thinking of going to auto

[drice]

heres the deal I have a NV4500 and have had lots of trouble with it it has been completely rebuilt twice and in the shop for little thing (broken teeth ,5th gear nut, etc) and last week I riped 4 teeth out of the input shaft by their roots. Now this week it won't shift. if I start the truck and leave the clutch in then there in no problem but as soon as I let the clutch out and push it back in it won't go in any gear this happens and stop lights or just about anywhere. but that is beside the point. now I'm thinking of putting a auto in if I was to do it which auto should I do and how hard is it to do. I don't know much about autos but I'm tired of my standard.



sorry so long



any advice would be appreciated

Daniel

 

[Strick-9]

Daniel,



Expensive, expensive, expensive. It's very time consuming if you want to do a nice job, but not physically all that hard.



I've done the swap both ways on the '94'-95 trucks. Luckily we had a donor truck the same body style so we could get whatever part we needed.



You'll need to swap PCM's and wiring harnesses. The wiring harnesses were different on the trucks I did which involved quite a bit of electrical knowledge to sort out. That was surprising since one was a '94 and one a '95. We didn't expect that many changes in the wiring. Lots of wire tracing and splicing to get the AC and cruise control and a few other gadgets to work properly.



You'll need the heat exchanger and transmission cooler from the auto truck. You'll need the "OD off" button in the dash, you'll need the automatic foot pedals, the steering column, TPS (which requires a different P7100 bracket), driveshaft length changes and a host of other stuff that's not coming to me right now.



If you can find a donor truck, I'd expect about 60 hours worth of labor to swap everything over.



I've actually got a conversion truck in the shop right now. The owner left the clutch pedal and skinny brake pedal in the truck. He also opted to install a rachet shifter to avoid the expense of swapping steering colums.



You definately would save a TON of money if you had another truck to swap with. Lot's of people are looking to get rid of their autos.



You're going to need a strong auto to swap in so choose wisely and ask a LOT of questions to whichever vendor you call. If you damaged that many manual trannies, you'll probably damage an auto or two as well.



Good luck,

Chris

 

[drice]

thanks for teh heads up I didn't think of all the wireing changes. I really haven't even started looking for a donor yet but I have spent SO much money on this slow a$$ 5 spd I thionk I could shave so time off if it were an auto. I guess I now have to consider the cost of time in with teh swap.



thanks again

Daniel

 

[TowPro]

Maybe it would be cheeper to convert to a 6 speed?

 

[Briar Hopper]

I like the automatics, they are great when built right, with the right parts. But converting a truck from 5spd to auto gets expensive and troublesome, as noted.

Stronger 5 speed trannies are available, at very reasonable cost, from quite a few companies. These 5 speeds have several shortcomings corrected by the installation of special parts, such as a fully splined mainshaft, and the end result is a lot better than getting your 5 speed rebuilt to stock specs, perhaps by a dealership mechanic, or someone unaware of the good stuff out there.

Blumenthal's Heavy Duty in Oklahoma City, Standard Transmission in Texas, Haisley Machine in Indiana, and Enterprise Engine in Ohio are four reliable sources of stronger 5 speeds. We do build and repair our own trannies in-house, but have found it can be more cost-effective to swap out trannies, given the indivdual cost of parts.

The cost for a remanufactured, upgraded 5 speed is less than a 1/4 of converting to an auto.

 

[David Muench]

Have you considered doing a swap to an automatic that doesn't require being plugged into the truck's computer? Maybe a TH400 + OD unit? Build one with a manual valve body, and let the truck think it still has a stick. A TH400 is just an example, that might be tricky to adapt your t-case to. I know some companies also make aftermarket control boxes for the more popular autos (new GM and such). Then you'd mainly just have to deal with cooling and the crossmembers.



I was going to do that to my 5 speed Jeep TJ, but ended up selling it for other reasons.

 

[gjacobs]

Daniel,

How the hell have ya been? Still in Stephenville? Sorry to hear of all of the troubles with the transmission. I have a phone # of a guy in Irving who is dirt cheap on the transmission swaps. I have no idea if he is good, reliable, etc. I talked with him for about 5 minutes and for $1,500 he was going to swap out my auto for an original 5 speed and get to keep my old auto. Don't know, but said he has done several with references and no major problems. Anyway, # is at work and I will get it to you if you want it.

-George