NV5600 to rebuild or not

[whamby]

My truck has 246,000 on it and I had to pull the transmission due to throw out bearing locking up. I am going to replace my SB ConFE and flywheel this round with a SB DD as it has 150k on it. transmission is leaking a little out the front. I have replced this seal twice over the life of the truck. transmission shifts OK and no real noise. My question is would you go ahead and freshen it up now or wait on a catostrophic failure?????

 

[GaryOwen]

I would wait. I had 531k miles on my 03 with a NV5600 when I sold it in June. Never touched the transmission (except to replace clutch once).

 

[blacksheepdiesel]

If it still shifts good and makes no unusual noises I would put it back in and put 6. 5 qts of Royal Purple (or your favorite fluid) through the shifter hole and keep on truckin'!

Godspeed,
Trent

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

I would send the transmission to Standard Transmission & Gear in Fort Worth, TX for a rebuild. A major failure would probably destroy the main case. That part is no longer available and used ones are quite expensive (about $1000). The mainshaft bearing at the rear of the case gets less oil than desirable and locks up, spinning the outer race in the case. If the case cracks, it cannot be sleeved and rebored. Standard also offers a Power Lube Package (PLP) that greatly increases lubrication flow to this bearing. I had them rebuild my NV5600 at 124,000 miles and install the PLP. It turned out that although the transmission seemed fine, it needed other things, like bearings and synchronizers. Overall, I believe you would be much better off to get the transmission rebuilt now, while most of the components are good, instead of paying full price later when the difficult to find and/or expensive parts are bad.

 

[Grizzly]

Good advice from Joe. It's time to have it rebuilt.

 

[whamby]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to Blumenthals next Tuesday to get a transmission. Got it off their ebay store for $2595 with 12 month/unlimited mileage warranty. That is not advertised on their site or by calling them. Just call the number on ebay for smartpartsusa. They are only 4 hours from me so that will not be too bad plus it saves me a core deposit and delivery. Also have a new Southbend DD clutch on the way from tvdiesel.com to replace the old ConFE. They had the best price plus free shipping.

 

[whamby]

Well I have my new transmission from Blumenthals setting on the table in my shop. Just waiting on the clutch from South Bend. They said it should ship today. I ordered a SDD3250-6 dual disk. Also ordered a new MBRP 4" exhaust since my home grown 4" rusted out at the muffler.

 

[jjdiesel]

So, what did they find/do?

 

[whamby]

No ideal. Warranty on bench time is not very good. Something like 90 days parts only. I just went ahead and bought a reman off the shelf thru smartpartsusa on ebay and got 12 months unlimited mileage waranty for $2595. 00. Went to Blumenthals and picked it up myself so I didn't have to deal with the core charge or shipping.

 

[PLohr]

Interested to hear how much the Power Lube Package costs (plus freight).



In a few more years I think many of us with failed NV5600 transmissions will be looking into a G56 conversion. I have researched this a bit but have found very little on the conversion. Unless hard parts for the NV5600 suddenly become available, why install a transmission that has very limited parts availability instead of the G56, with every part being available? If the truck is sold before the rebuilt NV5600 fails, then all is well.

 

[Shadrach]

The conversion to a G56 is easy. The rear driveshaft needs to be lengthened by 1. 5" and the front on shortened by same ( 4x4 of course ) Drill 3 new holes in the cross member for the new mount and install new shifter and shift pattern button. The knob and nut are the same and the boots works as well. Don't forget to upgrade your clutch cyls as well. Shadrach

 

[TWhetten]

I am curious about that PLP that Standard Transmission has too. I just got my transmission rebuilt by them a couple months ago and they didnt mention anything about that. As far a parts availablity, I wouldnt worry about that, the parts for the NV5600 are going to be readily available for a long time to come.

 

[HBarlow]

I think Standard Transmission's "PLP" lube package Joe Donnelly mentioned above involves internal modifications involving machining that must be performed on gears, shafts, etc. while the transmission is disassembled and being rebuilt. I don't think it is a "kit" that can be mailed or shipped to an owner.

For years Standard has strongly recommended adding an additional quart of transmission lube to the NV-5600 for normal operation.