Transmission/Transfer Case Crossmember

[Hutchew]

Crewcab, what did you use for the crossmember mount for the transmission? I have the original out of the 85, but looks like it won't work unless I modify it . (What else is new, right?) Just wondering what you did on yours..... TIA

 

[Jones]

Hey Hutchew,

If you don't mind me sticking my nose in, what trans and transfer case are you working with?

Jones

 

[Hutchew]

Jones, I have a 98 model NV4500 5 speed and a 92 model NP205 transfer case. The 92 Donor truck was hit so hard in the front that it broke the rear case (Gertrag) in half. I doubt that the rear gertrag case would have worked on the NV4500 I have anyway. The 98 truck had an NP241HD chain drive case in it, and I would have used it, but I would have had to be a rocket scientist to have come up with a front driveshaft that would have worked, cuz the 241 drives off the driver side, while the front diff I have drives off the passenger side. Would have been sumthing to see, no doubt.

 

[Jones]

Hey Hutchew,

This might take a little head scratching. I remember from my racing days, guys taking the back or front half of a transmission case, machining it off, welding a plate onto it with all the required holes and building themselves an adapter that way. Isn't all that tricky and when all else fails... Once the proper "adapter" is made, its not like you've got to replace it with every oil change like a gasket. Just a thought.

Jones

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

Hutchew,

I am using my OEM 1985 crossmember with my Cummins. I did have to back it up about 1 1/2 inches to make it fit, but it works well.

Kyle

 

[Hutchew]

That's what I thought.....

So did you have to drill new holes through the top of the frame, which means either removing the cab or possibly tilting it up on one side enough to get a drill in, and then doing the same w/ the other side? I see you are running the gertrag, probably from the 91 or so donor. I will be stuffing a 98 model nv4500 in mine. Looks like I will be doing some modifcations to my oem 85 crossmember, or building a new one from scratch. Dang, this is taking forever... ... ... ... ... .....

 

[Fred Swanson]

Hutchew, check your input shaft to your NP205 very closely. I have bvanetten's 90 Cummins w/ a 72 Suburban body doing a complete transmission rebuild, and his donor 205 input shaft broke and it had the same thing happen to the donor truck as yours.

It took 3 months but it finally broke the input shaft to the 205.

 

[Hutchew]

What exactly should I look for?

Hey Fred, what should I look at? The general condition of the input shaft or something else? I have just rebuilt the 205 with all new bearings and seals. Looks like I wasted my money cause everything looked like brand new, but at least I now have peace-of-mind knowing it is fresh.

 

[bvanetten]

np205

Look for stress fractures at the base of the input shaft. I took it into the shop today (trail transmisions in Apache Junction) and the owner, Dean said the accident probably caused the front bearing to get out of allignment, which caused the shaft to wobble a bit, which caused heat to build up, which caused stress fractures, and KABOOM. You would be money ahead to have a shop take a close look at the t-case before you install it.



Fred, All this talk of bad bearings has me worried about the output shaft bearing on the 47RH. What do you think.

 

[Hutchew]

I think I am OK............

I checked it out pretty good when it was all apart, and everything looked like new except for a little scuffing where the gears come together. Bearings looked great, but I replaced 'em anyway. Which reminds me, I ordered an NV4500 fully splined mainshaft, 5th gear, and re-seal kit at the same time I ordered the rebuild/reseal kit for the NP205 from Standard Transmissions in Ft. Worth, TX. Great sales people to deal with, but the package I recieved looked like it had been drug behind a truck all the way to Albuquerque, and inside didn't look much better. All the stuff came in one box, and didn't have anywhere near enough packing material to prevent the gaskets, seals and bearings from getting smashed and battered by the mainshaft. I called to tell 'em there may be a problem, and they said just to let them know if anything got hurt and they'de replace it. The thing that annoys me most is that they sent the wrong 205 bearing kit, as I had to dig up both the main input bearing and the rear bearing on the front output here locally. I didn't want to wait for them to ship, as I had a buddy with the expertise right then. I'm sure they would have made good on it, but was still a PITA. Just the adventures you have when you have a frontal lobotom..... er, Cummins conversion... .

 

[bvanetten]

The stress cracks were noticeable to the eye. If you rebuilt it and replaced the bearings your probably ok. Frontal Lobotomy... I like that.