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'89 Blazer LS swapped DD/Adventure Rig

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I drove it tonight!!

A few observations :

The good-
NV3500 gear spacing is excellent, every gear is exactly what you want.

The bad- strange metallic scraping noise that increase in frequency with engine rpm. Does it randomly ; but only with the clutch out. I don't think its the throw out bearing because the throw out is only spinning when the clutch is pushed in correct? And it makes this noise completely randomly regardless of gear...

Is there anyway it could be the starter?

I say this because when I go to start the blazer it makes a significant chirp and then it continues once I let off the starter.

The other bad- this trans must have a **** ton of miles. I'll be honest, it is sloppy as a mofo and makes all kind of weird racket. (Thanks to the PO, this thing wreaked of gear oil...) But I paid $200 for it, worst case I'll use it as a core in the future, rebuilders get a $500 core charge for these things.

I have learned how to drive it so that I can catch every gear, at first I was having to double clutch into 2nd.


Overall I am very, very pleased with the outcome. It is a whole different truck and is SO much fun to drive now.

Let me know what you think about my strange noise... I don't want to do any damage
 
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I don't know anything about these transmissions but I remember my old 64 would have trouble with the dust shield rubbing the fly wheel if it had any tweak to it at all.
 
X2 on the tin making slight contact maybe... As for the rest of the weird racket, I recall my Ge-trash being quite loud even when new. Sounded like it was full of gravel. I'm guessing the PO filled it with 90 weight to try to quiet it down. :dunno:
 
It really is a weird sound. It sounds like an improperly shimmed starter, but keeps doing it repeatedly with engine rpm.
 
tRustyK5 said:
X2 on the tin making slight contact maybe... As for the rest of the weird racket, I recall my Ge-trash being quite loud even when new. Sounded like it was full of gravel. I'm guessing the PO filled it with 90 weight to try to quiet it down. :dunno:
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I think you're right lol.

The gear noise doesn't bother me, but it seems like there is an abnormal amount of lash in the gears. Whenever the truck gets to bucking right before it stalls (not enough gas), the guts of the trans rock back and forth, its hard to explain.


Moral of the story: buy used parts at your own risk! I'm not pissed because I'll still save $300 on a core charge whenever i get a rebuilt unit in the future. Its definitely driveable for now.
 
The noise IS the starter...

I pulled the starter, push started the blazer, and NO noise whatsoever. Drove it for a half hour and still no noise.

I'll slap a new starter on it and see what it does
 
Put new starter in, no dice. Same sound.

Shimmed old starter, first with 1/64", then with 1/32", then with 3/64". Each thickness I increased in the better it got, I feel certain that if I used a 1/16" shim the noise would be completely gone, but that seems big to me.

There is no way to check engagement at this point so I guess I'm gonna stick with 3/64".

I yalls experience what is the most you've had to shim a starter? Is 1/16" too much?

Nother question:

Are all hydroboost brake pedals harder than vacuum boosted brake pedals? The blazer stops very well, positive pedal feel, but it is much harder than the vacuum booster with very little pedal travel.
 
MAX89K5 said:
Are all hydroboost brake pedals harder than vacuum boosted brake pedals? The blazer stops very well, positive pedal feel, but it is much harder than the vacuum booster with very little pedal travel.
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Don't know about all hydroboost setups, and I don't own a vacuum-boosted square body for direct comparison, but my hydroboosted trucks are all like you describe. Just a small amount of firm pedal travel.
 
campfire said:
Don't know about all hydroboost setups, and I don't own a vacuum-boosted square body for direct comparison, but my hydroboosted trucks are all like you describe. Just a small amount of firm pedal travel.
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Good to know!

It seems like braking is much more stable and predictable now. I'm impressed.
 
Thanks for the input guys.

I took it to my fav local trans shop this morning and explained what it has been doing. Their manual trans guy drove it and he could not make it grind into second like it had been doing previously. I drove it with him riding and I was unable to make it do it either.

He said that if it had been sitting (it had for a LONG time), that the shift rail gets rusty and sometimes that makes it hard to get into gear. He worked the shifter back and forth from 1st to 2nd repeatedly. He said I just need to drive it and see how it acts after its broken in. Also said that the synchronizers were fine from what he could feel by driving.

I asked him about strange noises and sloppiness and he said that is normal behavior for any NV3500, used or newly rebuilt.


So I'm gonna drive the piss out of it and chalk it up to needing to be broken in. I've been driving it all day and it hasn't talked back once.

So:

Max Happy.

This thing is a blast to drive, 3rd gear is the best!
 
MAX89K5 said:
Thanks for the input guys.

I took it to my fav local trans shop this morning and explained what it has been doing. Their manual trans guy drove it and he could not make it grind into second like it had been doing previously. I drove it with him riding and I was unable to make it do it either.

He said that if it had been sitting (it had for a LONG time), that the shift rail gets rusty and sometimes that makes it hard to get into gear. He worked the shifter back and forth from 1st to 2nd repeatedly. He said I just need to drive it and see how it acts after its broken in. Also said that the synchronizers were fine from what he could feel by driving.

I asked him about strange noises and sloppiness and he said that is normal behavior for any NV3500, used or newly rebuilt.


So I'm gonna drive the piss out of it and chalk it up to needing to be broken in. I've been driving it all day and it hasn't talked back once.

So:

Max Happy.

This thing is a blast to drive, 3rd gear is the best!
Click to expand...

:woot:
 
MAX89K5 said:
Thanks for the input guys.

I took it to my fav local trans shop this morning and explained what it has been doing. Their manual trans guy drove it and he could not make it grind into second like it had been doing previously. I drove it with him riding and I was unable to make it do it either.

He said that if it had been sitting (it had for a LONG time), that the shift rail gets rusty and sometimes that makes it hard to get into gear. He worked the shifter back and forth from 1st to 2nd repeatedly. He said I just need to drive it and see how it acts after its broken in. Also said that the synchronizers were fine from what he could feel by driving.

I asked him about strange noises and sloppiness and he said that is normal behavior for any NV3500, used or newly rebuilt.


So I'm gonna drive the piss out of it and chalk it up to needing to be broken in. I've been driving it all day and it hasn't talked back once.

So:

Max Happy.

This thing is a blast to drive, 3rd gear is the best!
Click to expand...

That was my experience with an 88 GMC pick-up from new. Tranny made a lot of noise, never skipped a beat though and I beat on it pretty hard being pretty young at the time. I'd regularly hit third hard enough to put about ten feet of rubber down. 4000 rpm launch...often.

Then it got stolen, and driven accordingly (ie: worse than I drove it). a year after I got it back a hardened roll pin in the shift tower broke. Once that was replaced it was fine again.

Mine of course was the infamous Getrag, the first year of production no less. Yours would be a much upgraded stronger version of what I had.
 
tRustyK5 said:
That was my experience with an 88 GMC pick-up from new. Tranny made a lot of noise, never skipped a beat though and I beat on it pretty hard being pretty young at the time. I'd regularly hit third hard enough to put about ten feet of rubber down. 4000 rpm launch...often.

Then it got stolen, and driven accordingly (ie: worse than I drove it). a year after I got it back a hardened roll pin in the shift tower broke. Once that was replaced it was fine again.

Mine of course was the infamous Getrag, the first year of production no less. Yours would be a much upgraded stronger version of what I had.
Click to expand...
Thats good to know.

It was reassuring having a specialist tell me that it was normal, I stress myself out over little sh*t..
 
When you did the hydro boost, did you use the hydro boost peddles? The pin location is different between vacuum and hydro and can cause a bad peddle feel.
 
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