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SM465 Love?? Hate??

T

twojoints444

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Lets hear everyones thoughts about the SM465. Good, Bad, Lets hear it.

I am swaping the transmission into my truck and dont have any experience with it hands on....fill me in.
 
I've had a few of them in trucks and my Jeep I used to have. My current 82 K30 has one. I frickin love them. Damn near indestructable. Some people prefer Auto's, but I love the 465. I would take an NV4500 also. Unlike the 465, the 4500 has overdrive and is probally almost as strong.
 
I like the 465 enough I am putting one in my crew cab and would switch Horton over to one if I could convince my wife
 
The only thing i would change about it. Install Overdrive if it were possible.
 
I had a 465 in one of my blazers, and loved driving it on the street. I did not wheel much with it. i thought it would be a PITA but was not bad. Overall i liked it.
 
Love. No overdrive is a drag, but the super low first gear makes for some great crawling. Try to get a hydraulic clutch version. Some early models had a 3rd gear pop out problem; later models fixed that though.
 
I personally have autos in all my trucks - I'd like a manual in one of them, but so far it hasn't happened...

I did ride with a buddy for several days in Moab - he's got a 465 in his Jimmy. He's a good driver and had no problems with the obstacles, but halfway thru the trip he was cursing the 465 and his left leg was sore. He is swapping to an auto.
 
I have 2 of them in my trucks and they are awesome. No overdrive is a drag if your streeting it but even without it my 83 flatbed with 350 and TBI gets 15.5 mpg on the hiway and around 9/10 in town. I have rebuilt a few for friends (cause I have the tools for them) and the weakest link is the 3rd gear popout (easy fix) and alot of them have a damaged front countershaft bearing and most dont know it. This bearing is a "caged flat roller" (axle brg.) and it is prone to getting metal chips in it and cracking the outer shell. Its a easy bearing to replace without dissasembly its behind that little round cover with 4 screws. I reccomend you pull it and replace it if your using a used trans.
 
I'm a big SM465 fan, I've had two trucks now with this transmission and it was a selling point for me when I bought my 72. They are very durable, will handle all the power that you want to throw at them, can take tons of abuse and still keep working.

My two issues with it (like some have already noted) are the lack of an overdrive gear and the mechanical clutch linkage. The mechanical clutch part doesn't bug me at all since I like the simplicity of the setup but my wife complains about how hard it is to push in the clutch pedal whenever she drives it.
 
I hated the one I swapped into my 72 K5,but then I had been spoiled with a TH350 in it for 3 years before I swapped it to the SM465...I was mostly dissapointed with the wide "jumps" between second and third gear,my truck had 3:08 gears and it sucked with a manual,it was too high geared it seemed..first gear was great for taking off on a steep hill ,but useless for other street use,and being non-synchro,you couldn't downshift into first unless you were at a standstill..I also hated the 12" 3 fingered pressure plate I used ,it was a left leg KILLER and the first one I put in lasted 20 something days,then one day at a red light it decided to snap one of the three levers off,and the truck lurched forward,right into a shine red corvette,with a HUGE black guy driving it!..(I thought it was Mr "T"! :eek:)--luckily it did no real damage,and he didn't kill me,or report it to his insurance..after putting the second 12" clutch in and having the same thing fail 6 months later,I put in a 11" diaphram clutch--fisrt time I stepped on the clutch pedal I thought I forgot to hook the linkae up,it was SO much easier on my leg!..

For a off road crawler,dump truck,school bus,etc,the SM465 cant be beat..dont think I'm knocking them,they are a dam good sturdy built tranny,a few did have the snap rings break and jump out of third gear syndrome,or the early ones ate the coarse splines off the mainshaft,but other than that they rarely give troubles..


but I'll stick with automatics for my daily driven street vehicles I think--unless I came across one factory installed with a good gear ratio and or an NV4500 overdrive one..my left leg aint getting no younger,even clutching my garden tractor repeatedly while plowing with it nearly sent me to the ER I was having so much pain..I'm no fan of city driving with a manual tranny here either..
 
Will never run anything else. Plus you never have to worry about burning it up like you do with a slush.
 
I like them but I'm also getting older. Gets a little tiring to keep clutching all the time when in town. Gets even tiring when playing around, too, especially if you're doing it all day long.

I think its a 50/50 deal. I'd love to have a 465 with the Doubler setup and triple shifters along with the 465 shifter. But doing an all day thing, and with my age, I'd think I'd stick with an auto.
 
thatK30guy said:
I like them but I'm also getting older. Gets a little tiring to keep clutching all the time when in town. Gets even tiring when playing around, too, especially if you're doing it all day long.

I think its a 50/50 deal. I'd love to have a 465 with the Doubler setup and triple shifters along with the 465 shifter. But doing an all day thing, and with my age, I'd think I'd stick with an auto.
Click to expand...


I had to go look at your profile to see how old you were.... you're not old enough to be using age as any excuse for anything.

:haha:
 
four_by_ken said:
I had to go look at your profile to see how old you were.... you're not old enough to be using age as any excuse for anything.

:haha:
Click to expand...
Maybe the number doesn't sound like it but my body has aged a lot. Trust me, I hurt all over. My body is like a 70 year old man. No kidding.
 
Ive been runnin them for years and I love it. I prefer a manual anyway in my DD and in my toys. I feel that I have more control over the vehicle. If its for muddin i would go with a TH400 though.
 
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