corey_pedition3
New member
I bought my Step dads 94 sierra and my mechanic said it had a nv4500 5 speed transmission. Good or bad? I don't even know
transmission question?.....
- Thread starter corey_pedition3
- Start date
chaos616
Adventurer
Yay!!!, i just swapped my GMC (2007 sierra classic 6.0L) from a 4L80E auto to an NV4500. My NV4500 came out of a cab and chassis truck and is definitly a truck transmission in the sense that it shift slow due to the extremely large and heavy gear sets (takes a while to syncronize the gears). Because of this I believe the NV4500 to be one of the toughest 5 speed transmissions in this class of transmission.
Make sure if you do a fluid swap you use GL4 rates oil, castrol syn torq i believe is the stuff, a quick google search will put you on the right path, there is the AC Delco stuff, The Castrol Stuff, and the Mopar stuff. From what I understand its all the same oil, just badged differently. Also its crazy expensive, i believe I got the AC delco for about 21 dollars a quart and put in 4.5 quarts (.5 overfilled).
Have fun with the truck should be solid!!!
Cheers,
Edit, also my transmission with respect to tougher shifting is the early 6.34 1st gear ratio, yours will be the 5.61, first year they swapped to the higher 1st gear ratio. I believe my first and reverse is not syncro'd, it shows, have to be stopped to get into gear, yours will be syncro'd, should shift a bit smoother through all gears.
Make sure if you do a fluid swap you use GL4 rates oil, castrol syn torq i believe is the stuff, a quick google search will put you on the right path, there is the AC Delco stuff, The Castrol Stuff, and the Mopar stuff. From what I understand its all the same oil, just badged differently. Also its crazy expensive, i believe I got the AC delco for about 21 dollars a quart and put in 4.5 quarts (.5 overfilled).
Have fun with the truck should be solid!!!
Cheers,
Edit, also my transmission with respect to tougher shifting is the early 6.34 1st gear ratio, yours will be the 5.61, first year they swapped to the higher 1st gear ratio. I believe my first and reverse is not syncro'd, it shows, have to be stopped to get into gear, yours will be syncro'd, should shift a bit smoother through all gears.
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aardvarcus
Adventurer
The NV4500 is good enough that I ripped out a 4L60 from my 1991 Chevy to put one in.
1stDeuce
Explorer
Yup. NV4500 is a good trans. In the pre-97 GM trucks, the 6.5l diesel could occasionally loosen the nut that holds 5th gear onto the main shaft, but that's the only issue I'm aware of, and I've not heard of it with a gas engine. Nice to have the low 1st and reverse gears in a truck... The GM 1500's mostly got a NV3500, and it has a car-like reverse ratio, which is just stupid. (I have a NV3550 in my Jeep, which is the same trans, and I always wish reverse was geared lower.)
Happy shifting!!
Happy shifting!!
underdrive
jackwagon
Well yeah, your diesel S42 got those worthless 1st and reverse ratios, backing up especially pretty much requires low range at the t-case. And I don't believe for a minute that you can't have a low reverse without a low 1st, as that's exactly how the T19s were in the 80s... 3.79 reverse in the ZF, what a joke!
The 4500 is much nicer to use in a truck, IMHO. If you don't wanna spend the big bucks on the synthetic oil, Pennzoil makes a synchromesh oil that IIRC meets GM's specs, it's around $10 a quart. We run that in every manual transmission we have, including those that should be run on ATF - they are all quiet and stay cool under load and shift great in any temperature.