Last year at this time we got 29" of snow in 2 days. Here are pictures of me out having fun during a mid-storm pause.
CK5
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The Great Smaug
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
Perhaps, someday, when it’s clear to us that the time is right. But I dunno about Kansas.
No other place in the country can you have all four seasons in one week. Last week we saw 80’s, down to low 30’s. Then rain, snow, and hail. All before the weekend.Perhaps, someday, when it’s clear to us that the time is right. But I dunno about Kansas.
See I just don’t know if I could handle that. That kind of stuff actually happens here (minus the snow). 80* one day cold snap the next. Really messes with people’s immune systems.
Maybe Kansas would work out. Toto lives there.
Hahaha!
That meme should read “I miss the rains down in Florida”.
But you’re not really living unless you’re living in the extreme ...
That’s the flip side I suppose. I read about “record breaking” and “dangerous” highs in the 90s and I’m like, hmph, just another day in the life.
All about acclimation I suppose. Heat is bearable but I’d probably loose my marbles in your area.
@GWeakland620
Yes. Acclamation is key. When we first moved up North my wife worked at a daycare. The kids could play outside at 10 degrees in the wintertime. But if the heat index ever reached 90 degrees it was considered dangerous. No kiddos allowed outside on a sunny 80* day. Seemed weird at the time, and it still does.
In their defence, 80* would be an abnormally hot day, while 10* in January would be a minor heat wave.
Acclamation. It's not so bad once you get used to it.
Acclamation. It's not so bad once you get used to it.
But that wouldn't be nearly so funny!
Barn is still flooded. I'm waiting for the water to go down, but otherwise I'm getting stir-crazy. It's time to get this dragon back on the road. 
I've been discussing NV3500 tech with @Big Ray. With his permission, I'm archiving it here so it might help someone considering this swap.
Yes I'm still rocking it. Granted, I let the burb hibernate through the winter, and I haven't yet pulled it out for spring. So I only have about 1000 miles on the new tranny setup, and they're the frantic miles from the tail end of last summer.So far I prefer the NV3500 to the NV4500. Having 5 real gears vs. the 4.5 gears of the 4500 is nice. I daily drove the NV4500 or a couple years, and the wide 3/4-split is manageable. But when the 3500 has a friendlier shifting pattern...it's hard to prefer the cast iron dump truck tranny. The NV3500 is significantly friendlier when towing. The NV4500 looks stronger on paper, but I'm nowhere near the power/torque rating of either design. And my late-model NV3500 avoids both the shifting rail issues of early HM390/NV3500 units and the dreaded 5th gear failure of the NV4500 units. I'm optimistic about its future.
They're both good trannys, and both make good swap candidates. The NV3500 is a bit easier to fit into a squarebody, but the shifter sits just a touch further rearward. The huge stock NP208 shifting bezel will not work well with the NV3500, but it fit my 4500 with just trimming one corner. But they can both be swapped in using 100% stock GM parts, IF you have the patience to collect all the necessary pieces (it doesn't resemble a stock combination, even if the parts are stock).
Thanks for the compliment. The builds have been fun, and I'm not done yet. I have a list of stuff to get done in the next few weeks. First camping trip is penciled in for 3.5 weeks from now.
Dream? Yes. Living the dream is a fabulous idea. Standards are a little lower this year. My 'dream' is mostly just to survive a year without calling AAA or having a catastrophic vehicle failure.
Check back in a few weeks. I expect to be covering the shifters this summer. My plan right now is two generic shifter boots from summit. On the blazer I cut up a stock 208 bezel and a stock SM465 boot. I've seen pictures of a stock 205 boot fitting well with a 4500/208 combo. But the 3500/208 is gonna look weird, they're just too close together.
Not that either of us will lose sleep over it...
An '86 burb already has the "W" crossmember, so the 3500 perfectly matches your 700R4 mounting configuration. Grab yourself a 32-spline input shaft for the 208 and rig up the clutch hydraulics. Most of the fab work is already done for you, courtesy of General motors.
There are several variants of NV3500/NV3550/HM290. S10 units have an external clutch slave and a 5-bolt flange at the rear end, vs. the internal clutch slave and 6-bolt flange that full-size units got. There are three generations of shifting rails. Mine (from a 99+ full-size truck) has a single shifting rail that is supposed to hold up better than the 3 individual shifting rails that earlier units had. They were also used in Wranglers, Cherokees, and Dakotas. Dodge units have removable bell housings, but I do not know if there is a Chevy bell housing available for these. The input and output shafts are also different. There are a lot of interchangeable internal parts,though. The rebuild kit that I put in my truck was cataloged for a Jeep NV3550. I guess that makes me a Jeep guy now, eh?
@Big Ray, this rebuild manual is a very useful resource:
https://www.scribd.com/document/66175886/2003-NV3500-Service-Manual
It's specifically for my series of NV3500, but the other generations are similar (aside from shifting rails).
https://www.scribd.com/document/66175886/2003-NV3500-Service-Manual
It's specifically for my series of NV3500, but the other generations are similar (aside from shifting rails).
Very nice.
Looks like this shot got left out of the trip report. Pity.
How's the beast doing?
Fairly well. It's been on DD duty for the last month or so. Some small things have happened, but not worth updating the work log. I am focused elsewhere this summer.
Headlights got aimed, and the bezels are installed.
I washed most of the dirt out of the engine bay (I can again see the red paint on the block).
I changed the 3 leaking fuel overflow lines. The "new" rubber had cracked, and two of them had chunks missing where they sealed on the nipples. Whatever their source, they were 100% junk.
I blew the end cap off of one of the front Bilstein shocks. It's definitely time to install the new ones. But, like everything else, it's not done yet.
The truck sways enough to be squirrely, but I suspect the combination of 2 new shocks, one old shock, and one failed shock isn't helping.I did clean out the barn and sold $20 of scrap truck parts.
I've twice scheduled wheeling trips, and then had last minute cancellations. So I just this week finished off last year's tank of fuel (been doing short trips around town). Still hoping to get on the road in a few more weeks.
