was it a pain in the rear to do the ball joints and tie rods? I saw 1AAuto had a sale going on so I wanted to pick up everything under the front and change it out.

 

It wasn't that difficult for me. There's hardly any rust on my Blazer, so it could be difficult depending on the amount of rust/corrosion. Pretty straight forward job though.

 

So before putting the transmission back in after clutch work, I figured I'd stick my snake camera inside the transmission. I saw some small metal fragments and chipped/broken/sheared off teeth on what I'm guessing is the reverse gear and the reverse gear synchro assembly. I won't pretend to know the workings of this transmission, but all I know is that what I saw shouldn't be like that.

Doing a transmission rebuild doesn't bother me. I'm more upset that I don't get to drive back west to see family for Thanksgiving this year. OH WELL! My boy needed a transmission rebuild anyway. From what I can tell it was never worked on since 1997, so this should be fun. Now I need to find how to disassemble and what parts and tools I need. Will start the teardown today hopefully. Wish me luck.

 

I have no personal experience with the NV3500 but I've read that it's a particularly difficult transmission to rebuild, and requires several special tools. Please let us know how it turns out, and maybe do a write-up for those who want to do the same thing in the future.

 

It doesn't looks very difficult at all. The hardest thing I see is to pull/press gears and bearings on the main shaft, but F that I'm just gonna take it to a trans shop and have them swap the parts on the main shaft only. I have to pull the casing apart and diagnose exactly what to replace so I don't buy more than necessary.

 

Like I said, I have no personal experience with it. That's just what I've read.

 

Only took an a couple hours to tear down, and I only used hand tools! Everything is factory and looks new except for the small teeth on the reverse gear and the reverse synchro gear sleeve.

Bearings, gears, blockers, other synchro assemblies, shift forks, and everything looks like it was just put in. I just have it on the hand truck for easy moving since I'm done diagnosing and cleaning parts.

First transmission I've taken apart and it was easy AF! Now to clean the casings and paint them "Chevy orange". HAHA! No, I'll just power wash it and keep the aluminum finish.



Case rear

Case Front


Reverse gear damage

reverse synchro sleeve damage

 

Transmission back together! Install on the Blazer tomorrow and he'll be back on the road again.

 

How was it to rebuild? Any special tools needed?

 

I didn't rebuld it exactly. Only replaced what it needed like the reverse gear and the reverse synchro sleeve. I did put in new countershaft bearings, input shaft, input shaft bearing and reverse idler bearing. Didn't use any special tools aside from some long snapring pliers I got at Oreillys. Once again I just used hands tools; then torque wrench when finishing it off. It only took forever due to shipping times and weather.