NV4500 swap is underway

[argonaut]

Perhaps the reason for the 5th gear failure comes from high frequency vibrations present in the absence of the stock damper.

In my research I seemed to find that the Dodge units without dampers had more fifth gear failures than the Chevy units which use them. This may have been coincidental, but the engineers decided to use the dampers for a reason and so it was a one of the reasons that I decided to retain the stock damper and adapter just like Larry is showing here.

Larry are you at all concerned that the NP205 weighs almost twice as much as the 208 or 241 that was intended to hang off of that adapter?

[K20chevy]

Out of my own experience with an aluminum tail housing braking off dumping the t-case on the interstate, I can just advice everyone to run a second crossmember, second tranny mount and an adapter like I have used on my truck. Works perfect and gives you the extra insurence in case something does let go, that the t-case will stay unter the truck.

here are the pics...

mock up:



final install:



final install close up:



2nd cross member from the side:

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by argonaut

Perhaps the reason for the 5th gear failure comes from high frequency vibrations present in the absence of the stock damper.

In my research I seemed to find that the Dodge units without dampers had more fifth gear failures than the Chevy units which use them. This may have been coincidental, but the engineers decided to use the dampers for a reason and so it was a one of the reasons that I decided to retain the stock damper and adapter just like Larry is showing here.

Larry are you at all concerned that the NP205 weighs almost twice as much as the 208 or 241 that was intended to hang off of that adapter?

I often wonder about the damper too. GM applications didn’t use dampers behind gas engines, only 6.5L diesels to dampen the pulses of the rattley diesel. Sometimes I also wonder if the way I lug the truck does more damage than just conserving fuel. The 8.1L has plenty of torque where I am often already in 5th before going 40 – 45 MPH.

No, I am not worried about the weight of the 205 on the aluminum adapter/rear trans cover at all but maybe I should be?? To me, the NV4500 aluminum adapter even looks sturdier than the old school 465/205 adapters that were known for cracking. Now with that said, had I used a 205/203 doubler like others have done I definitely would have gone with a cast iron adapter. Seems all the cast iron adapters are for the Dodge version of the NV4500 instead of GM. Maybe I am wrong or just didn’t look hard enough. What are you planning to do with yours? I certainly do not recommend using the 205 side bracket to bolt it to the frame!