Build No Name Towrig picture thread

bad zuki

bad zuki

Bring Back Builds
Joined
Oct 2, 2023
Member Number
6938
Messages
1,653
I picked up a 96 12 valve from a buddy because it needed a new transmission. He upgraded to a new truck.

The plan is to make another truck to match my last one.

IMG_0109.jpeg


I managed to get an nv5600 swap at a reasonable price, or so I thought.

IMG_0523.jpeg


Got that automatic out as fast as possible using the jack technique to spread the frame.

IMG_0884.jpeg


IMG_0886.jpeg


First thing to go wrong was the foot pedal assembly. The PO had worn the 5 speed pedals out and made a bronze bushing that wouldn’t work with my pedals. Luckily I had a spare pedal assembly and robbed all the bushing out of 3 to make 1 good set.

Next, the rear driveshaft had a bad carrier bearing, bad ujoints, dents, and spread out yoke. So I had my local shop cut my auto one down.

After that, I found a broken bolt in the transmission.

IMG_0895.jpeg


Finally, after that fat sob is in place, I tried installing the 23 spline transfer case on the 29 spline transmission. The POS sold me a tcase out of an auto. Tore it down and am currently waiting on the new parts that should be here tomorrow.

IMG_1029.jpeg
 
What's the dimensions of the main work area with your vehicle lifts and stuff in you shop?
 
arse_sidewards said:
What's the dimensions of the main work area with your vehicle lifts and stuff in you shop?
Click to expand...
My main shop is 48x48. The columns that you saw were 24' centered. 20' deep with an 8' walkway.

Update, Dodge is together and driving. The transmission will need to come back out to be rebuilt. Synchros are MIA :flipoff:
 
350TacoZilla said:
Sorry to hear you got boned on the trans.
Click to expand...
It is what it is. My luck's been absolutely terrible so it's no big surprise.

Nifty stuff.
1. The 2wd NV4500 slip yoke is the same as the early 241DHD transfer case.
2. The brake pedal was missing some kind of clip and the PO used a zip tie, which worked perfectly as a spacer.
3. The Transfer Case Input shaft had an option for a double roller bearing.
 
For the trans cross member just tap it up and it slides out towards the back, I’ve never had to spread the frame.
 
IMG_1592.jpeg


Finally found a set of 3rd gen’s that filled out the wheel wells a bit better. I picked up about an inch of clearance going from a 285-70-16 to a 315-70-17 on 2” narrower rims.

Next, I’ll start on some kind of bumper and side steps.
 
I like that truck a lot, is it common for them to be that clean in your area?

I was very close to picking up a club cab long bed 12v with an auto last year when I bought my rust bucket. Ended up with a 24v and a quad cab which I prefer, but I do like the 97 and back dash and cabs too.

Look at allstategear.com for rebuild parts for your nv5600. Yes it's all china stuff, but it works. I have all their parts in my nv4500 and it has been good since I wrecked the cluster gear over the summer. The bearings I got in their rebuild kit were Koyo, which is good as any. The shafts and gears I got from them could have had a little tighter tolerances on the splines, but it assembled good and the endplay shimmed out right to .002" on the main and countershaft.
 
Alexis700 said:
I like that truck a lot, is it common for them to be that clean in your area?
Click to expand...
Thanks, and absolutely not. You need to look in the Carolina’s to get one this clean, my buddy had it for 10 years or so and only put afc live on it 2 years ago. When all of 300hp took out the automatic, I jumped at the chance to pick it up. Pic when he picked it up and painted it. Supposedly this was a factory color.

IMG_2550.jpeg


I’m recreating something similar to my last rust free holy grail truck. I sold the green one when I bought my house. Best investment I ever made, but I miss that tractor and its exhaust brake. Soon. :dustin:

IMG_1598.jpeg

Alexis700 said:
I was very close to picking up a club cab long bed 12v with an auto last year when I bought my rust bucket. Ended up with a 24v and a quad cab which I prefer, but I do like the 97 and back dash and cabs too.
Click to expand...
I’ll pick an automatic over rust any day of the week, and exactly why I bought this thing. The 94-97 seats are also far nicer to ride in. This one has club cab seats and I don’t like them.

Alexis700 said:
Look at allstategear.com for rebuild parts for your nv5600. Yes it's all china stuff, but it works. I have all their parts in my nv4500 and it has been good since I wrecked the cluster gear over the summer. The bearings I got in their rebuild kit were Koyo, which is good as any. The shafts and gears I got from them could have had a little tighter tolerances on the splines, but it assembled good and the endplay shimmed out right to .002" on the main and countershaft.
Click to expand...
I’ve looked at them. It’s pretty much a next year thing at this point. They are wayyyyy cheaper than torqueking is.
 
SKULLYOTA said:
wasn't aware that has to happen....for real? what is the interference?
Click to expand...
apparently nothing. Im used to doing Silverado transmission and just plan on spreading the frame because it’s almost impossible without doing so.
 
Alexis700 said:
I like that truck a lot, is it common for them to be that clean in your area?

I was very close to picking up a club cab long bed 12v with an auto last year when I bought my rust bucket. Ended up with a 24v and a quad cab which I prefer, but I do like the 97 and back dash and cabs too.
Click to expand...
I know they are rare around here, rot away quick.
I'm like you in liking the quad cab and manual but would still prefer a 12v over a VP44 truck. I had a friend with the one year only quadcab, short bed, 12v with a manual in bright red. He drove it daily to his work for like 10 years until a guy offered him more than he paid for it new at a gas station, he met the guy the next day and he paid cash and drove it home. Buddy then took the money and put it down on a brand new 3rd gen quad cab, short bed, manual trans truck that he sold for almost sticker price. He is the wash and wax every weekend type and garage them if it even rains. Then his luck ran out and he bought a GMT900 chevy duramax after driving one and loving how fast it felt. Left him creeping along interstate less than week after purchase with limp mode due to emissions BS, ****ed over by dealer multiple times and now it has had weight loss surgery.
 
350TacoZilla said:
I know they are rare around here, rot away quick.
I'm like you in liking the quad cab and manual but would still prefer a 12v over a VP44 truck. I had a friend with the one year only quadcab, short bed, 12v with a manual in bright red. He drove it daily to his work for like 10 years until a guy offered him more than he paid for it new at a gas station, he met the guy the next day and he paid cash and drove it home. Buddy then took the money and put it down on a brand new 3rd gen quad cab, short bed, manual trans truck that he sold for almost sticker price. He is the wash and wax every weekend type and garage them if it even rains. Then his luck ran out and he bought a GMT900 chevy duramax after driving one and loving how fast it felt. Left him creeping along interstate less than week after purchase with limp mode due to emissions BS, ****ed over by dealer multiple times and now it has had weight loss surgery.
Click to expand...


I bought the vp44 truck with an airdog on it and a supposed Reman vp44, said to myself at least I dont have to worry about the vp44. Then it left me stranded with a dead vp44 8 months later. :homer:

Now that it is p pumped, I like the rig. I like the driving manners of a vp44 truck better, the torque curve with injectors and a box comes on harder than a p pump with the dynamic timing and stuff. But after having a vp44 leave me on the side of the road the peace of mind that comes with the p pump is worth losing some starting and driving manners.

As far as rust, if you see a nice second gen around here it was either restored with southern body panels or it was never driven. I bought mine fully aware that the only usable panel on it was the hood. The frame was really nice, other than some rust jacking where the two sections join at the spring hanger. Which I have seen them rust jack there on southern trucks, I do not mind cutting and welding on the frame is what it is. I was happy that the insides of the box sections were very clean and there is no issues anywhere other than right at the spring hangers, will be addressing that when the body comes off.
 
Haven’t really driven this thing too much.

We had that massive blizzard roll through so I finally put the front driveshaft in. I did not know that the 2500 and 3500 front shafts have that much of a difference in strength. Also, there are 3 different yoke/ujoints for the 2nd gen’s. So I got it ready and put a small counter weight in the back.

IMG_2407.jpeg


Drove it home and let it get buried in snow and ice only to find out the starter contactors had worn out. So I waited until the ice melted and took the old starter off and used a wrench to pull the spacer place off.

IMG_3073.jpeg


Went on its first trip to pick up a car yesterday and this thing did great. No idea on what mpgs, but I’m extremely happy with the 6 speed. Using the afc live to leave it in stock mode, you can tow at any speed you want, but I like the egts to stay low. 4 hours round trip and half loaded was 1/2 a tank. The 6.0 ford or Chevy I owned would probably have needed to stop to fill up.

IMG_3164.jpeg
 
I know the joke of "cummins bro! 25 MPG towing!" but just in diesels we have had 7.3PS auto and manual trucks, 6.0PS auto and manual trucks, 5.9C auto and manual trucks and a single 6.7C auto truck. The 5.9 6spd got maybe 1-2 better than anything else empty but that could jump to 5-7 better towing the exact same trailer every day of the week. My dads 6.0PS auto dually was the worse somehow at the difference towing, it would drop from 16-17 empty driven like a grandma to 10-12 towing with same driving style I think because it had higher gears. My 550 6.0PS 6spd got 13-14ish empty and 11 towing that trailer.

The big one was gas trucks, empty I think the best I ever saw might have been 12mpg in my 8.0V10 auto but usually 10, towing the same trailer as that 6.0 it would drop to 8mpg. Again I drive stupid when I'm playing around not daily or towing so I try for smooth starts, let off early to coast to lights etc but I don't go so far as shutting off at lights and stuff like that. I REALLY wanted a 8.0 6spd truck to try out but just never got one while I had the cash. My mom had a 5.9V8 truck that would touch 14 with careful driving and immediately drop to 7-8 if it was near a trailer.
 
I had a lowered 2wd dually that got 26.3. And did that with a duece motor in the bed. The second gen’s really shine with the good areodynamics. It’s round for a reason.

I’m fairly familiar with mpgs on trucks. My last PS 6.0 got 8 towing, no matter what it was. This is definitely getting double what that thing got. Thank goodness.
 
I bought a 2001 ram 3500 dually looking for the mPGs. It got 9.5. Loaded it got around 8.5. Biggest pos I’ve ever owned. Made me miss my 6mpg 460.

Maybe on the highway it would have been better?

Glad the 6 speed worked out!
 
Covecrawler said:
I bought a 2001 ram 3500 dually looking for the mPGs. It got 9.5. Loaded it got around 8.5. Biggest pos I’ve ever owned. Made me miss my 6mpg 460.
Click to expand...
It probably had 4.10 gears. Those things could tow anything you wanted though, just terrible gas mileage on stock tires, lifted they got better.

This has 3.55s and way bigger tires. It stays out of boost at 70mph (@1950 rpm). I drove it home from Aftermarket4x4s shop and it used around a half a tank.

On the way home I was doing 60MPH up Afton, but I also wanted to test it.
 
Yeah, I like to gear them for highway and use the turbo instead of rpms

Current build is 12v zf6 3.73s on 37s, I expect it to be just right
 
Well, the dodge did great going over to the farm and back across the top of the mountain….

After the crest, (I think) the countershaft bearing decided that it was tired and want to quit.

Me:
IMG_3415.gif


Crested the top of the mountain and rode the brakes all the way down. Got to the bottom, stuck it in 5th 1:1, the noise went away, and I drove the 7 miles into cell service. (Adjust your trailer brakes folks)

Called a buddy to borrow his truck and I figured I’d limp it to the shop after I dropped the trailer off. It went from 2nd to 5th 7 times to get me the rest of the way home. 2nd was a bit loud and it made a few peoples heads turn from a good distance.

That’s a true limp mode. :lmao:
 
Tonight, we perform an autopsy.
Using the list arms to pick the transmission off the trans jack.
IMG_3432.jpeg


It’s not considered wall art if you use it in the shop,

IMG_3436.jpeg


It smells like hillbilly in here….

IMG_3437.jpeg


First bits of chunkage and the counter shaft gear is trashed.

IMG_3456.jpeg


More digging and I found this hole.

IMG_3466.jpeg
IMG_3468.jpeg


And the culprit. 3rd gear synchro came apart and shot down into the gears…

IMG_3469.jpeg
IMG_3470.jpeg
 
Sorry to see that, however this has 100% swayed my decision to swap a ZF6 in my 2001 over a nv5600 or g56.

When towing I really would like an extra gear between first and overdrive. The nv4500 works ok, but sometimes you dont want to spin 2300 rpm in 3rd but 4th will be lugging the crap out of it.

I think once I have a zf6 behind the engine, I will feel safe to add a s475 in with the s362. As of now I am basically scared to lay into it unless I am in 4th gear, after grenading the cluster gear in the 4500.
 
Alexis700 said:
Sorry to see that, however this has 100% swayed my decision to swap a ZF6 in my 2001 over a nv5600 or g56.
Click to expand...
Me too.

Just got off the phone with one of the nv5600 shops and they are having an extremely hard time getting parts/bearings in. Enough so that they might not ship my stuff out because they need them to rebuild the transmissions they have now.

Oh well.
 
bad zuki said:
You think that's bad! My wallet just dropped a double my mortgage on parts. :bawling:
Still better than the 4 month mortgage payment to get a reman.
Click to expand...
I have a Clark 280VO (set up for a Chevy application) I'm most of the way through hanging a transfer case off the back of. How bad do you need a synchro'd first?
 
Last edited:
About 20 years ago, a good friend of mine had a 98 Dodge with the 12v turned up pretty good. He destroyed two NV4500's and three NV5600's before buying one of the adapters and going to a ZF6. No more problems after that.
 
DannyK said:
About 20 years ago, a good friend of mine had a 98 Dodge with the 12v turned up pretty good. He destroyed two NV4500's and three NV5600's before buying one of the adapters and going to a ZF6. No more problems after that.
Click to expand...

This truck is stock with an afc live. So 300hp roughly and won’t go much higher. We had nv5600s last for 150k in the 3rd gen’s we used to deliver with.
 
Well you should be fine with the 5600, I am surprised it blew up on you. I have always thought of them as reasonably tough.
 
Alexis700 said:
Well you should be fine with the 5600,
Click to expand...
Thats what I’m thinking. I don’t need to tow with compound turbos. It never leads to anything fun.

Alexis700 said:
I am surprised it blew up on you. I have always thought of them as reasonably tough.
Click to expand...
I’m not. The running joke was that I could break Rockwells with a 1.3 if the rockwells had spare donut tires on them. Things always seem to break on me and I’ve learned to have patience with it…..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh