Second Gen NV4500 Shift Covers: 1995 and up (LD vs. HD)

[DirtyLarry]

Not sure if this has been covered before but I recently learned something new that I thought I would share with all you clowns.

Back in 2010 I swapped in a used NV4500 into my K10. As it turns out that used trans had major 5th gear issues and I needed a trans fast as we were a few weeks away from our annual desert trip. Luckily, I found NOS NV4500’s on EBay from a seller in Texas that had purchased a truckload of overstock transmissions from GM’s Pontiac East Assembly plant. The NOS trans was a deal too at $1000. Anyway, I never liked how the shifter stick was so long on this NOS trans and noticeably taller and goofy shifting compared to the other NV4500 I had just pulled out. Hell, I felt like Ratfink with the shift lever taller than my head (okay, not quite that tall but you get the idea). Meanwhile, the NV4500 shifter stick in the Suburban had a nice low stance and felt to have cleaner gates to boot (the NV4500 in the Burb is the original one that was in the K10. It was rebuilt before going into duty in the Burb). After doing some research I found the NOS trans I got was actually a GMT880 (Silverado/Sierra 2500HD/3500) unit which uses a taller shift cover and shift tower to make up for the 2” body raise GM used on the 2001 and later HD trucks. Between the HD truck unique shift cover and unique HD truck shift tower the entire shifter raises over 1.5” to 2” depending how you adjust the jamb nut at the base of the stick. This is not an issue if you want to run a custom shifter stick but I like to use the OEM shifters and didn’t like reaching up hill to grab the shifter like some biker with Monkey Bars on his hog.

I have not seen any pictures to compare the light duty and GMT880 HD truck shift covers and shift towers before so here ya’ll go!

1995-?? Low shift tower on the left / 2001 – 2006 HD truck shift tower on right


1995-?? Low shift tower


2001 – 2006 2500HD/3500 truck shift tower Over ¼” difference!


Low shift cover on left / tall on right. Hard to eyeball the height difference from this angle


A little easier to notice the difference



I sure like the shifter stick location and geometry much better now with the shorter cover and tower

The shifter is back in the location it was back in 2010



I didn't take any pic of the shift lever with the HD truck bits and pieces but the lever was way up high and even with the steering wheel. I like it much better in the lower location!