Is the 5 Speed Getrag transmission on a 93 a Good transmission?

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Im looking into a 93 W250 4x4 Cummins with the 5 Speed transmission. Is that a stout transmission? How are the clutches on these trucks? Anything I should be aware of? Thanks for the help.

Billy

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Hey RamBill,its all a matter of opinion,my 2 cents says its a stout 5 speed. Others will say the NV4500 is the best. All I know is if the care and feeding of the transmission is good the 5 speed will work just fine. Just make sure the truck you buy has been taken care of and not trashed. Both my clutch and 5 speed at 108. 000 miles are still strong, but then again I dont pull things that are 5 times the GCVW either.

 

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Hey Billy, The Getrash is ok. I "personally" don't like it. As I'm on my 2nd one. But the NV 4500 has its 5th gear nut problem as well. I put 3500 miles a week on mine and seriously overweight everyday. "overall" its a good transmission, just high $$$$ to replace. I'm looking into a RTO 10 speed for my next replacement. HTH, Mike

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92 Std cab. LE. 215 P-pump reman cummins motor. 5-speed, 3. 54, 105 gal Aux tank in bed. Borgeson shaft, Banks Power pack. 12cm Hot end housing w/wastegate. 4" Exh, Pyro & boost guage, oil temp guage. E-brake. Galaxy DX99V, Used as a Hotshot/express Reg. at 36,000 lbs in 48 states. http://hometown. aol.com/hotshothauler/myhomepage/business.html

 

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Our local shop says the pre 93 is a different part number and was a little better build. Can anyone verify that the 89-92's have a better Getrag than the 93? Or if they are different part numbers?

 

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I have put over 160k on the Getrag with NO problems. The truck's power was enhanced considerably for about 75k of the total. Castrol 20W50 HD was the lube. Not ATF.
Your (or the previous owner's) driving style will determine the entire power train's longevity.
If the NV4500 performs as well as my Getrag did, I would be satisfied.
Check the output shaft yoke nut for tightness.

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'98 Cummins 12v, Big Medicine. Got Diesel.
http://www.ecpe.vt.edu/~dfritz/RIDES/frank_s/classic92.htm

 

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Maybe I'm just lucky, but so far (knock on wood) no problems other than the speedo cable and oil leakage.
The clutch on the other hand blew out the center section after 180,000 Km. The new one (not so new now) has been fine...
Don't know if the 93's were any different.

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Jason's Lil' Mack - 89 D250LE 2WD 5 Spd 3. 54 Reg Cab. K&N,"tweaked pump", BD Hi perf Injectors, Banks Pyro/Boost, 3. 5" Exst tail section straight. 23 Lbs boost.
E&M Custom seats. Bosch H4, PIAA 80W/80W HdLites. 100W Drv,55W Fogs.
232,500 miles (372,000 Kms) 7700 Hrs.

 

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I think the Getrag is a good trans also.
Use the right lube. It is specified as 5-30 ENGINE OIL not gear oil. ATF is allowable if hard shifting in cold weather is a problem, but I wouldn't use it.

One thing about the trans (at least mine) is the slow shifting. You have to wait for the synchros to work. It reminds me of a typical HD trans-not a speed shifting candidate. In this regard the NV4500 is fantastically better (it shifts like a car trans. )

The clutch on the first gens is better than the newer trucks. It is 13" vs. 12 1/4" with a cast cover instead of a stamped steel one.

The '93 shift lever extention was changed to an angled unit that uses a different mounting method (bolts on instead of screws on) than the 89-92's.

At some time the gear case was revised to allow the countergear to be removed without removing the reverse idler gear.


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'93 W350 Club Cab, Bright White, 5 sp. , 130K, Factory Options: LE, 4. 10 Limited Slip, 7600 lb. rear springs, tachometer, front stabilizer bar. Mods: Banks stinger plus, Linex bedliner, 25,000 lb gooseneck ball, 10,000 lb receiver, Tekonsha brake controller, POWER WAGON injectors-WAY faster than stock!.

 

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Cool info Mark93. Haven't driven a newer style yet and was wondering about the shifting of the NV4500. I also run 5-30 oil in the box without any trouble in the cold.
Were the 2WD sticks in 93 also "re-shaped" from the straight stick???Inquiring minds... . #ad

 

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Hi Jason.

According to the parts computer all '93 Getrags get the angled shift lever extention. The parts computer will show a different number for '93 ($50 with discount). The computer at my local dealer lumps '90-'93 in one download but '89 is the same as '90-'92.

 

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You guys are scaring me when I read nothing but light weight oils. My Dodge dealer said to run 75-90 synthetic. Did I get a bum steer? I have changed to the synthetic and have put about 500 miles on so far. Am I courting disaster?

 

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I have the gertrag and haven't had any problems. I replaced the clutch at l80K, but the transmission is still running fine. I run synthetic in it(Mobil 1, 5/30) and it seems to leak a little past the seals, but I have upped the power on the motor and have 230K on truck so far with no transmission problems.

 

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I bought my pickup from a Ford dealer when it was about five months old. transmission puked and the original owner was so mad he traded it on a '93 PSD as soon as Dodge swapped in a brand new one. I'm now at 151,000 miles with no problems. I change the oil (5w/30) every 10K miles, but I've seen other guys here who have never changed their oil with no failures, but I could hardly endorse this practice.

My only complaints are pretty much what you will here from most guys. Clunky shifts and slow synchros, and poor gear split ratios.

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'93 W250, LE, CC, 4x4, 5spd. , Cummins, K&N, 16cm turbo, Power Wagon injectors, Professionaly rebuilt and calibrated pump, straight exhaust, Lund visor w/lights, 5th wheel, Gooseneck, H. D. rear hitch, Aluminum everything. My Rigs

 

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My . o2... The spacing between gears 3 and 4 is a torque eating pit of about 800 rpm. Wind up 3rd a ittle higher than the rest and it seems to be no problem, just could have been spaced better. Aside from that, it seems to be an ok unit. The books say to run 5/30 synthetic havoline brand motor oil in it-that seemed scary to me too. The getrag in my bmw spec 80-90 synth... Wishing I had a late model 6 speed, Alan.

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1995 W350 5 speed dually. Banks stinger, pyro, boost and tach, with more to come... Hey, 'stroke this buddy!

 

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Hey SturgeoMike.

I would change out the heavy oil because several complaints about Getrag failure are from lack of lubrication. The thin oil gets everywhere well even at low speed. Thick oil doesn't splash around as well. I run synthetic and it actually slows shifting a little, but noticeable, bit. The reduced friction of synthetic works against the operation of the synchros.

 

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After reading the posts (did some history reading as well) I went out and changed it out to 5-30 syntnetic. So much for listening to a Dodge dealer vs: the people who know something about the trucks, TDR #ad


By the way mine has a rebuilt in it, the previous owner pulled a 34' 5th wheel. Bought it from his son (had ordered a DORF, break in the genes I guess)

 

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my opinion of the getrag isn't very high...
my truck has gone thru 4 that i know of,
maintinence records show it was replaced once before my dad owned it at approx. 30,000 miles, he replaced it at 70,000 after he bought the truck, he sold it to me at 130,000 miles, it wouldnt stay in gear after
i drove it 1000 miles. The guy at the transmission shop said it would cost around $1900 to rebuild, so i bought an NV4500 instead...
i've had the NV4500 in the transmission shop 3 time since, all issues of poor workmanship(i dont drive it that hard... well maybe only for short burst) once because the throwout bearing was loose (thank cummins for that diagnosis, no charge) the second time i took it in was because it wouldnt stay in 4th gear
(synchro replacement) and the third time was because they forgot 2 of the bellhousing bolts which allowed the input shaft to slip out of the pilot bearing 3/8 of an inch.
Has anyone had any similar dealings with Cottman transmission????

 

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When I was considering getting a 92' or 93' 3/4 ton I was unsure which transmission to go with, auto or manual. I talked to the guys at advanced adaptors(I think that is it)about a transmission swap and they mentioned that the getrag to NV 4500 was very popular, as it is a much stronger transmission. (If you can keep the nut on #ad
). That seemed to be the popular concensus with all the transmission shops I talked to. Now I'm sure the getrag is a good transmission for a stock application or Dodge would have chosen another vendor, but if I was bombing or putting extreme loads on one I would be a little skeptical for a long trouble free life. As for real life experiences, I had the getrag in an 88' chev 2500 gas jobby. I was the second owner of this truck, in which the first owner was a retired farmer, who used it to pull around his fifth wheel. When I bought the truck it had around 210,000km and never skipped a beat for the next 30,000km that I owned it. The transmission was very smooth and easy to shift. The guy that bought it off of me took the chevy on it's maiden voyage to jasper and back(probably 6-700km)unloaded, and about 1/2 an hour from home the transmission just let go. He said that fifth gear just suddenly wouldn't engage, then fourth, then third, and so on. There was no warning as it worked flawlessly the entire trip. My roomate is a mechanic in a very busy shop, so I asked him about his experiences with the getrags. He said that they replaced quite a few of them in all kinds of applications.
So to finally #ad
sum up this babble, one should look at the intended application and decide from there. Or like me, drive it till it breaks and then fix it.

P. S Hey Jay hows it going? Hope things are well. Will be able to make it to the next meeting as I have some time freed up from work. (cracked 3 ribs, bruised the rest #ad
) Later.


[This message has been edited by Davey (edited 09-12-2000). ]

 

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Joesoot brings up what I think is the key to the Getrag question.

ASSuming proper operation and maintenace across the board, when you have one guy getting 250,000 miles with no problems on some part pulling loads and another guy needing 4 parts in 130,000 miles with not much loading your looking at manufacturing variation. Add to this the infinitely greater variability (on average biased toward the crummy side anyway)of "rebuilders" and it's really bunk, a true dice throw as what you will experience.

Theoretically, a safe route would be a professionally rebuilt unit but that is simply not the real life case.

If you need a Getrag rebuilt my suggestion is do it yourself. The procedure (found in the '93 service manual) is far simpler than the one for the NV4500. It truly is a basic transmission but it has tight clearances and will not tolerate dirt and sloppy assembly with substandard parts. This is why Getrag did not at first offer replacement parts-they didn't think the average monkey shop could do the job right and they were correct.

The only special tools required are a bearing press with splitters, a depth micrometer and calipers or outside micrometer.

More important is a CLEAN work area and this disqualifies a very great number of "rebuilders".