CK5
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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper

This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
While I hurt it, unlike our slushbox brothers the manual trans got me home from western AZ. Just like you killing second and driving back from Moab.

The slushbox guys just get jealous at the fact that ours might break but still get home without the aid of a tow truck. At this point, one hurt nv4500 still doesn't stack up to the dead bodies of 4L60's stacked up in @Babaganoosh's closet.
Hey now I drove 8 miles in 1st gear once to get home. :rotfl:
 
While I hurt it, unlike our slushbox brothers the manual trans got me home from western AZ. Just like you killing second and driving back from Moab.

The slushbox guys just get jealous at the fact that ours might break but still get home without the aid of a tow truck. At this point, one hurt nv4500 still doesn't stack up to the dead bodies of 4L60's stacked up in @Babaganoosh's closet.
Atta boy
 
This is why I went 4L80e. Zero concerns.
You know it's probably not wise to tempt fate right? I know you got a fresh GM supermatic, but man don't just biotch slap karma like that! :haha: I know we can dig up some old posts of Baba's that was right along the same lines. We know where he ended up with his luck!
 
I’ve destroyed a few transmissions in my life. 47re, 48re, 4l60e, a couple of t56’s. The only one I’ve never been able to blow up is a 4L80E and believe me I tried.
 
I picked up the transmission today. They built the unit with the early low gear ratio in the later style wrapper. Fresh synchros, new bearings throughout. Anything it needed it got during the rebuild. We tossed my core on the cart and he asked if I wanted to see inside. Hell yes, I do! We rolled it into the shop and he pulled the shift tower off the main housing. It was a little anti-climactic. No major carnage like chewed-up gears. The input gear had some knicks in it, but the issue really came in with the loose input shaft/gear and how it interfaces with the direct drive (4th gear) synchro. Makes total sense when you see it apart, but the 4th gear synchro is first in line from the input. You could see as the input shaft wobbled in any direction it was putting tension on the synchro. Which explains why the thing was popping out of fourth when I let off the throttle. The change of torque on the line would cause the input to wobble and the synchro would let go.

There was more damage from the garbage getting run through it, but I didn't stick around to witness the rest of the autopsy.
 
Had an M21 in my old Firebird, the input shaft wobbled like that. When I opened it up I'd found that somehow one of the input bearings had been sliced up into little disks and were all down in the bottom of the housing. Didn't know it was possible.
 
That's cute. :haha: I put over 1000 on it to get home and another couple hundred miles just trying to burn some fuel out of the tank to make dropping it easier.

Been there, done that. Limping an unhappy NV4500 for 800 miles sure beats walking home.

Which is something that a 4L60 has caused me to do... :doah: :rolleyes:
 
Been there, done that. Limping an unhappy NV4500 for 800 miles sure beats walking home.

Which is something that a 4L60 has caused me to do... :doah: :rolleyes:
Yeah, the 4L60e in my kid's S10 had been on its last legs a couple of years ago. Tried to limp it the 40 miles to the shop and 10 miles in I turned back and came back to the house. Got lucky I made it back. Ended up sending our tow truck after it.
 
With @Capt Ron ’s help the fresh transmission is back in its rightful place. It fought us going in but it eventually got bolted down. The t-case and driveshafts are reinstalled as well. I put one too many Ugga-duggas in one of the trans mount nuts and snapped the stud off. Ron was watching me and started laughing as I kept pounding on it. Snap. He said I was wondering if you were going to keep hammering on it. Duh.

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Ron stuck around to try to bleed the clutch but it was not cooperating. Ron and I had been talking to @shima via group text before getting started today. He couldn’t come over earlier but could later. So he headed my way and while I cleaned up stuff and let the clutch gravity bleed while I replaced the upper radiator hose on the ZR2 that popped a leak this morning. (Easy fix)

Drew got here and we went back to bleeding. We went off Larry’s instructions to no avail. I ran out of brake fluid so we made a run to get more. We ran almost another reservoir’s worth through the system. No change. There is air in there I can’t get out. Going to vacuum bleed it tomorrow.

Need to get a new mount tomorrow too.
 
Can you work on your own stuff in your new work shop?

Martin
I probably could on the weekends but all my stuff is at the house.

I typically wouldn’t take on anything big at the shop anyway. Inevitably something goes wrong and I can’t finish up so the truck is taking up space that we can’t afford have taken up. In this case my truck might be stuck at the shop all week if I couldn’t stay late to finish.
 
Big thanks to @shima for coming over tonight to help bleed the clutch again. Only took two pulls with the fluid extractor, but we did it a third time for good measure.

This tool is worth the money.
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It’s the deluxe fluid extractor/dispenser. It pulls under a vacuum or can push fluid under pressure. It’s a really handy device that has many uses.

In this case I switched it to suction and fit the end of the hose with the rubber end over the bleeder post on the slave. Drew gave the pedal a few pumps and held it down with his hand. I opened the bleeder as he pumped the plunger. You could watch the air bubbles come out, first as large ones and progressively smaller. I closed the bleeder and repeated the process. By the time we got done with the 2nd round the pedal had got a solid feel to it. I was able to watch the slave push down on the clutch fingers so I know it’s moving. We went through the process one more time for good measure. Feels normal again.

I’m pretty happy about that. I’ve got fluid coming to the shop tomorrow and I’ll pick up a mount too. Should be able to wrap up the next couple of nights after work and drive it to work for a couple of days. If I can pull it off I’ll take it to penrose to camp out of.
 
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