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NV3500 confusion

S

skyhigh4by

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Ive been reading some of the posts Russell has made about the NV3500 and also pretty much any other literature I could find about it online but I can't seem to find the answer to one question..

Russell has said in his posts that the 96+ were internal slave and had single shift rail which was much better than earlier models BUT in all the reading I have done it looks like the actual NV3500 wasn't released until 93 and it had a single shift rail but external slave.

I have a line on a 3500 out of a 94. Besides the location of the slave what are the differences between that and the 96+ model?

PS yes I understand that the 4500 is far superior in strength but cost and availability are my biggest issue right now. Also I understand the ratios and drivability of the 3500 are quite nice. Some have had good luck making them last with abuse so I figure why not see what one can take before it goes while I continue to hunt for a 4500 :dunno:

Not that its really all that relevant with this question but it would be going behind a somewhat built TBI350 in an 82 on 4:10 tons w/37s
 
disenough said:
I just put a 3500 in my k10. If you can get it cheap why not. What do you have now?
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465 w/mech linkage. Its a DD so lots of stop/go and highway. To keep up on highway I have to run 2600+rpm and in town I have to ride second hard or crawl first.
 
Mine was a 465 and about the same on the highway, now i am at 1900 at 70 mph. A 3500 shifts like a car and you gain 2 useable gears. The 3500 was almost a bolt in. I have 4 inch lift i would say that is about min to clear the slave. The difference is huge and if it cant hold up i already have a spare, or i can go back to the 465 pretty easy.
 
I did have to cut the floor for the shifter it is back about 6 inches I think a 4500 is about the same. I put a piece of diamond plate on top of the hump to fix it. I think it turned out good. I will try the post a pic.
 
Thanks. That was cheaper then a new mat and if I want to go back to my sm465 I just need to get another piece of plate.
 
Looks great! I guess I'll just try it out and see how long it lasts. Pretty light weight so easy swap when they blow up and prob buy 5 of them for the price of one 4500

I like the sound of car like shifting. My setup right now is just brutal in town.
 
The difference shifting and gear spacing is night and day. I think you will have more work then I did. Mine is an 86 so mine already was hydraulic and my transfer case worked. Your case maybe different spline. But all that will have to be changed for a 4500 also.
 
disenough said:
The difference shifting and gear spacing is night and day. I think you will have more work then I did. Mine is an 86 so mine already was hydraulic and my transfer case worked. Your case maybe different spline. But all that will have to be changed for a 4500 also.
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IDK for sure but I think my 208 will bolt up to a 3500?? The conversion to hydro is mostly whats holding me back from just doing it. Having trouble finding any parts for the conversion
 
Hydro slave, some searching here and you'd be gold. Just gotta measure slave depth, and measure etc so the clutch pedal travel matches stroke of the slave.

Easier than finding a hydro pedal set-up.
 
A 208 will bolt up to a FULLSIZE nv3500. It must be full size as the s10 version, although the same trans uses a different shifter position and 5 bolt tcase pattern. Please double check your spline though. Not sure if the fullsize version is 27 or 32 on 4wd. I do know that fullsize is 32 spl yoke on 2wd and s10 is 27 spl however.



And FYI although the ratings never changed, the later year the trans the stronger. Early nv3500s werent really even nv3500s. They were HM290s in a very similar case with the same mounts and shifter places. My advice will echo Russ'; get an internal slave cylinder unit and in my own experience make sure you purchase a clutch for a truck that was a 305 or 350/nv3500, IE a 96-98 c or k1500. Russ never had any issues running an older style diaphragm clutch in his ride but I for one have had a world of issues trying to use an old school performance clutch with the internal slave.

The nv3500 seems to be a very misunderstood thing. I feel like a lot of guys have blown up HM290s or very early 3500 units and consider them all garbage when the later trans' really are much better. Im not sure if they make it 4wd but the 99-03 nv3500 from behind a 4.8 will bolt right up to a small block and should be the strongest trans available.

Personally in my 2wd rig I run a 2000 s10 4.3 trans because its tighter gear ratios. If you desired that you could run one but again dont forget you would need a different tcase for the 5 bolt adapter with the 4wd.
 
I had an '88 C1500 with the TBI 350 and the HM290 (Getrag) 5 speed. I bought it new, and I beat the piss out of it regularly. First set of rear tires lasted two years. Replaced them, then it was stolen. D-bags that stole it put 2500 miles on it. Truck was recovered, needing another set of tires. :doah:

Got it all fixed, full re-paint etc and didn't have any issues with it til about 45,000 miles. At that point it started shifting weird one day...a hardened roll pin in the shifter tower had broken (after lord know how many violent power shifts). I pulled it out, had my guy repair it...only he used a plain roll pin. It failed again in a few weeks. Got fixed with the correct part and when I sold that truck with 70,000 miles on it it still shifted fine.

The only thing I never liked about that tranny was the sound it made when the truck was idling. It sounded like someone had filled it with gravel. Did that from day one, as did every other one I drove around that time...

I'm sure it was the weakest version, but I couldn't kill mine. Probably a different story when they have 200,000 miles on em.
 
I had one behind a 4.3 in a 96 c1500 and it handled many power shifts and even a few back up shove it in first and dump the clutches.
 
I'd guess in a heavier 4WD version they don't live as long...or towing stuff.
 
There are a number of internal differences in the transmissions over the years as well as external differences. The HM290 is the very early 5 speed that they ran in the 88-91ish new body style half ton trucks. It's far more likely to be a turd or break as compared to the newer ones. Some folks (like Rene) have had no issues with them but other people have broken them just daily driving them nicely. The biggest issues they had were the cluster shafts failing and with falling out of gear all the time.

They fixed the cluster shaft to a better design when the NV3500 came out, but retained the same shifter and had the same issues with falling out of gear. When they updated to the internal slave model they changed the shifter assembly but still didn't quite get it right until 97 or 98 when they switched to the single piece rail design. They don't fall out of gear anymore.

The NV3500 put behind the 4.8L trucks in the 99+ models is the best version. They used them up until 06 and they are actually pretty stout transmissions. I ran one from an 04 behind my 6.2L diesel and had zero trouble with it.

The only NV3500 failure I've ever suffered was in my 96 with a 4.3L. My previous owner had it rebuilt just before I got it and filled it with 80w90 gear lube. These transmissions run a light synthetic oil similar to engine oil consistency (10w30 I think?) and that was the cause of the failure. It started making bad noises and killed the syncronizers so it would constantly grind when you tried to shift without matching engine speed to output speed.

Like Rene said, these are not quiet transmissions. The only one I've run which is noisier is the ZF6 behind my Duramax in the Tahoe. The 04 version I ran behind the 6.2L was actually pretty quiet though.

I think that most all of the NV3500s in the fullsize trucks run a 32 spline output shaft with a 6 bolt round pattern. A 32 spline NP208, 241 or 205 should bolt right up. I would not put a 205 on the back though. Heavy, crappy low range and a much bigger risk of breaking the aluminum tailshaft housing.
 
Russell said:
There are a number of internal differences in the transmissions over the years as well as external differences. The HM290 is the very early 5 speed that they ran in the 88-91ish new body style half ton trucks. It's far more likely to be a turd or break as compared to the newer ones. Some folks (like Rene) have had no issues with them but other people have broken them just daily driving them nicely. The biggest issues they had were the cluster shafts failing and with falling out of gear all the time.

They fixed the cluster shaft to a better design when the NV3500 came out, but retained the same shifter and had the same issues with falling out of gear. When they updated to the internal slave model they changed the shifter assembly but still didn't quite get it right until 97 or 98 when they switched to the single piece rail design. They don't fall out of gear anymore.

The NV3500 put behind the 4.8L trucks in the 99+ models is the best version. They used them up until 06 and they are actually pretty stout transmissions. I ran one from an 04 behind my 6.2L diesel and had zero trouble with it.

The only NV3500 failure I've ever suffered was in my 96 with a 4.3L. My previous owner had it rebuilt just before I got it and filled it with 80w90 gear lube. These transmissions run a light synthetic oil similar to engine oil consistency (10w30 I think?) and that was the cause of the failure. It started making bad noises and killed the syncronizers so it would constantly grind when you tried to shift without matching engine speed to output speed.

Like Rene said, these are not quiet transmissions. The only one I've run which is noisier is the ZF6 behind my Duramax in the Tahoe. The 04 version I ran behind the 6.2L was actually pretty quiet though.

I think that most all of the NV3500s in the fullsize trucks run a 32 spline output shaft with a 6 bolt round pattern. A 32 spline NP208, 241 or 205 should bolt right up. I would not put a 205 on the back though. Heavy, crappy low range and a much bigger risk of breaking the aluminum tailshaft housing.
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My 2000 s10 unit is church mouse quiet in comparison to my 94 nv3500 and my 88 hm290 Ive had in the truck.
 
I went through 3-4of the hm290 trans. I would dump the clutch at 4000 rpm and power shift 2nd with a 375 hp small block. The first gear on the input shaft kept shearing the teeth off. That was in my old c1500 truck I had as a teenager.
 
tRustyK5 said:
Hydro slave, some searching here and you'd be gold. Just gotta measure slave depth, and measure etc so the clutch pedal travel matches stroke of the slave.

Easier than finding a hydro pedal set-up.
Click to expand...

Not quite sure what you mean here. Could you maybe explain a little more in depth?

The trans year in question is out of a 94 1500. I could pick it up for $100 so thought it was maybe worth a shot...
 
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