Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Swapping an NV4500 Chevy transmission

I have an older chevy 3500 that the trans went out in. Trying to source a replacement and they are rare. Reman is going to be well north of $2k.

So I have started to look for older trucks with blown motors.

Question for those in the know, how difficult is it to swap out this transmission?

That one doesn't have an integral bellhousing, so that's a plus. Sometimes bellhousing to block bolts are a bugger.

Find out if that truck has a removable transmission hump in the floor...pre-superduty fords had a screw-in panel on the hump. Pull the seat and carpet, remove that panel, and access is great.

Wrestling one without a tranny jack from underneath is not easy...try running a strap through the shifter hole (or hump panel opening), around the tranny and back up through the hole, and have a partner in the truck providing lift as you're aligning for removal and installation.

I bet you can sell your blown tranny (can I type that?) for more than you think you could.

If you have any doubts about your clutch/throwout/pilot/RMS/etc, now's the time to deal with that also.

It's worth renting a transmission jack.

So you're going to buy a used pickup, pull 2 tranmissions, then re-install one of an unknown quality?

I'd be easily on board w/this $2100 re-man to only have to do the job once:

https://high-impact.net/nv4500

I had the automatic transmission in my 1998 4Runner fail and I put a Remanufactured unit in it. There is no way I am going to install a used transmssion that is almost as old and tired as the one that failed.

Buy you a Remanufactured transmission and be done with it.

That looks to be a decent option. Around here, the trans guy told me a reman is approaching $3k. Now I am understanding it will be well over $3k. Trying to find my notes to see what else might have been included

The trans in the truck with a piston issue is working now. Obviously unknown about the history and definite unknowns. But the truck was going t be a source of some other parts as well and then having some salvage $ to the remains.

No bueno.

They won't sell me a transmission for a 1 ton chevy because they won't/can't warranty a 1 ton.

High impact offers the 4500 in an extreme duty for diesels. It'll hold up to anything a gas engine can do.

Tarkio,

Talk to longe range gear llc. They specialize in building nv 4500's.

Last summer after a good cutting season, and selling off a pile of 1972 k5 blazers, I had decided to upgrade my 1968 wood truck to an nv 4500. It had an sm 465. You can adapt an nv 4500 to almost anything

Longe range gear is the right place. Worth the price, they go through everything with improvements. I don't have time for garbage transmissions.

Secondly, there's only 2 names in heavy duty truck clutches:
South bend and valair. Say no to all the fkn Walmart brands like "centerforce".

As usual the responses in this thread are from do-nothing, know-nothing btches.

Hope this helps

They told me over the phone they could not do an nv4500 for a 1-ton pickup.

Said their supplier would not warranty stuff going into a 1 ton

Any idea on what their prices run?

I have a message into them. Waiting to hear back

Should be $3500, which is chump change. No idea what bell housing you'll need.

LRG has an excellent 5th gear fix, they never had a 5th gear failure and some of their customers are pushing 800-1000 ft lbs of torque.



Torque king has a low ratio case, which is rare. Buy that ASAP. 6.34:1 1st and reverse. It really helps the gassers get a heavy trailer moving. The dodge cases wont take this big 6.34:1 gears:

https://torqueking.com/product/395/...kvYksXIrobi6Q5csSUsbtyJykYDIF-B-mKVwjG0F

Reached out to High
I called them back because I struggled to make this make sense. Seems like a supplier is hesitant to extend warranty to chevy 1 tons and or commercial vehicles.

So when I pressed again, they said they would do it but as a commercial vehicle, only 1 yr warranty and maybe 12k miles.

They do offer free shipping coming and going.

So for the price, guess Ii will probably go with High Impact.

Well, High Impact missed the mark again.

After accepting my order and payment over the phone, the lady there called back a day or 2 later for clarification on something. During the conversation, she realized this was a chevy 3500 (1 ton).

That was a problem. Somehow through all our communications, she missed the comments and messages that referred to the truck as a dually (dead giveaway its a 1 ton) or a chevy 3500 (another dead giveaway that it's a 1 ton). She informed me they can't do it.

Back to the drawing board. I started hunting FB marketplace in areas I was about to travel to. Found a guy with a trans shop on the outskirts of Springfield MO. He had one built and offered a 1 year warranty. Said he'd hold it for me but he doesn't do credit cards. Told him I could send payment but he acted almost insulted that I sorta didn't trust him to hold it for me. So I got a cashier's check and picked the transmission up about 10 days ago. Got home and the shop got it installed last week.

Good recovery Tarkio!

Make sure u stick with an organic clutch. Non of that duel friction or ceramic bllsht. They're too grabby and slam the drivetrain. Especially annoying when backing up to a trailer.

Do not run an aftermarket flywheel. Run a good used OEM flywheel balanced and machined by a good machine shop.

Make sure all splined shafts and or couplers have a paper thin layer of spline grease(moly). Some clutch springs need a touch of grease as well.

Redline mt-85 is the only proper fluid , unless you want to destroy the oddball synchros.

**This ain't no automatic with a filter. Get that fluid out of there within 1500 miles of break in!

Went with oem clutch based on builder's recommendation. Shop used GM synthetic trans fluid. Builder suggested synchromesh but was ok when I sent him the part # of the fluid and looking into the specs.

No one mentioned swapping fluid so I appreciate that recommendation. Makes sense to clean out any potential debris that might have infiltrated during the build.

I cannot believe how hard it was to find what appears to be a reputable shop to build a manual trans. This guy ended up being $800 - $1500 less than a couple of the bigger advertised builders online. Ended up about $1800 and change with the core swap. Guy I bought from said there are cheaper options out there than him but I sure didn't see any.

Hoping my gut instinct from the builder and his shop is true. Couple older guys that build a lot of racing transmissions as well as the more mundane stuff.

Tarkio I understand. You'll pull yer hair out trying to get a simple fkn 5-slammer. Everything is automatic nowadays.

I will say this: If you don't see grey hair on your tranmission builder, or at least the supervisor the fkr don't know sht. Even if they THINK they do.

This new age dpshts sensalionslizing themselves on social media,

I'd take a grey haired grumpy jerk everyday of the week. I think you got a winner. You pissed him off. That's hilarious 😂

I had an old timer up here in Fairbanks alaska, put together a mean 4r100 with billet disc torqueslipper. He was at the tail end of his career. BEST fkn experience ever.

The younger transmission guys, always some sort of bllsht. The young fkers can't EVEN READ AN EMAIL, like you JUST experienced with high impact.

I got there and he had hooked onto my transmission and was easing into the shop when the older guy that worked for him told him after looking at my transmission for a split second, that the trans they had for me wouldn't work.

This shop had maybe a dozen to 15 different transmissions sitting on the ground inside the doors. A few in various stages of build on benches and stands. And the guy glances at my trans and says the trans they had for me wouldn't work. I think the input shaft was different. Owner hopped off the forklift and looked and started cussing. Apologized over and over. Was embarrassed. Said if I gave them 45 minutes they'd have a different trans they had built to a point and stopped, done for me.

Seeing them recognizer that issue at a glance built some confidence in me.

Went to town and ran an errand. Came back. Loaded it up and away we went. Guy apologized again said he had in his mind, the trans he had built for a buddy that they ended up not using was for a 96 and up chevy. He had forgotten his buddy's truck was maybe a 94. Something like that

What was the shop? Somewhat local to me and always looking to put stuff in the memory bank for future use.

Pro Truck & Auto in Strafford MO