Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) NV4500 gearshift rattle

[owredneckmike]

Here's a good one for y'all. I've got a NV4500 recently rebuilt and everything works great... . except when in 5th gear the gearshift starts a high pitched rattle at around 1800 rpm on up. When even light pressure (one finger) is applied to the stick pushing toward the passenger side the rattle will stop. I tried replacing the shift tower because I thought it might have excessive slack, but that didn't fix it. Seems like it's rubbing against the 3rd gear shift rail, maybe? I tried adding shims from the old shift tower to the new one to increase spring tension and got worse results... So I removed shims to lighten the tension which helped, but not only did it not fix the problem completely, it's like shifting with a wet noodle. Any ideas would be much appreciated.



I originally posted this in 3rd gen forum because the truck is an 03, but one member said I would get more help reposting it here.

 

[MAYoung]

Well, I do not have an answer for you directly. I replaced my NV4500 with a rebuilt unit not quite 2. 25 years ago. I have over 20,000 miles on the unit and I have noticed a slight rattle while in 5th geart. I always thought that it was the shift tower since it was never rebuilt. The rattle goes away if you push the shift lever to the right but it gets boring holding the lever in that postion. I will be interested in hearing from others as that what creates the noise---poor tolerances maybe?



M. Young