I've been spinning the teeth off of the gears in my nv4500 ever since I crossed over the 600hp line. I've wiped out 3rd gear 4 times now, 2nd gear 3 times, 5th gear clutch 3 times, all gears were cryo'd. What gears have you guys broken? What hp range were you at?

 

Guess I'm alone on this one. LOL chirp chirp

 

LOL, between your towing and pulling, I think you are in pretty rare air.

Not too many out there putting them through that much stress.

 

Hi. I would like to have a beast of a truck with that much HP and I am sure your torque is pretty high as well.

I will say this. I am afraid of making my daily driver a daily work on.

I've had a GVW of 19,900 on my 02 stock truck. NV4500 is in it. I drove clear across country on I-80. some hills I got to tell ya.

My mileage was about 10mpg when loaded. I didn't expect to be that low.

I want to upgrade my truck to get better HP/ Torque and at the same time, hope to increase mileage. I am hoping for 23-25mpg empty and no less than 15 fully loaded.

I am afraid of putting too much power behind what is already the weak link in the drive train. The Transmission.

I was driving down the street at 5 miles per hour when I thought someone

threw a glass bottle at me. Well, come to find out, The lower bearing in the

tranny decided to go and it went in a hurry.

I have never rebuilt a transmission and I was going to do it myself. The only

problem was, the gear puller /tools cost more than the rebuilt kit I was going

to put in. I had planned to put new gears in as well and the puller cost more.



To make a long story sort, I know a friend how knows a friend who has a

transmission shop and got it done for $600. I can't say it is the same, but, it

seems to work.

One of the biggest problems I see is, there are no aftermarket products to strengthen a transmission. What's in it, is what comes with it.

On an automatic, you can boost the pressure to make it shift firmer, and you

can change the torque converter. (given I don't know a bunch about

transmissions) and you can change the clutch packs, but, no steel upgrades

to strengthen the gears (double the strength)(that I know of)

 

You can get billet gears, but who can afford those. I'm just wondering if 600hp is the limit of a nv4500. I never broke when I was in the 500's.

 

After my upgrades I cracked the aluminum OD extension on the back of the NV4500 (@ 10K after upgrades). Replaced it with a rebuilt NV4500. It lasted another 10K before it wiped out 3rd getting on I90.

Found a rebuilt NV5600 (Brian @ GearTrans Transmissions, Mesa, AZ). Got the whole package (clutch, flywheel, tranny), got 50K and 3 years, no more problems. Bulletproof.

NV4500 weighs about 175 lbs, NV5600 over 450 lbs. You do the math.

 

Wow...That much difference in weight between the 4500 and 5600......

I didn't kow that

 

I installed the NV4500 with my motorcycle jack, piece of cake, easy to manhandle into place.


You talk about WOW (with all caps), that NV5600 would have smashed me like a bug if it had fallen off of that mc jack. Had to go down to friendly rent-all place and get a HD tanny jack, no manhandling nothing! Piece of cake with the right tools.

 

would bust my gears on mine towing. What helped me was extra oil and running trans coolers. i was grosing out at 33k with about 375 hp

 

I think at that power and torque level you must be stretching the case of the tranny and the gear material doesn't matter if they are being pressed apart. I think you must be at the limit of that tranny.

 

The tranny shop charged me $700 to replace the cluster, 3rd gear, 2nd gear and all bearings. I am now sporting a warranty for the next year! I love my tranny guy, he is the man!

 

Sounds good Jamie...See how it works now....Maybe you found the limit of the 4500....of 600 HP...What do you think??

I installed another NV4500 in my truck....very good condition compared to my old one....All the sycos where ground down sideways...Thats a 250,000 mile trans..The 5th gear upgrade was also 3/4 off the threads..

 

Quesiton. I was told the NV5600 was stronger.

Seems like this would be true with extra meet in the tranny.

2ndly, I hear the NV5600 and G56 Transmissions don't shift like the NV4500

I hear there is a large pause between gear changes or you will be grinding

gears. Is this true??

Thirdly. My stock Dodge blew a bearing.

I had it rebuilt and I have had a gross ov 20k pulling. No problems.

Truck is stock. If I upgrade the truck by 100 HP and 200+ lb feet of torque,

is this considered mild and should I expect the same life out of the truck or

any changes to the truck will significantly shorten it's useful life. The truck is

normally driven as a daily driver. Want the extra power to tow and hopefully

get better mileage when towing and empty. In the upgrade, I was wondering

would it make since to get a NV5600 or keep what i have and just keep

rebuilding it when it brakes??


What do you folks think??

 

I think you are correct Dave. My tranny guy builds them where they shift absolutely perfect, but my problem is that the gears are failing. I think I'm above the limit.

 

Not to be a stickler stickler, but NV4500 = 250lbs, NV5600 = 350lbs, total weight. Still a big difference. 600hp equals an incredible about of stress on those little gears. Thats up around the power of big rigs, and how much do you think their trannys weigh! Problem with building a super stout, street truck manual is the rotating mass gets too heavy, syncros have to work really hard to slow the counter shaft down. Hence sometimes NV5600 shifts a little slower than the 5 speed, and why big rigs aren't synchronized.

If you're hellbent on keeping the 5spd with your power, you have to find better gears, maybe stiffen the case up. I could imagine that the stock case is somewhat "elasticy" with that much power going through it. Just my opinion.