the 2 and 3 shifts but it shouldnt cause
the tranny to crap out at 8600 miles! But I've been wondering... I've run
85 in third gear could that have led to the problems I'm having with it?
>From what I've heard around here it sounds like a good number of these
trannys are defective or just plain can't handle the abuses of everyday
grandma driving. What kind of troubles are you having with your transmission
will? and how many miles are on your truck? We basically have the same
truck with the addition of 4 wheel drive in mine so it would be intresting
to see how they hold up for each of us and our different driving styles.
Chris
- Waiting on NV3500 #2 at 8600 miles
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