This same silly tranny is now on my fathers Cummins Turbo Diesel and he's
had to rebuild it more times than I can count on two hands. He's killed 2
mainshafts, 3 5th gears, several "lock nuts" that hold 5th on the Main Shaft
and more. We've both come to the conclusion that it's outta there as soon as
the 6 speed becomes available. However he has an interim fix in mind. If
you're willing to shell out 2k, there's a neat gizmo from "Gear Vendors" that
attaches to the back of the NV3500 and does gear splitting. You can
underdrive or overdrive the tranny depending on how you mount it. You flip a
switch and it is either engaged or it passes the power through un-touched. So
you effectively get a 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5 gear set (Some
gears are actually the same ratio as another gear so you don't get an exact
doubling of gears available but I think it came out to turning a 5 speed into
an 8 speed). In this fashion you can use it for greater power, MPG, or
precise driving.
For those that keep destroying their tranny's every X miles (especially if
you have the Getrag Transmission) he's found another solution as well, use
synthetic (Mobil 1) gear oil and NOT engine oil (like's in the Getrags) and
most of the tranny lasts forever (5th gear is still a sore point with him on
the NV3500). His buddy kept losing the (Getrag) tranny every 40,000 mi until
he dropped Mobil 1 gear oil in it, it has since lasted 600,000 miles and is
still purring like a kitten. Gotta love those diesels, they run forever...
try getting 700,000+ miles on a gas engine (The guys gonna pour a bottle of
Dom Perrignon over the Truck when it hits a Million miles).
Shaun H.
---original message---
My buddy has a 97' 5.2l with a manual transmission. He is now going on his
fourth trans
and he only has 27,000 miles on it.
Do they have a beef up kit for the nv3500 trans out there??
Any suggestions would be helpful because I have the
same exact truck only it's a year newer and i want to be prepared for the
worst.
p.s: he has never pulled anything with the truck over 2000 lbs. Mike Sype..
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