Archived Lost 5th! Albuquerque transmission Shop?

[rustycoon]

Lost 5th for 2nd time on x-cntry trip. Pulling 5er. Anybody know good shop in albuquerque? Am there now. Please help!

-Rusty

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Wizard Auto, ask for Willy, 877-8890; cell 235-6457.

 

[RT66DOC]

Wizard Auto, ask for Willy, 877-8890; cell 235-6457.

Looks like you got a handle on Duke City resources pretty quick, Joe.



Speaking of which, there's a guy out on the east end of Moriarty just before Central merges back onto 40 - Dale Lewis, Circle L Garage. Haven't seen him in 5 or so years but he took care of a few problems on my truck.



He replaced my stock fuel lines when they started to leak at 40k miles and thought the job was a walk in the park - used some hi-grade hose - no leaks since. Also replaced the shutoff solenoid with newer version (which lasted 6 years but just took a dump this AM - see other post). This guy is a real gearhead and knows diesels inside out. He does repairs but has a penchant for engine/trans swaps, fabs parts, etc. Put a Brownie in one of his pickups, what for I don't know.



At times he could be seen hauling through the canyon at a high rate of knots for extra cash - very old Peterbilt with a jewel turned up Cummins under the hood. A no bs Smokey Yunick type character.

 

[rustycoon]

Thanks Joseph.

Willy at Wizard auto in Albuquerque is fixing me up with a new main shaft and fifth gear set and since it's apart at over 180k an overhaul on the NV4500 to boot and all for a good price.



A Note to all you folks out there that lose fifth gear: Just have the new main shaft put in immediately and save the hassle of thinking it's fixed and having to repeat the hassle.

I first lost fifth gear on this trip in Vegas and had Drivetrain.com (nice folks) put in a new nut with all the cool upgrades (staked, loc-tite, etc) but the nut still fell off after only about 400 miles pulling my fiver. It's the mainshaft and fifth gear plus an inadaquate nut design plus the harmonics of pulling a load in fifth gear while your rpms are below 1500 that are all factors in the problem.



My research for a better solution led me to quad4x4.com out of Montana that has developed a better designed mainshaft and fifth gear and nut but they are having trouble with their manufacturers and the kits are not available right now. They are hoping by the end of summer 2005 they will have a better supply so Willy is putting on the Piers version instead.

Thanks to Joseph and the TDR.

-Rusty

 

[R C Cola]

5th gear

Weld it and forget it ! R C