Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) NV5600 noise != eminent failure

[AHuska]

History: loud on/off/on/off squealing from transmission on the freeway, all gears OK, dealer can't diagnose. I couldn't repeat it either, even after 80 miles of freeway driving.



This weekend I drained some fluid out and found it slightly burnt (50k miles), but at the proper level and with just a little bit of debris. Debris consisted of mostly black RTV chucks, 1 piece of grey metal the size of a half a rice grain, and a few tiny specks of yellow metal. Proceeded to completely drain the fluid and didn't find much more metal, but I did find a bunch of RTV silicone. I cleaned the magnet in the bottom of the transmission and the magnet on my Fast Cooler and only found the typical sludge, nothing major or excessive. Sealed it up, put in 3 qts of fluid before I found the seal was not sealed, redrained to fix seal and got even more RTV out, some chunks as big as a pencil eraser. Filled with 10 qts (3qts overfilled with 2 qts in the Fast Coolers) of Redline MTF and drove it to work today... happy to see cooler temps, smooth shifting, and possible quieter operating. I would really like to drain the fluid, filter it, and put it back in after a few hundred miles to get all the silicone out... at the same time use gaskets instead of RTV on the PTO covers.



Question1: RTV floating around can't be great, but is it a bad thing, and could it jam a bearing bad enough to make it squeal? Any other bad effects?



Question2: Dodge doesn't sell gaskets for the PTO covers, does anyone?

 

[FosterW]

Yes it could get stuck up in a bearing but I don't know about making it squeal. I suppose it could. Anysways, geno's has a PTO filter kit that comes with gaskets and it might help filter out some of your unwanted RTV sealer. Look here http://www.genosgarage.com/prodinfo. asp?number=K1444-0060-FLTR%20KIT

 

[FYarcho]

The only thing I would suggest it to make sure the noise is in fact coming from the transmission. I has a similar situation. I had 2 trasmission shops drive and told me there was a bearing going out in the transmission. I took it to the dealer as a last resort. They found a bearing going out in the rear diff. They told me that most anything in the drive train will resonate into the trans. So just make sure before you spend a fortune only to find out it wasn't the transmission

 

[PRout]

Yeah, my last truck did this same thing. The sound while driving seemed to come from everywhere at the center to rear of the truck. An ol' timer mechanic told me a center support bearing can make a h, of a noise and sound like something else is failing around it. Sure enough that's what it was. Good Luck.

 

[AHuska]

Hey Guys,

I've been out of town for a while without a way to follow up, so I'm not ignoring you, I really appreciate the replies! I've put on about 1000 miles since the incident without a single problem, even a couple 100+ mile trips and a 100 miles of 2k lbs in the bed. After about 300 miles I drained the fluid to check it again and found more metal shavings on the magnet (almost as much as the initial drain), but its been 70K miles since a fluid change. The new fluid has been running cooler and shifting great, but for the first time ever I'm noticing that the transmission pops out of reverse sometimes... don't know what to think there. Thanks for the great ideas on the carrier bearing or the diff; I will investigate further.