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So I had my NV5600 completely rebuilt a year ago Friday, and now it I am waiting for the rollback to show up to have it worked over again. I was driving home last night on a half ice/half pavement road, so to keep the boost/torque from slamming the drive train when it went from ice to pavement, I kept it in 6th and anywhere from 45-60 MPH to keep the RPM's down. Well about 5 miles into my trip it starts making all kinds of noise, switch to 5th, sounds fine. Back to 6th, noise comes back again. Not sure what is going on this time around, but it was rebuilt before because 5th or 6th (can't remember which one) busted a tooth and rolled around and damaged the main and counter pretty badly. Here is the gear set from the first go around:
NV5600 Carnage pictures by natehas - Photobucket
They are going to warranty it at the shop where it was re-done as long as it is something in the tranny messed up, which I am sure it is, so at least I shouldn't have to fork over $2700 again for it to be re-built. Anyone know what would cause the described symptoms or had this happen to them before?

 

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Steelhead01, I haven't towed anything with it in months but when I do most of the time it is just out 23' boat which is maybe 2 tons trailer and all. The tranny was supposed to be re-built using upgraded components the last time around. I was using Royal Purple Synchromax when it went out the first time, now it has the Mopar stuff in it since the re-build, that was what they put in it. I'm not sure what mine makes max in torque, but I usually have my TST on 3-3 standard power which is rated 50 HP and 120 torque. Those setting seems to be the best compromise of power/fuel economy for me. I don't have the PTO cover coolers but I was not aware they were available until recently. Seems a little ridiculous to me that it is already crapped after just 10 months of driving (I was called up to active duty for 2 months). I have a ZOOM stage 2 ceramic clutch and it works good, hold the power just fine, but I want to try a Valair double disk instead. If it happens again I will be going to the NV4500 with the upgraded input shaft and all, that is what my buddy uses in his pulling truck that is making over 1000HP and it works great for him.

Twhetten, I had it done at a local shop here in MO, M&M transmission. I am really starting to wonder whether they know much if anything about the NV5600 transmissions. I looked online and found all the parts (yesterday) a whole lot cheaper than what they did, the labor was $792, the rest was parts. If they don't want to fix it under warranty I will probably just take it to another shop, or maybe even my local dealer, at least they have experience working on them.

 

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Either way guys I am getting really F'n pissed about this, 3rd complete rebuild in a year now! I am seriously thinking about swapping to a NV4500, hell of a lot cheaper! My buddy who pull said the gears are weak in the 5600's so that is why he uses a modified 4500, he was busting input shafts until Valair got him one of their made in the USA billet ones, now he hasn't had any problems. I don't tow that much with mine so I don't really need the extra gear spread to be honest. Any thoughts guys? I agree with the 550 TQ thing, sure, but that is probably on stock EVERYTHING. I think once you up the clutch they are much much more capable from what I have seen and read. My truck is no where near a heavy modded truck so I can't see why it keeps crapping out on me!

Anyone on here think this shop I used just really doesn't know how to work on the 6 speeds? It seems that way to me because other than clutches i never had a problem in 4 years, now i'm going for round 3 in less than a year!

 

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Any thoughts on the 5 speed conversion?

 

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Ok guys, not to interrupt lol, but here is an update. As he and I (the shop owner) suspected, it is more than likely 6th gear again. They are tearing it apart this morning and will be calling me as when they find out. He said it seems to be just a few broken teeth from the sound of it rather than all of them this time around, but it is probably still shot. He said they have learned a lot about these transmissions lately and the main failure seems to be inadequate lubrication. He said they have been packing the bearings excessively since that came to their attention, but I mentioned the overfill thing, he said he never heard of it, but liked the logic of it as long as it doesn't get filled to the point of creating foam in the tranny. They are going to overfill it for me when it goes back in. He said as far as the 6 to 5 speed, I would have even more problems with a 5 although it may be a little cheaper but it would give me more problems. Another problem I have been trying to get them to look at for a while now is the clutch, and the owner finally drove it and agreed, something is not working right. If I put it to the floor, it still doesn't shift easy and he agreed, it's not disengaging properly. He said they have seen the pedal/mount under the dash flex in these trucks, and to correct it I am going to put an adjustable master/slave in, we will see. On an interesting side note, he is a Royal Purple dealer and he WILL NOT use their Synchromax or anything like it because from what they can tell on re-builds, it doesn't seem to lubricate like it should, so they only use the Mopar stuff in them. A friend of mine who pulls also said only get the Mopar stuff. So for this round, the 6 speed stays and they said they will stand behind it again.

 

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Ok guys, need some advice here. The shop who built the tranny in the first place (12 month/12,000 mile warranty) told me to bring it in and they would take care of it for me, not a problem. The 12 month warranty ended January 9th, it busted on the 11th. I pick it up today and I was informed (after paying almost $2700 to have it re-built the first time) that since I am a good customer I would only have to pay the $650 for the 6th main and counter, a couple bearings and the seals to put it all back together, plus the fluid. Anyone else think this is shady at best? The $650 was just parts, they picked up the labor since I was a "valued customer" even though they never called to tell me what was wrong or give me an estimate, they just fixed it cause they would "take care of it" and threw me a bill that seems ridiculously over priced for a main and counter gear set! Just a note, on the first rebuild invoice, the 6th gear main was $142.40, counter was $172.83, seems impossible for a couple bearings, seals, and manual tranny fluid to cost almost $350!

 

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I'd like to know more about this slot, I really don't think they know chit about the 6 speeds, they seems to be learning at my expense from what I can tell. It wasn't really lugging that much, 1500-1800 RPM's and it was about a 5 mile trip, other than the bad roads it would have been in 5th most of the trip. They don't seem to think there is any benefit to the over filling thing, he said there is plenty of lube on 6th and the bearing since it didn't look burned to him. As to the exact amount of what all parts were involved, he said it would be around $650, but oddly enough he couldn't get his printer to work yet had no exact total, hmm, shoulda been right on the screen in front of him if it was just a printer error!

 

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Steelhead01, I understand all of that but given that what is in writing is what they go by, what do they have in writing? I never agreed to any services, I agreed to let them look at it because they would take care of it. They have a service form they have customers typically fill out which they sign agreeing on how much they will pay and if it exceeds that amount it must be approved by the customer. They never had me do anything like that this time. You say to get $100 back, but I have not paid them anything yet because they "couldn't print the receipt" but they couldn't get me a total either oddly enough.
Now what I could do is get the complete list of all the parts used, since I only have to pay parts, go find those parts and take them back to them and say here are your parts and that would be that, take a witness and there is nothing they can do. Or, since they want to be a crooked bunch I can just pay them oh say $10 every time they send me a bill, as long as I show effort in paying the bill there is nothing that can be done unless it specifically states on the original invoice that past due unpaid bills are subject to a late fee. Still I would just be paying a late fee on top of it.

What it comes down to is the fact that the one and only reason I allowed them to work on it was because the owner had said they would fix it for me under the warranty, it was not a problem because I even specified that it was 2 days past the 12 month warranty and over on mileage for the 12K warranty. If he was an honest businessman and told me I would be paying for it, I would have just ordered it all myself and done it, 6th gear is a no brainer to access and change, not that difficult and I wasn't in a pinch where it had to be done right away, they just offered to "take care of it."

 

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Here are the pics of the 6th main and counter. On a side note, I find it interesting that the teeth were broke all on one side, all the way around the counter and only one side of the main as well. Here is the link, the shiny oily set is the latest.
NV5600 Carnage pictures by natehas - Photobucket

 

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I agree with both of you guys, they are pretty damn stout transmissions but I was wondering the same thing about his parts, he doesn't seem to want to give a lot of info about where they came from. I had a buddy who looked them up and he said as far as just ordering genuine NV gears, they are not available anymore. I am not sure at this point whether to ride it out and see if they got it done right this time, or skip the headache, sell the 6 speed and use the extra money to build a stout 5 speed. Like I said, I rarely do any heavy pulling, and during the summer we take the boat out a lot and it's a 23' boat, but it only weighs maybe 2 tons trailer and all. To give you an idea of how heavy I pull, I do not even have a goose neck ball in it. As far as shoving copious amounts of power down the tranny, I usually run my TST on 3-3 standard power, and when I want to play around I put it on the twins program, still 3-3. So I don't see where I am really exceeding the capability of a well built NV5600 with a Zoom Stage 2 ceramic centrifugal clutch. The first re-build we even sat down and discussed what I had done/how I drove it/and what my plans were, so he could help me build it with good stuff to make it last and give me the repeat performance I was wanting.

 

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What do you mean about 6th gear being on the top? The back, yes, but it's not at the top. As far as the gears, the main has "AT" stamped on it, but that is it for the the whole set. As far as collecting on the bill, yeah I understand all that, but I have been laid off for over 2 months now (the only damn reason I took it to them was because they said they would take care of it under warranty), so they can get in the back of the line as far as I'm concerned. I don't know that collections agencies are allowed to garnish wages, I know MO had several laws governing the limits of collections agencies. I will be going to talk to the circuit court judge here Tuesday (family friend) and see what a true lawyer has to say taking into consideration state and local laws. Not trying to say you are wrong steelhead, just want to hear it from the source. You said I could go after them for 1st and 2nd repairs, this was the 3rd though. Could I for the first since it was the OE tranny that broke? The 2nd they picked up the tab since it was only a week later, but this is the 3rd. I could care less about getting any money back, I just do not want to pay for something that had I known I was paying for I could have done in my shop right here. It was not urgent, I just took it to them because they fixed it before and they said don't worry about the warranty being a little over, we will take care of it for you. I gave them the benefit of the doubt in the first place after hearing other people complain about them fixing cars and having to do it over, but getting it right eventually. They will never get any of my business again, there are plenty of other good reputable shops in the area.

 

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Just looked them over a little better, they both have "AT" stamped on them, any ideas where they are from anyone?

 

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Just a wild idea, but the main shaft 6th is the one that keeps breaking, has anyone ever cryo-treated this part? Think it would maybe give it some extra life?

 

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Steelhead01, the judge is in this county, shop is in another and no, he didn't know the guy. Actually his first answer to me was that since the guy threw me the keys, didn't have me sign any receipt or give me any paperwork, and told me to just come by next week sometime that he actually has no way of holding me to it and I have my truck back. He said they have no actual way of holding me to it since they already gave me the truck back, but his recommendation was that I go there, offer to pay half and if they don't agree, just pay half anyway and wait and see if they pursue it further. He said they would have to go to small claims court and if they decided to do that just pay the rest and get them off my back. Sounded good to me.

 

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Side, lol, re-read a little slower! County, not country, about a 25 minute drive from my house to the shop. I am going to my dad's machine shop with the NV gear set that broke in round 1 tomorrow and the latest failure to test them on a Rockwell hardness tester, see what kinda crap they put in there. I have almost no doubt they used crap gears. He also said that there is no shortage of parts for the 5600, sounds pretty damn conflicting with what i hear and read from everyone else. It's damn simple really, the tranny was made for 5 years, and then they went under, so there is a very limited amount of genuine parts to replace the broken with, he seemed to think otherwise though. Probably just trying to blow smoke up my a$$ like he has been throughout this whole ordeal!

 

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Yes I do, I have both 6th gear sets (counter and main), the original set that broke at 117K, and the set that broke last week, 15K later. If it wasn't for all this I was gonna weld them all together, pretty good boat anchor lol!