Re: RE:Manual Trans problems

From: Gary Shook (gary.shook@mci.com)
Date: Thu Dec 10 1998 - 21:46:09 EST


> 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.
If he has the Diesel, he's got the NV4500... it's a steel case version...
how much weight is he towing? the "lock nut" issue is either from really
heavy loads (heard about a guy having the problem with 31,000Lbs GCWR), or
from "lugging" the engine... keep the rpms above 1600-1700 in 5th...

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.
check the archives.. somebody who worked Volvo gear splitters 30 years ago
said the Gear Vendor unit was the same design.. they just bought the old
design, and he said they had LOTS of problems... and did NOT reccommend
running them!

> 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
use of any fluid other than Castrol Syntorq in a NV4500 will result in
failure & void warranty

>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).
with the exception of the GM 6.2- it's just a gas block with different
heads... it doesn't have the bearing area required for longivity (but I have
heard of them running to 400,000mi- but that's an exception) a Cummins has
twice the bearing area of a Ford Powerstroke as well.... but in general,

Gary Shook



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:11:24 EDT