I've got pretty much the same symtoms will, I cant shift into first without
being COMPLETELY STOPPED if its moving at all it will grind. And you
already know all about my syncros and thrid gear. Its nice to see I'm not
the only one who has this happen but it would be nice if they could put a
tranny in these trucks that would last longer than 8000 or so miles. Mine
is being replaced because of the large amount of metal shavings inside the
tranny fluid according to them. I'm assuming they've seen this before
because they werent at all suprised and they called me an hour after I
dropped it off with them with the diagnosis.
>From: "Will Coughlin" <willcoughlin@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: dakota-truck@BUFFNET.NET
>To: dakota-truck@BUFFNET.NET
>Subject: Re: DML: 5 speed problem
>Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 20:11:17 -0500
>
>Chris,My tranny is just plain sloppy. The synchros seem to be weak. I have
>learned to double clutch to downshift, because it seems much easier. When I
>am coasting, and rounding a corner, try to throw it down into second, it
>just takes forever for the synchros to spin up and for it to finally fall
>in
>gear with lots of pressure from the shifter! I wouldn't attmept to shift
>into first at anything more than a 2-3 mph roll. I've tried it at 10, 20,
>and 25 mph. At 10 mph, it took 4 seconds of me applying hard pressure for
>it
>to go into gear. At 20 mph, it took a little more than 7 seconds. At 25, I
>held it for 12 seconds, and when I thought it was finally going to slide
>into gear, it just kind of got hung, and I could feel the gear "buzzing".
>Not grinding, I didn't push it that far, it just kind of touched the other
>gear. On cool mornings, it will grind second on the first couple of 1-2
>shifts. Sometimes when I try to go to 3rd, it will get hung. I have had to
>stop in the middle of the road because I couldn't get the shifter to go
>anywhere. I just stopped, eased out on the clutch until the shifter jumped
>out of wherever it was hung, and started over in 1st!. I have a cavtation
>noise in 5th gear, at rpms ranging from 1000-3000. It seems to be as bad or
>worse at lower rpm's. I have a lot of bearing noise at low rpms that gets a
>little worse when warm, but is always present. Reverse has a mind of it's
>own too. Sometimes, I will go to throw it in reverse, it falls into gear
>perfectly, no resistance, no excessive pressure required. But sometimes, I
>will try to hit it and the shifter just won't go back. I have to move it
>back to Nuetral, clutch out and back in ,then it may or may not require a
>lot of pressure. I have 13,197 miles on the truck right now. The low rpm
>bearing noise started at about 800- 1000 miles, or the second day I had the
>truck! The rest wasn't far behind. The cold shift grind just developed this
>past winter, as it was getting cold. I don't think that an NV 4500 would be
>too big a problem, but the only real problem I see is the size of the
>tranny
>tunnel in a Dakota. Oh, and you're 4x4. I'm not sure if your current T-case
>would mate to the NV-4500 output shaft/tailhousing. I have reason to
>believe
>the bell housing would bolt to the 4.7L, becuase the NV-3500 bolts to a
>318,a 318 bolts to a 46RE, a 360 bolts to a 46RE, and the NV 4500 bolts to
>a
>360! Did you follow that?? Oh, I asked one dealer(not the one I use) if the
>tranny would have to just grenade itself in the middle of the highway
>before
>they would listen to me and do something about it, and they replied with-"
>If it still gets power from the engine to the rearend, it's fine by us!,
>Talk to us when it won't transfer power any longer. Our advice is to drive
>the living hell out of it until it falls to completely out, then deal with
>it!" Ha! What kind of service is that?? Luckily I don't have to deal with
>people like that at the dealer I really use. I have a couple of friends who
>have had or do have 318/NV-3500 Dakota's. Buddy #1- his '97 318/NV-3500
>reg.
>cab blew a tranny at 11,000 miles. It was replaced under warranty and he
>traded the truck with 18,000 on it and it had the same symptoms developing
>again. #2-'98 318/NV3500 reg. cab. Blew tranny #1 at 9,000 miles, took over
>5 moinths to get a replacement, blew tranny #2 at 18,000 miles. Replaced
>again and truck has 23,xxx on it now doing fine! #3- '98 318/NV-3500 reg
>cab
>blew tranny #1 at 7,500 miles, tranny #2 at 13,000 miles, tranny #3 at
>17,000 miles and it is getting bad again right now with 25,000 miles. WhenI
>first carried it to the local dealer(didn't buy it there) for the 4.7L idle
>fluctuation, it had 1100 miles on it. The service manager was looking at my
>truck and he says to me "I see it's a V8 with the 5-speed. Do you want me
>to
>go ahead an order another tranny to have on hand when yours gives way? Do
>you want to go ahead and make an appointment? I' rarely see one that's
>lasted more than 10,000 mi." That made me feel real good about my brand new
>truck! He still messes with me everytime I'm down there. He'll ask me how
>many miles are on the truck and when he is going to get to drive it into
>the
>shop! Sorry for the length! Just venting a little here! HTH,
>
>
>Will Coughlin willcoughlin@hotmail.com
>'00 reg.cab,2wd,4.7L/NV-3500HD5-spd/3.92sg(9.25")
>http://www.geocities.com/willcoughlin/index.html
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>From: "Chris Lang" <langerdak@hotmail.com>
>
>
>The Bug is here! It really bothers me that my truck is being torn apart
>and
>I'm sure it will be a problem in the future as well with some annoyances
>due
>to the replacement. A NV 4500 would be very nice to have in the truck... I
>wonder how much more it would be to put one in over a 3500. I just picked
>the truck up and the dealer said the syncros are gone for third gear and
>there was a LARGE amount of metal shavings in the fluid. I do occaisonally
>slam the gears and grab rubber on the 2 and 3 shifts but it shouldnt cause
>the tranny to crap out at 8600 miles! But I've been wondering... I've run
>85 in third gear could that have led to the problems I'm having with it?
>From what I've heard around here it sounds like a good number of these
>trannys are defective or just plain can't handle the abuses of everyday
>grandma driving. What kind of troubles are you having with your
>transmission
>will? and how many miles are on your truck? We basically have the same
>truck with the addition of 4 wheel drive in mine so it would be intresting
>to see how they hold up for each of us and our different driving styles.
>
>Chris
> - Waiting on NV3500 #2 at 8600 miles
>
>
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