Both Rear wheels locked up while turning. Any ideas?

[HBarlow]

Be very careful. The NV-5600 weighs somewhere around 350 pounds. Removing it from the frame requires a hydraulic spreader to spread the frame rails enough to drop the crossmember that supports the transmission and without a commercial grade transmission jack the transmission could injure or even kill you.

If you are certain the transmission is the cause of your problem I think most of us would agree with the advice I'm going to give here: Have a local and trusted shop who works on truck, not cars, remove the transmission for you. Strap it down on a pallet and ship it by LTL freight to Blumenthals or Standard Transmission as Curtis wrote above. They are both highly skilled and experienced, TDR advertisers, and known by many of us.

Either of those companies will disassemble your transmission, inspect it, and call you with a rebuild estimate. They are honest, fair, and reliable. When it is repaired with a warranty either of those firms will ship it back to you for a shop to install.

Don't let your neighborhood grease monkey repair or rebuild it for you. I promise you'll regret it if you do. The transmission case and internal parts are expensive and in limited supply.

When I was a kid long ago I changed many standard transmissions in old Furds and Chevies. Then it was no big deal. The NV-5600 is a big deal. It is extremely heavy and unwieldy for an amateur to try to reinstall. If you make a mistake in stabbing it into the flywheel you'll damage the pilot bearing and possibly the throwout bearing which will require another removal. You could install the clutch plate incorrectly and damage or destroy it also.

A mistake will be costly and perhaps painful.

 

[AEdelheit]

Be very careful. The NV-5600 weighs somewhere around 350 pounds. Removing it from the frame requires a hydraulic spreader to spread the frame rails enough to drop the crossmember that supports the transmission and without a commercial grade transmission jack the transmission could injure or even kill you.



If you are certain the transmission is the cause of your problem I think most of us would agree with the advice I'm going to give here: Have a local and trusted shop who works on truck, not cars, remove the transmission for you. Strap it down on a pallet and ship it by LTL freight to Blumenthals or Standard Transmission as Curtis wrote above. They are both highly skilled and experienced, TDR advertisers, and known by many of us.



Either of those companies will disassemble your transmission, inspect it, and call you with a rebuild estimate. They are honest, fair, and reliable. When it is repaired with a warranty either of those firms will ship it back to you for a shop to install.



Don't let your neighborhood grease monkey repair or rebuild it for you. I promise you'll regret it if you do. The transmission case and internal parts are expensive and in limited supply.



When I was a kid long ago I changed many standard transmissions in old Furds and Chevies. Then it was no big deal. The NV-5600 is a big deal. It is extremely heavy and unwieldy for an amateur to try to reinstall. If you make a mistake in stabbing it into the flywheel you'll damage the pilot bearing and possibly the throwout bearing which will require another removal. You could install the clutch plate incorrectly and damage or destroy it also.



A mistake will be costly and perhaps painful.

A hydraulic spreader to spread the frame rail??



I dont think you should be talking about jobs you clearly dont know anything about, I have pulled out a few NV's and G56's, no special tools needed yes there heavy but its still just nuts and bolts, if you are not confident then have somone else do it, if you have been into transmission before, have the proper tools and manuals then you should be fine.

 

[NNespeca]

Hey guys, I found this DIY guide on another website. What am I getting myself into!



DIY: Transmission Work NV5600 - DodgeForum.com



AEdelheit, this write up actually mentions spreading the frame rails. Who would have thought.



"To get the cross member out I used a port-a-power to spread the frame rails"

 

[HBarlow]

A hydraulic spreader to spread the frame rail??

I dont think you should be talking about jobs you clearly dont know anything about, I have pulled out a few NV's and G56's, no special tools needed yes there heavy but its still just nuts and bolts, if you are not confident then have somone else do it, if you have been into transmission before, have the proper tools and manuals then you should be fine.

Well blowhard, did you learn something about using a hydraulic ram to spread the frame rails?

I guess you really didn't know what you were talking about after all.

You would probably be able to conceal your ignorance a little better if you didn't worry about what I am posting.

 

[AEdelheit]

Well blowhard, did you learn something about using a hydraulic ram to spread the frame rails?

I guess you really didn't know what you were talking about after all.

You would probably be able to conceal your ignorance a little better if you didn't worry about what I am posting.

Holy crap Harvey because someone said it on the Internet it must be true!!! You can spread you frame rails all you want gramps, that cross member sits on a taper and you can hit it up on one side and work it out, a far better option then using a hydraulic cylinder on your frame

 

[TBartlett1]

I didn't see anyone suggest draining the transmission & diff oil to check for metal.

Thats where I would start!

Pull the diff cover to inspect the gears as thats the easiest to drain & refill, if no problems are found there then drain the transmission & do the same.

Too much work & expense to guess!

90cummins

 

[HBarlow]

Holy crap Harvey because someone said it on the Internet it must be true!!! You can spread you frame rails all you want gramps, that cross member sits on a taper and you can hit it up on one side and work it out, a far better option then using a hydraulic cylinder on your frame

Years ago a mechanic friend of Joe Donnelly, a mechanic in NV, replaced the clutch in my '01. I watched him do the job. He used a Portapower to gently spread the frame rails enough to drop the crossmember.

He may not have been a graduate of the blacksmith's school you attended where they taught use a bigger sledgehammer and pound hell out of it.

Which technique do you think STAR would appove for warranty repairs on a new Ram in a Dodge dealership? Beating on the crossmember with a ten pound sledgehammer or using a portapower?

You should stick with your methods and don't worry about what I recommend to someone who asks for advice.

 

[rscurtis]

Spreading the frame rails on a second generation truck is a reality; it may not be required on a third generation.

 

[AEdelheit]

Spreading the frame rails on a second generation truck is a reality; it may not be required on a third generation.

Not for an NV4500 and spreading the frame for a 3rd gen NV5600 Isint needed either, ive done both, if you feel hydraulic force on a frame is better then tapping the crossmember out of its taper with a dead blow then go for it, I'll stick with a dead blow. It's funny Harvey you have said before your not a mechanic so why are you even posting here? Draining the fluid and looking

For contamination is a great place to start

 

[AEdelheit]

Tell ya what mr big head, theres a chance we're both rite, the op's truck is a 3rd gen so your experiences sitting back in a chair watching because as you say yourself your not a mechanic so you have to have someone else do it may not be relevant to the ops truck, perhaps on your year of 2nd gen maybe the spreader is needed, though I still doubt it, have you ever sat back and watched someone do a NV5600 on a 3rd gen?

 

[NNespeca]

Hey guys, I got the truck towed back to my house today. Started troubleshooting, jacked the truck up on all 4 corners. Rear diff is fine. There was a noise/chatter coming from the transmission, only noticeable when applying brake pressure while idling in gear. It doesn't sound like a bearing. I kind of suspect one of the shift forks is loose but not real sure. Didn't find any large metal shavings or gear debris while probing the inside of the transmission with a magnet. Got everything disconnected and ready to drop the transmission in the morning. Will keep you posted.

Did notice the transmission was low on fluid. Just guessing but probably only drained ~2 quarts out of it. Looks like it has been leaking fluid out of the top around the shift tower. Two of the four shift tower bolts weren't tightened properly. Not good.

 

[NIsaacs]

Being low on oil is a bad sign. There is a magnet on the bottom of the case that is probably full of metal shavings. It takes a small persons hand to reach it. When I change oil (every 36,000 miles) I take it out and clean it, left side PTO cover.



If it locked up the rear axle, the damage will be obvious when you or who ever disassembles it. It will be main shaft related, probably the rear bearing. The counter shaft is lower so even with low oil level it might be fine, just needs new bearings. The input and output shafts suffer with oil starvation, especially the pocket bearing where the input/output shafts join.



Nick

 

[HBarlow]

Hey guys, I got the truck towed back to my house today. Started troubleshooting, jacked the truck up on all 4 corners. Rear diff is fine. There was a noise/chatter coming from the transmission, only noticeable when applying brake pressure while idling in gear. It doesn't sound like a bearing. I kind of suspect one of the shift forks is loose but not real sure. Didn't find any large metal shavings or gear debris while probing the inside of the transmission with a magnet. Got everything disconnected and ready to drop the transmission in the morning. Will keep you posted.

Did notice the transmission was low on fluid. Just guessing but probably only drained ~2 quarts out of it. Looks like it has been leaking fluid out of the top around the shift tower. Two of the four shift tower bolts weren't tightened properly. Not good.

You'll be replacing the large main shaft bearing in that NV-5600. Something similar happened to mine years ago. I had to haul a heavy fifthwheel from Riverside County (Los Angeles) to a dealer on the coast in heavy, stop and go traffic. Had to start and stop the heavy trailer at least 100 times. After I dropped the trailer I had a grinding gear noise when I accelerated gently and then put the clutch in and rolled to a stop. It didn't occur all the time so I made it home. My mechanic buddy inspected it and found it had leaked a little fluid out of the gasket around the top cover and was low. I ran it another 1000 miles or so until I could get it into Standard Transmission in Fort Worth for an overhaul. They found a bad mainshaft bearing, worn synchronizers, and worn sixth gear. The transmission had 302k miles on it so I didn't feel bad about an overhaul.

 

[NNespeca]

I dropped the transmission this morning, pulled the case off, and started looking for anything out of the ordinary. The only thing I noticed was the rear tapered bearing on the end of the output shaft. It looks like it has been running hot and dry. I also noticed before disassembling the transmission there was a significant amount of end play on the main shaft (possibly caused by the bad bearing). I think the binding was caused by this excessive end play allowing two gears to engage at the same time. As far as I can tell everything else looks surprisingly good. I plan to just order a new bearing overhaul kit, endplay shims, maybe 2 or 3 syncros, a new clutch, and put it all back together hopefully next weekend. Might be able to get out of this repair without spending a fortune. Check out a few of the pics.



If anybody has a PDF copy of the NV5600 service manual, it would really come in handy!



And thanks again to everybody for all the help on this one.

 

[AEdelheit]

Thanks for the updates, how hard was it to pull?

 

[NNespeca]

It wasn't too difficult, the hardest part believe it or not was getting the 3 10mm starter bolts loosened. I had to bring out the torch on those guys and couldn't really get a socket on them to break them loose. And bringing the transmission down was a little sketchy, I didn't get the CG centered on the transmission jack and it wanted to tip backwards. I ended up using the transmission jack and a separate floor jack to lower both a little at a time. Luckily had a buddy come over to lend a hand. Its gonna be way more difficult getting it back in.

Oh, and the rear crossmember came out pretty easily, just gave it a couple taps.

 

[Yo Hoot]

That's quite an undertaking considering your initial questions made it sound like you didn't have a snowballs chance of doing the job. Nice work!
Did you make that stand up just for the job?

 

[NNespeca]

The stand is an old squat rack I had lying around, used that along with a hand winch to lift off the transmission case. Wasn't pretty but it worked.

 

[SWithrow]

NNespeca did you need the info on the trans? If so send me your email

 

[NIsaacs]

Good job, I like the "can do" attitude! Parts for the NV5600 seem to be easier to come by, thats a good sign. Pay real close attention to bearing adjustment, too loose is bad but too tight is worse. Use your "gut" feeling, if you think it is too loose or too tight, act on it and get it right. Keep us posted on the overhaul and take pic's, we can all learn from this.



Nick