Tow rig insanity

[MrMindless]

My 3500 has 19.5s, why not a medium duty transmission too?

I finally got the back cover off the NV4500 today and found two teeth sheared off the main shaft 5th gear.  






Yesterday I paid a visit to Casey\'s on Tom\'s recommendation.  Great guys - open wheel racers, Dodge nuts, and shockingly supportive of stupid projects.

Around Wednesday, I should have an SAE #2 bellhousing, starter, 14\" clutch and flywheel, and rebuilt Eaton RoadRanger RTOO9513 transmission with shifter and centered top cover ready for me.  I\'m not the first to do this swap but I\'m certainly one of few; I think I\'ve come across a dozen who have investigated it (including Marty at Casey\'s, who pulls with his 2nd Gen Ram and puts down 685hp at the rear wheels, but did a fully trickn NV4500 instead) and 3 or so who have done it.



I\'ll have a two valve shift knob, but this pattern with low/high/OD split pattern


I\'ll have some serous floor modification to do, and I still need
- divorced NP205 tcase
- driveline work
- air source (checked out the B series onboard compressor and as I expected it\'s where my vacuum pump is... so I think I\'ll go Viar or similar electric, air consumption is low in this setup)
- transmission mounts (bellhousing mounts and a rear spring mount)
- clutch actuation - I\'ll be working with a lever arm that sticks out the side of the transmission
- figure out where my front driveshaft will fit; that\'ll be interesting with the wide body twin countershaft trans


Since I\'ll have the seats out and carpet laid back I think I\'ll try to do my rocker panel repair at the same time.

Whether this swap starts immediately after I get the transmission or waits for my return from MN depends on whether I get a replacement 5th gear from my rebuilder immediately or not.

I considered doing an NV5600 swap, but this is similar money overall (would still need driveline clutch and crossemember work too), and I\'ve read of too many 3rd/4th gear issues with heavier GCW 5600 uses.

This is a double overdrive box with a 13th of .62:1; that will make my top gear final drive the same as a .73:1 single OD and 3.55 gears, I\'m really excited to bring down my cruise speed RPMs.  Almost as exciting as that is loosing the ridiculous 45% ratio jumps in the 4500.  If I never split a gear and drove it as an 8sp I\'d still be in better shape than with my 5sp, with a lower low and the same high.  Aside from rolling heavy in the hills I probably won\'t split much but it\'ll be awesome all around to not have to wind it out to 3 grand just to keep from lugging in the next gear.

[Wingman]

Big project!  God speed, Mike!

[smichaelR22]

is the case going to be under the cab or the bed? lol!   looks cool

[Ryan_25]

Just run it 2wd until winter. :-)

[MrMindless]

I may end up doing that if I can\'t find a divorced case.  Extra cost of skipping the tcase for now would be very minimal since I\'m hoping to just use the tcase as my carrier bearing, and I\'d just need one shaft and yoke changed.  Not sure how long I can go on shafts... with the stupid wheelbase I\'m sure one or the other really NEEDS to be 2pc, I\'ll just have to see how it all lays out.  The tcase can\'t go as far back as my carrier bearing is: the fuel tank is in the way.

[etk300ex]

what wingman said :)

[Camo1Ton]

Hope you\'re up to all the shifting :) Stop light to stop light could get old real quick, but cool project.

[smichaelR22]

more gears to skip!

[jimsh]

Sure would be a sweet setup for towing a heavy trailer through the hills.

[MrMindless]

just because there\'s 13 of them doesn\'t mean I need to use them.

2-4-5o-7-8 is a match to the ratios I have now.  empty that\'s probably close-ish to how I\'ll shift it. I\'ll probably split all the top gears just because it sounds cool :)

I\'m vastly more concerned with being annoyed about non-synchronized shifting than with the number of ratios. It\'ll take some practice I\'m sure.

[rejeep]

I got a couple of trannys in old jeep you can practice on...

it takes getting use to.. but almost second nature at this point

[matt]

Wow Mike,

I should hook you up with my friend that put a dt466 into his f350.  Lots of work.  He ended up with a dog house and a 3\" body lift to fit that in.

For reference my d shafts cost me $500 for the crew cab.  That has a divorced 205 behind my nv4500.  Fleet pride did them up for me.  The rear is all 1410\'s and I think the front is 1350\'s  I was able to use parts and yokes off the originals so that saved me some coin.  I think the front is now 5 feet long.

I should have the truck on the road soon.  I hope.

What you doing with the nv?  I may some people interested.

[MrMindless]

I have a line of people on Cumminsforum interested in all the 4500 stuff.

I don\'t do business with FleetPride anymore, see my rant in the reviews section for why...

I\'m hoping to have this done a little sooner than as long as yours has taken :)

[MrMindless]

bare back of block ready for adaptor, bell, and 14\" flywheel...



Hoping Cummins has a rear main in stock, kit should be $70 and it\'s weeping a little now. Oddly it wasn\'t 18k ago.

[MrMindless]

interior torn down too.  passenger footwell carpet pad was nasty, I\'d spilled a couple drinks before I got rid of the dashboard cupholders, and it seems they\'d all stayed in the carpet pad under the waterproof backing.  No evaporation....  Nasty.  Probably alcoholic from the smell - but mostly just nasty.