'93 W/T 1500 (Surprise, surprise, Bucket acquired another truck)

[bucket]

@bucket, so you changing addresses Andy?

Yes, we are in contract on a house. Downsides are: not on a rarely traveled road, no creek, no woods and not next door to my dad's place. Up sides are: much much bigger house, more land, more shop space, much more truck/car storage space, less neighbors and it will be ours (we rent now).

 

[Shorty81]

Good for you Bucket!!!!

 

[bucket]

Well dang, hopefully I didn't hurt the trans... it was really low. The following picture shows my knife pointing at the fluid level (roughly).

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There was a fair amount of large shavings on the fill plug.

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I didn't have any Syncromesh on hand, so I just put ATF in it. It took a full quart. I'll drive it to work tomorrow and see how it does in the morning. I'll also get a few quarts of Syncromesh, then do a fluid change on it.

 

[bucket]

Well, it was doing good this morning. After about 15 minutes of driving on backroads with a lot of turns and stops, I thought it might have been fixed. Then as I came into a small town, the clutch started losing feel with a couple pushes, then I lost use of the clutch altogether. I pulled into a gas station and found that the clutch master cylinder was wet where the fluid line hooked in. Fluid level was OK. Not wanting to run errands all day having to shut the truck off to stop and then get rolling on the starter, I drove back home.

Got home this evening, filled the reservoir back up (it was now empty) and had my wife pump the clutch pedal. The master cylinder is actually broken and it sprays fluid out of it.

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[AuroraGirl]

A little bit ago, I parked the truck by the garage, in the area that always floods. The ground was completely frozen at that point. Well it thawed and we got a bunch of rain, lol. Yesterday was my only chance to get it out, as it briefly got cold again and the ground kind of, sort of, maybe just a little, froze up again. I had to do some 'yard muddin' to get it out.

That big dent sure collects a lot of debris.

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The Suburban normally goes out and gets muddy. It was just an innocent bystander this time.

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Oh and as can be seen, I installed a toolbox in the bed too. And I'm not sure what's going on with the clutch/trans. Moving it around a bunch, with lots of forward and reverse rocking to get the truck unstuck, it still goes into gear just fine. Maybe the damn thing is just low on fluid... I can't remember if I checked it already.

definitely had the 2wd f150 looking like that. especially when the old junk tires were on it and wet grass(level ground) was a obstacle

 

[AuroraGirl]

Well dang, hopefully I didn't hurt the trans... it was really low. The following picture shows my knife pointing at the fluid level (roughly).

You must be registered for see images attach

There was a fair amount of large shavings on the fill plug.

You must be registered for see images attach

I didn't have any Syncromesh on hand, so I just put ATF in it. It took a full quart. I'll drive it to work tomorrow and see how it does in the morning. I'll also get a few quarts of Syncromesh, then do a fluid change on it.

What kind of ATF did you put in it?

Because If you put in Dex VI uh-oh.

If you put in anything thats close to dex-III, literally dex-III, or generic non synthetic non low viscosity stuff you should be ok....

88861800 is the part number for DexIII, which is only sold by GM for the use of transfer cases and manual gearboxes.

Dex VI is a big "DO NOT PUT IN" though im not sure what about it is bad idea(side effects)

 

[Old77]

Yes, we are in contract on a house. Downsides are: not on a rarely traveled road, no creek, no woods and not next door to my dad's place. Up sides are: much much bigger house, more land, more shop space, much more truck/car storage space, less neighbors and it will be ours (we rent now).

Congrats, Andy!!

 

[bucket]

What kind of ATF did you put in it?

Because If you put in Dex VI uh-oh.

If you put in anything thats close to dex-III, literally dex-III, or generic non synthetic non low viscosity stuff you should be ok....

88861800 is the part number for DexIII, which is only sold by GM for the use of transfer cases and manual gearboxes.

Dex VI is a big "DO NOT PUT IN" though im not sure what about it is bad idea(side effects)

It was probably Dex VI, but I'm not worried about it at all. It's going to be coming right back out and Synchromesh put back in. The wrong fluid is better than no fluid, imho.

 

[AuroraGirl]

It was probably Dex VI, but I'm not worried about it at all. It's going to be coming right back out and Synchromesh put back in. The wrong fluid is better than no fluid, imho.

I did some more digging, as long as your trans isnt like an Sm465 with yellow metals and more crude construction(simple) then you will probably be okay. id maybe use some rags and some spray to get the very very bottom of the trans free of any fluid when you do your change.

Its more of an issue of what may happen
some newer manuals call for dex vi
for most manuals gm says NO DO NOT USE DEX VI

but they also say this for t cases, which is why they still make dex iii but call it manual trans/tcase fluid.

 

[Midnightmoon]

I may have missed it in your thread, but is that an NV-3500 transmission?

 

[bucket]

I may have missed it in your thread, but is that an NV-3500 transmission?

I wasn't sure at first. It was either that or a previous HM290 variant. But after some digging, I do believe that it is an actual NV3500 and '93 was the first year for it.

 

[AuroraGirl]

I wasn't sure at first. It was either that or a previous HM290 variant. But after some digging, I do believe that it is an actual NV3500 and '93 was the first year for it.

does the SPID say that or was it put in maybe?

 

[bucket]

does the SPID say that or was it put in maybe?

It is the original trans. The 3500 and the HM290 it replaced look very very similar. They are also interchangeable as a unit. Research shows that the 3500 was in production for the '93 model year.

The 3500 is supposed to be much more durable than the 290. Although, I had a '91 S10 with the HM290 and I thought it was a fine transmission. I beat on that thing mercilessly and it always asked for more, it even outlived the 4.3 under the hood. Well over 200k.

 

[AuroraGirl]

It is the original trans. The 3500 and the HM290 it replaced look very very similar. They are also interchangeable as a unit. Research shows that the 3500 was in production for the '93 model year.

The 3500 is supposed to be much more durable than the 290. Although, I had a '91 S10 with the HM290 and I thought it was a fine transmission. I beat on that thing mercilessly and it always asked for more, it even outlived the 4.3 under the hood. Well over 200k.

Id like to swap a 4.2 I6 from a blazer/trailblazer/bravada/whatever else gm threw it under into a small older truck or even a LD full size.
I bet it came mated to a 4l60e albeit the smaller kinds but thats still means it wouldnt be that hard to plop in front of a trans of somekind. the original PCM could be used like LS swaps do or some spirited customized EFI setup maybe.

Dont know why that came to mind when you said that stuff lol

I just googled, it was not standard bellhousing (Kinda like a northstar wasnt) and the engine stock makes ****** for low end (has top end) but its also a tall engine, easy to tune because same architecture as the 4.3 and the LSs i presume, and the only stockish way to have a manual is a colarado I5 5 speed bolts to it but you need a custom flywheel.

This idea just got a lot less fun

I am sure it can be modded to be more appropiate for truck work but meh

at that point, may as well just use a colorado I5 and have more room in front of the engine and not need a custom flywheel

 

[bucket]

When I first read about the new 4.2 six in the local newspaper, I thought it was pretty cool. But then, a few years later after driving many of them and having to work on them, I grew to hate them. I generally thought they were a finicky POS and thought they were poorly packaged too. Iirc, the engine family was named "Atlas".

There was a member here a long time ago @Jims86 that was a fan of them and could talk them up and make me think (temporarily) that they were pretty good. But he ain't been around for a while and my opinion of those engines is still the same.