What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

I need more gears

Bubba Smith

Bubba Smith

Registered Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Posts
5
Reaction score
1
Location
Metter, Ga.
83k5 with a sbc400, Muncie 4sp, np208c, and 373s in gm 8.5 10bolts.... the problem is, once I went to the 373 gears i just about lost all use of 1st gear.. I'd like to know if there's another manual trans 5sp + that'll go with my setup without to much work?
 
Bubba Smith said:
83k5 with a sbc400, Muncie 4sp, np208c, and 373s in gm 8.5 10bolts.... the problem is, once I went to the 373 gears i just about lost all use of 1st gear.. I'd like to know if there's another manual trans 5sp + that'll go with my setup without to much work?
Click to expand...
Are you talking about the Muncie with granny low 1st gear? Which would be labeled 'L' and up on the transmission and 1st would be down. I'm not so sure I would go with a different trans just so I wouldn't have to give up that compound low. I've got a 400 with a TH350 and always thought that having a compound 1st gear would be damn near unstoppable with SBC 400.

Joel
norcal
 
I haven't seen the "L" but was always told it was a granny low, but with the 35s I did get a little use from it, thinking of maybe going to 37s or 38s to maybe get stretch it out some....
 
35's and 3.73 gears with a 465 isn't ideal. I had the same combo on my old Blazer and I wouldn't say 1st was unusable. But I also didn't see the need to take off from a stop in 1st all the time. I could if I needed to. But it was better than when I had smaller tires where the engine would tach out before crossing an intersection.

Keep this in mind, with the first gear ratio of 6.55:1 it was never intended as full time use since it isn't synchronized. Although the bigger tire you go to without enough gear in the axle 1st gear becomes more usable. It's making up for the lack of gear in your axle for the bigger tires.
 
I agree, and most of the time I start from 2nd which works, but this truck also sees highway miles on occasion, that's the real reason for more gears...
 
1st gear, or granny low, on those transmissions was never really intended to be used during daily driving. There are a lot of 3/4 ton trucks that come from the factory with 4.10 gears, 31" tires, and that transmission. The NV4500 was basically the equivalent of the exiting transmission but with an overdrive 5th gear (1st was still a granny low) that they started using in the 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks in the 90's. Another option is the NV3500 which was common in 1/2 ton trucks. 1st gear in those was actually useful in normal driving so you had more total gears to choose from.....to be honest it's a better daily driver transmission with just losing the granny low 1st gear. Sure, it's not as beefy as the 4500 but for normal driving on a streetable K5 it would work fine. Really don't know the intimate details of what is required to swap them (inputs and output/t cases/overall lengths) but you could probably get a NV3500 much cheaper.
 
6.2Blazer said:
1st gear, or granny low, on those transmissions was never really intended to be used during daily driving. There are a lot of 3/4 ton trucks that come from the factory with 4.10 gears, 31" tires, and that transmission. The NV4500 was basically the equivalent of the exiting transmission but with an overdrive 5th gear (1st was still a granny low) that they started using in the 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks in the 90's. Another option is the NV3500 which was common in 1/2 ton trucks. 1st gear in those was actually useful in normal driving so you had more total gears to choose from.....to be honest it's a better daily driver transmission with just losing the granny low 1st gear. Sure, it's not as beefy as the 4500 but for normal driving on a streetable K5 it would work fine. Really don't know the intimate details of what is required to swap them (inputs and output/t cases/overall lengths) but you could probably get a NV3500 much cheaper.
Click to expand...
Some good advice there. The NV4500s are typically expensive when you find them, they take some work to adapt, and even though you get an overdrive you still have to contend with the ridiculously wide gear ratio spacing. From what I understand if you're interested in an NV3500 shoot for one out of the newest 1/2 ton you can find-they got stronger as they went on and you want to avoid the ones out of an S-10.
 
With a 350, SM465/NP208, 3.73 gears and 36" tires, I can do 80 on the interstate. You should be fine on the highway.

Martin
 
I have a 400, 208, and 373s, but am going to go with 38s I believe, I think it should be fine, with a nv3500, or nv4500, as long as it'll take the power..
 
With 38" tires and 3.73 gears, and overdrive transmission would silly.

Martin
 
Ton of work to go with an OD trans unless you are doing a lot of freeway driving. Would like to do the 3500 just as a project, but it's nearly impossible to justify in my case, it would never pay for itself even if mileage was fairly improved. The 3500 has been used in fairly stout factory applications, and some have really abused them and had them live, but it's no guarantee.

I Like the idea of OD, but the 4500 comes with generally the same horrid gear splits as the SM465, and the 3500 is better in that regard, which would make shifting more enjoyable, with more usable gears. The only place the 3500 really fails I think, is its input rating, vs the 465 or 4500.
 
dyeager535 said:
Ton of work to go with an OD trans unless you are doing a lot of freeway driving. Would like to do the 3500 just as a project, but it's nearly impossible to justify in my case, it would never pay for itself even if mileage was fairly improved. The 3500 has been used in fairly stout factory applications, and some have really abused them and had them live, but it's no guarantee.

I Like the idea of OD, but the 4500 comes with generally the same horrid gear splits as the SM465, and the 3500 is better in that regard, which would make shifting more enjoyable, with more usable gears. The only place the 3500 really fails I think, is its input rating, vs the 465 or 4500.
Click to expand...
Been driving mine with a 4500 for a few months now. Don't really notice the horrible gear splits. Then again, having a lot of torque down low really masks that issue. Hell, if I don't have to rail on it to accelerate I'll skip from 3rd to 5th pretty regularly. The 8.1 don't care. But if I still had the 5.3 in there it would not like that move at all. That's where a 3500 would be more suited.
 
ZooMad75 said:
Been driving mine with a 4500 for a few months now. Don't really notice the horrible gear splits. Then again, having a lot of torque down low really masks that issue. Hell, if I don't have to rail on it to accelerate I'll skip from 3rd to 5th pretty regularly. The 8.1 don't care. But if I still had the 5.3 in there it would not like that move at all. That's where a 3500 would be more suited.
Click to expand...

I was really comparing the 465 to the 4500 in that regard. I find the gear splits at lower speed are too far apart to be effective. I either have to increase vehicle speed more than I want, or I have to continuously up and downshift (between low and 1st, 2nd requires too much vehicle speed) which is not a lot of fun with the unsynchronized low, especially when you are not trying to come to a complete stop 20 times climbing a short section of logging road with water bars. It's doable, done it for decades, but forcing it into low over and over again gets tedious. A regular synchronized shift would be a welcome relief. IIRC however, the 4500 at least has synchro in low, so that would at least improve the shifting aspect.

It's probably splitting hairs, but a bit more RPM would allow for a slightly better range for my purposes. Obviously not for all.

The 3500 first gear is at least useful for other than super low crawling speed. The 4500 helps with cruising RPM, but does little better than the 465 at low speeds.
 
Last edited:
dyeager535 said:
I was really comparing the 465 to the 4500 in that regard. I find the gear splits at lower speed are too far apart to be effective. I either have to increase vehicle speed more than I want, or I have to continuously up and downshift (between low and 1st, 2nd requires too much vehicle speed) which is not a lot of fun with the unsynchronized low, especially when you are not trying to come to a complete stop 20 times climbing a short section of logging road with water bars. It's doable, done it for decades, but forcing it into low over and over again gets tedious. A regular synchronized shift would be a welcome relief. IIRC however, the 4500 at least has synchro in low, so that would at least improve the shifting aspect.

It's probably splitting hairs, but a bit more RPM would allow for a slightly better range for my purposes. Obviously not for all.

The 3500 first gear is at least useful for other than super low crawling speed. The 4500 helps with cruising RPM, but does little better than the 465 at low speeds.
Click to expand...
I had a 465 in my old Blazer. So I follow along with what you are saying. In that truck with 3.73's and 35" tires the low gear was sorta usable but by the time you picked up speed in first going to second was short lived because it wasn't tall enough either. I found if I went to first I'd typically skip to third.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom