NV4500 Before and after

[NoInterstates!]

Hey All,

Got my Truck back together, running great, no SES light! Anyways, these are the before and after pics of the pilot bearing and my Input shaft. The previous owner replaced the clutch without changing a badly worn pilot bearing. Seems like they just took out the bearing remains and re-installed the Trans. Take a look at the difference between the old and new. My truck used to make a ton of noise all gears along with a lot of terrible clutch chatter. It still whines just barely in 5th, and barely ever chatters now. I also replaced the oil in the trans with some stuff at NAPA. I also ran a breather line up front to where the front diff breathes,(there was no breather line installed previously.) The new gear oil stinks like crazy. The NAPA stuff has the marking ,SEI codes whatever, saying its as good as the old stuff but I aint buying it. Actually I already did, and it wasn't cheap, like 12 bucks a quart I think. I cant tell if its cause I put the breather up front I am smelling this or if the NAPA stuff just stinks,(literally and figureatively.) Anyways I got the real deal from the dealer today, 110 bucks for 5 quarts! I am sure I could have gotten a better deal somewhere else, but I want the right stuff in my NV4500 Now! Take care all and let me know what you think of these pictures.

 

[schiker]

Good pics. Not sure what the deal is with that dinky needle/roller bearing. I found mine disentigrated rollers and torn up input snout too and have read its a very common failure mode and probably leads to clutch disc hub premature failure.

 

[davo727]

I bought my 92 dually the same way, brand new clutch and no pilot bearing and the new disc was cracked from the flexing. my input shaft was ok though.

 

[bk95td]

Where I used to work they had a fleet of chevy truck with manual transmissions. They all stunk like gear oil untill they changed the tranny oil to amzoil. Stink gone.

 

[packratt]

From what I understand that needle bearing is a common failure point. The fix is to use the old style solid pilot bearing.

I don't think the pilot bearing has anything to do with the clutch disc breaking. My clutch was replaced 80,000miles before I bought the truck. The needle bearing had killed the input shaft and bearing was replaced with solid. That replacement clutch disc broke about 15000 after I bought the truck.

 

[treegump]

I have 185k on my truck (bought it at 155k), and I've already ordered a new clutch kit and slave cylinder w/ bearing. In summary - is there anything else I need to order. I'm hoping to get this done on friday.

 

[doober]

You might want to get the gasket that goes between the transfer case and the tranny. Mine always gets torn when I take it apart. You will want to have the flywheel resurfaced too I would think or replaced. In 96 you have the internal slave?

I thought I was going to get mine done in a day also but when I took the tranny out I found that alot of my parts such as the snout that the throwout bearing rides on was worn. The duel mass flywheel was in tough shape also so I put on a single mass flywheel. The seal in my transfercase was also bad so I replaced that also. I put in a new fork and pivit ball too as mine was getting warn. My truck had 240,000 miles on it though. It took about 3 hours to get it out but getting the parts and acouple of the parts weren't the right ones so I had to reorder them. It took about 2 weeks by the time I had it back together. It didn't mater to me because I did have another vehicle to drive.

 

[treegump]

I ordered these parts off of rockauto:

BRUTE POWER / PERFECTION CLUTCH90196Clutch Kit
BRUTE POWER / PERFECTION CLUTCH360058Clutch Slave Cylinder

so, I think I have the flywheel taken care of. The gasket will probably be gasket maker. And I'm trying to figure out if I need to get a crankshaft pilot bearing, or if comes with the clutch kit.

 

[doober]

Looks like you have it covered. Might want to have a friend there when you remove that NV4500. Darn thing is for sure very heavy. One of my friends had a tranny jack that went just as low as a floor jack. That worked awsome. Folks have different methods on putting the tranny back in. I put the bell housing on the motor first then the tranny. Some put the bellhousing on the tranny first. With the tranny jack, that would tilt forward and back and side to side it only took about five minutes to get it slid in place once I got it up to the bellhousing. Thats a good feeling when it slides up and everything goes together. I still have the tranny jack if you want to use it.

 

[treegump]

Looks like you have it covered. Might want to have a friend there when you remove that NV4500. Darn thing is for sure very heavy. One of my friends had a tranny jack that went just as low as a floor jack. That worked awsome. Folks have different methods on putting the tranny back in. I put the bell housing on the motor first then the tranny. Some put the bellhousing on the tranny first. With the tranny jack, that would tilt forward and back and side to side it only took about five minutes to get it slid in place once I got it up to the bellhousing. Thats a good feeling when it slides up and everything goes together. I still have the tranny jack if you want to use it.

Thanks - but I helped my friend (who I continue to try and get to this forum) install his tranny in his F250 (he's got a 6 sp behind his powerstroke) and we used a floor jack...so I'm hoping that'll be alright.

Two things though - Should I order a crankshaft pilot bearing/bushing, or does it look like it comes with the clutch kit. AND, do I need to get a "KENT MOORE #J38805"?

Oh, and I suppose this would be a good time for new tranny fluid, so how many quarts does it take?

 

[treegump]

So...I don't need that tool that I listed, because no work will be done on the tranny. The tranny and bellhousing won't be separated, so I shouldn't need the rtv either.

 

[doober]

The three clutch kits I purchased always came with the pilot bearing and a throwout bearing. Make sure you replace both. I put the pilot bearing in but alot of others have used the bushing. I think you can get them at napa. If you get the brass bushing make sure you soak it in oil overnight. You will not need the kent more tool.

4 qts of oil is required. Might as well change the transfercase oil while you are there. 2 qts in that I think.

 

[iluvdrt95]

i went to the dealer and got gm gear oil at twenty bucks a pop! but shit works great and doesnt stink!! haha did you rebuild the tranny or just did the input shaft and other stuff external not internal? i got a nasty grind when i shift into third, have you have any noises shiftin even with all your new junk?

 

[625fireman]

iluvdirt the gring could be a syncro headed south. Especialy if someone put "other" oil in it. Regular gear oil will eat the kevlar on the syncro. I have only heard of "no issue" NV4500's if you use the Gm oil, Mopar oil (which is the same, and cheaper here for me) or AMSOIL.

 

[88gmctruck]

That looks quite bad! When i swapped my NV4500 in i opted for the brass bushing instead of the bearing that came with my kit.

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

That looks quite bad! When i swapped my NV4500 in i opted for the brass bushing instead of the bearing that came with my kit.

And the brass bushing will still work even if your input shaft has some wear on it. If it is real bad then you have to replace the input regardless, but many times a brass pilot will get you by for a long time. The only drawback is you won't have quite as smooth of a shift transition with a bushing as a good bearing will give, but for most people this isn't a problem. I need to go check, but I believe I have 3 or 4 quarts of that special oil in the shop that I have no use for anymore.

 

[NoInterstates!]

Well I just pulled our newly purchased 35 ft 9000lbs fifth wheel back from KS city, 245 miles, and the replacement input shaft and pilot bearing failed. I'm gonna start the repair process with a new thread on building a beefed up NV4500 that can handle 5th gear cruising at high weights. I would greatly appreciate any input from the forum. Expect lots of pics and links.

 

[JayTheCPA]

Am a little biased on the ZF-6 and looking for somebody to do it before I do :grin:

 

[treegump]

So...totally forgot I posted the parts that I purchased for my 96 on here, but those perfection parts (which advance auto parts also carries) from rockauto were a piece of crap and went through 3 internal slave cylinders before tossing everything and going with a south bend clutch, which was AMAZING!!