& From: acasey@io.com (Alan Casey)
&
& I did encounter another problem at the track, however. I seemed to have
& developed a transmisstion problem. Its not shifting to second very
& smoothly. My sincros are not lining up like they should under hard 1-2
& shift at the track. Has anyone found an aftermarket manual for Dakota? Or
& has anyone had thiers rebuilt. Mine was a piece of #$%! since the truck was
& new (mv3500). The dealer had to replace the shift fork at 10,000.
& Evidently its aluminum. I don't know if that is bad or not, but the
& shifting has never been real smooth, lots of friction in the throws. So I
& would like to upgrade what I have, or get ride of it altogether. Just a
& thought..
If my memory is correct that's three folks on the list who have had
the shifter fork replaced now. Two have '94s, can't remember the 3rd.
& I just recently had my NV 3500 rebuilt (last week) after I lost
& reverse. The fork split, I lost a set of syncros, 2nd gear, and 2
& bearings. Before then shifting got progressively worse, the gate seemed
& to wander and missed shifts occured. First to second always seemed tough,
& it always took a little muscle to get it home. Second to third was sloppy,
& third to fourth seemed to work the best of all. Fourth to fifth was ok,
& but sort of vague on where it was. Reverse was ALWAYS hard. Grinding
& gears always makes me want to duck out of sight. Now shifting has
& improved greatly although a little notchy. First to second is easier but
& requires more arm power. All the rest have tightened up, reverse engages
& readily. I don't know if the fork has been upgraded or if the
& transmission had a service writeup on it, but I want to know in case this
& occurs again. I want to try a synthetic lube in there, redline and
& Mobil 1 had been suggested to me. I'll let the new gears wear in first.
OK, I have a '95, which has some parts in the shifter changed, but I
don't recall the service manual mentioning the forks.
I haven't been forcing the shifter on mine, so I hope I don't have any
problems. The shifting is smooth IF I have the clutch FULLY depressed,
and I take my time with it. It is pretty uniform gear to gear, but fast
shifts are out of the question. It takes a good second or more to make
a shift, especially at high rpms. Quite acceptable for hauling a load
around in the hills around here (15% grades are common), but not really
useable for drag racing. Comments?
Transmission oil: I've used Redline MTL in the past and it made
incredible improvements to shifting, especially in cold weather. I'd
be very interested in peoples experience with this oil in a NV 3500.
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Frank Ball 1UR-M frankb@sr.hp.com
Hewlett-Packard (707) 794-4168 work
1212 Valley House Drive (707) 794-3038 fax
Rohnert Park CA 94928-4999 (707) 538-3693 home
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