Also do you know pros/cons of an NV3500 VS NV4500?

NV3500 is a way nicer street trans. It shifts easier, its lighter, and it has a usable first gear. The NV4500 is a much tougher trans. Its a 4 speed with a low gear. Very good for towing and off road. In my case the NV3500 was okay for this blazer but in a heavier duty situation I would go NV4500

And what vehicle should I look for to get an NV4500 off ? I'm planning to do this to my 2001 express van 3500...

Thank you!

Awesome! Glad to hear it, its a good swap

Thanks for the info. I have a 86 k5.

Only the most recent for a 36 year old

Thanks for watching. Mine will get an LS eventually too

⁠@@spankranchgarage383 sbc

No problem!

Good to hear!

Should be pretty easy for you. Pull the linkage out and modify the pedal to accept the master cylinder.

haha you also have the same wheels and tires that i do, rallies with courser mtx's

@@kevinnoneman8246 I was thinking of doing the wilwood pedal if my home made one didnt work out. And these tires hook great but DAMN THERE LOUD

The Wilwood clutch master cylinder/ pedal makes it easier to keep correct rod length and rod angle so release bearing will wear properly as factory??????? Do you know how long that kit was available?

@@paulc4213 Uhh, im not sure what youre talking about with the rod length/angle, and as far as the "kit," i bought the parts seperate on amazon and did a 5 or 6 piece combination of fittings, adapters, brake line and braided line to connect the universal wilwood master with the GM internal slave. If youre talking about the "rod length" as in external hydraulic slave, there's no issue there as the nv3500 had internal slave (hyd. throwout bearing) from 96-onwards (im using a '00 model from a 4.8 silverado). The early 93-95 external slaves are on the passenger side of the bellhousing, and do not fit (without large lift kits) in 4x4 squarebodies, the slave cylinder would interfere with the front driveshaft. If you were going to use the external slave transmission in a 2wd truck, i think it would work it may hang low, and you'd need to do youre own research as to what fittings you need.

@@kevinnoneman8246 thanks for clearing that up, I understand it better now.

Thanks!

Thanks!

S10s suck! Good trans tho

Thanks good luck!

Did you make sure there's fluid in it? The NV3500s make some noise in 4th and 5th I find. If the noise changes substantially with pressure on the clutch pedal I would look into the TOB

Thats exactly it. Syncromesh in the NV3500 and ATF in the NP208. Amsoil has a syncromesh replacement that I use in my other truck and its okay. Not better not worse from what I can tell

It had 3.23's in it back when I did this swap. It doesnt have a tach but Id imagine the highway RPMs were very very low. It had 32's on it and with this lazy 305 it wouldnt pull 5th on some local highway hills. Now it has 4.56's in it to prepare for 35" tires. It has a .73 overdrive where the 700R4 has a .70 if I remember right. Its very similar.

If I had to guess, 85/86 is when they probably started dimpling them. There pretty hard to see but very convenient

They are fairly tough units. I’ve towed cars with them for years in 2 different trucks with no problems

Glad you like it!

The pivot bolt for the brake pedal, I just extended it all the way through and hung the clutch pedal along side it. I made spacers to keep everything where I wanted it. Simple and effective. I haven't had any problems with it yet but I could see additional support being needed in the future if I changed to a heavy clutch or something.

@@spankranchgarage oh ok. that makes sense. Thanks for explaining it.

Yes with a 2wd NV3500 I would expect the swap to be very similar

The speedometer is driven from the transfer case on the 4wd trucks, so no change there it all works like stock

I swapped the whole case with one from a 3/4 ton truck. You can just swap the input shaft if you want but whatever works for you. Any 208 from a th400 or a sm465 will work

Thank you! Yes those are factory seats for the 85 K5

That’s a great question. I was going to do that until I got a deal on another case. I’ve done input shaft swaps on many J231 transfer cases and it’s easy. The 208 has loose needle bearings that fall out when disassembled, I think. Very doable just a little tedious

Yes there is a reverse switch on the trans. You can splice this into the reverse light wires that exist on the factory column shift. I havent done that yet but its on my list

Sure what can I help you with?

I am not absolutely positive, but I think you can just move your crossmember back. Measure your SM465 from bellhousing flange to Tcase flange and compare it to the measurements I had in the video. That should take all the guess work out of how far you need to move the crossmember

@@spankranchgarage Hi, did some research after posting this. I gotta use a 700R4 crossmember which is okay because LMC makes their own high clearance crossmember for that transmission. Thanks for the info though!

It’s the bottom hole. You can slot it or just leave it out. I think I left it out

Speed signal comes from the transfer case.

I think it will be even easier on a 2wd.

@@spankranchgarage hey brother just saw your reply from a month ago. Going to go ahead and drop my nv3500 in my truck as soon as I get the last few parts gathered. Can you give me a parts number for the -3 fitting you used when converting from the factory gm fitting? I would appreciate it very much dude!

@@ScratchandDentGarage Russell 640281 you can get them on amazon or summit racing

For this particular k5 I just left the column in park and took the shifter off. You might have to trick the nss for a fuel injected s10

They will all work. The older ones are external slave if I remember right. There were upgrades throughout the years. Weakest being the earliest ones and the strongest being the ones that came behind the 4.8LS GMT800s. I had a 1990 k1500 that we used really hard for many years and no problems. All depends on how hard you will be on it. Id be hard pressed to break a tire loose with this boat anchor 305 let alone break the transmission.

@@spankranchgarageI have a mild 350 in my truck that probably makes 375hp. I've seen videos of people using stock nv3500s with built ls engines so I'm sure my truck won't break a transmission a later model nv3500. I plan on getting a higher hp rated clutch for it as well.

That I do not know off the top of my head. But I know shifter position is different on an S10. Luckily for you they made hundreds of thousands of NV3500 S10's so just use a transmission from one.

Yes a 208 from a th400 will bolt up to a 3500/4500. If your swapping one of these into a 465 truck measure your 465 for length and compare to my specs. If it’s close you can probably keep the same driveshafts. The shifter hole will be different tho

@@spankranchgarage thank you so much for the advice, I also have a converted 203/TH400 combo, I'm wondering if that 203 might also bolt up to an NV 3500/4500.. If I could use that TC instead of the one in my truck, then I can just pull and keep my TC in my 86 connected to SM465 and store it away as the stock setup.. thoughts on that? Thank you!...

@@jtp682 The 203 is pretty old and probably has the firgure 8 bolt pattern and not the round pattern. I dont think it will fit. If its got the round pattern it should

The 208 is a fairly tough case I wouldn't be scared to put it through some torture. The 205 is very tough but I am not sure how available they are with the round bolt pattern. You also have the 241 option from a 1990 ish 2500 suburban.

@@spankranchgarage thanks for the help, your videos are legendary. Right now I have a 6.5 to a 700 to a np203. Swapping in the nv4500. So you would recommend just doing a 208? Found a 208 on marketplace for 400 and a 205 on marketplace for 650. I wonder if they are the same lengths

I fabricated my own line and adapter to make it happen. I am not aware of any off the shelf solutions but its possible there is something. The SM465 master cylinder size is perfect for the NV3500 internal throw out bearing. Mine works like it came that way from the factory

@@spankranchgarage awesome. can you expand on how you fabricated a line?

Here is what I did for a Jeep it’s similar. Between this video and my blazer one you should be able to figure it out Making a stainless clutch line for a Jeep Grand Cherokee ax15 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fqtdlJiJ17a3fKs.html

Not quite. Yours is mechanical clutch and likely different transfer case pattern, different shafts, etc. Its actually easier to swap a 700r truck to a NV3500 than swap a 465 truck to an NV3500

What I did was source a 208 from a 3/4 ton truck its a direct bolt on. OR you can find a 32 spline input shaft from a 208 and swap it into yours.

amzn.to/3RxHRck Right here on amazon. Perfect fit

@@spankranchgarage Thank you!

You need to see if your 86 is mechanical clutch or hydraulic. Do you know?

@@spankranchgarage yes it is

@@spankranchgarage Sorry, I wasnt clear. Yes it is a hydraulic..

@@spankranchgarage its hydraulic

If I remember right I put the trans up there with no clutch and traced the shifter hole onto the bottom of the tunnel

That part was really easy. When I test fitted the trans I just pushed it up against the tunnel and traced the shifter box with a marker then cut it out. You can also just measure off the bellhousing face

Very similar except yours has the NP241 transfer case. If its a 3/4 ton it will be a direct swap. If its half ton, you will need a 32 spline input for your transfer case or find a 89-91 32 spline transfer case

@@spankranchgarage perfect thank you, It is indeed a 1/2 ton so that makes my life a whole lot easier

Mine is internal so I can’t answer that unfortunately

Yeah that’s easy since it was a factory setup. Just order flywheel and clutch for an 02 k1500 with a 4.8/nv3500. Ideally use a LS nv3500 too

Kool, thanks. All will be going in my 77k10 pickup wohoo

I don’t sorry

@@spankranchgarage ok I plan on doing this to my 83 c10

I don’t know that for sure but I think it will based on pictures

Yes as long as it’s the round bolt pattern

@@spankranchgarage what about drive shafts? would I have to get a set for an auto truck. Thank u for your input and the video

@@bradcoffin6489 If I remember right the 465 is a bit shorter so yes you may need an auto front shaft. The rear would need to change too most likely. Depends if yours is slip yoke or flange too. If its slip yoke an auto driveshaft would probably work.

It was from a GMT-400. I bent and cut it up to work for me.

Would love to see how that bracket you made attaches...are you saying it attaches to the brake pedal bracket, and it sorta "floats"/suspends, there to the left of the brake pedal? @@spankranchgarage

@@fishmidi19 The brake pedal pivots on a bolt. All I did was put a longer bolt through so it extends out the left side of the brake pedal bracket. Then I slid the clutch pedal onto that. Its wildly simple but works fine. I did this exact same thing on a jeep too.

1998 Chevy k1500 pickup

They are out there just need to be persistent. They come up around me fairly often for good prices. Check car-part.com too

90% of the parts I used came from a GMT400 truck. So searching for 88-98 K1500 stuff would be my first move. Transfer case needs to come from any squarebody with a NP208 and a TH400 auto or SM465 trans. I always keep an eye out on facebook marketplace as well as local junkyards for parts I can potentially use for my projects.

Those are 32x12.5r15

Its great. This swap was one of the best changes I ever made to this truck

@@spankranchgarage i met a mechanic in our area and told him about what i have seen here his answer was that the engine can’t handle 5 speed manual when u shift to 4th and 5th gear. So i came to you to make sure be up its a theory he never did that

The transfer case? It’s a NP208

Absolutely. I love this swap, I have been driving it ever since. It makes the old 305 feel a little stronger and I picked up 2mpg. She will have a 5.3 soon enough though

@@spankranchgarage that’s awesome I’m glad to here. 305’s were never meant to be fast. Just ease on the throttle and it’ll get there. And don’t over rev bc they hate it lol…… would you have chosen an nv4500 if you had the chance? I have an older nv4500 and contemplating using it over the 3500 only because idk if I really want a 1 ton trans in my daily driver. Although I take it everywhere so the super low 1st would be kinda nice. Idk yet. Save the 4500 for my 80 with a carbed LS and put a 3500 behind my 91 burb with 3/4 ton axles. I do tow which the 3500 sucks for Apperently although I’ve never seen an issue if you’re not hot dawgin every gear

@@bdavis12758 For the K5 I would like a 4500 because I do plan on tons and some mild off roading. The creeper low is nice. BUT as for the strength of the nv3500's, I had a 90 K1500 and a 2000 4.8/NV3500 truck I towed cars and equipment for thousands of miles without an issue. They aren't as weak as everyone likes to make them sound. They shift like a car and are cheap to acquire. I think with 37's and 4.56's everything will work out just fine.

@@spankranchgarage sounds like a nice build. 4500’s are suuuper hard to find anymore. I paid $1200 shipped for mine and I luckily got lower miles on it. But I’ve seen them go all the way up to $2,500….. and I cannot find a single 3500 anywhere that isn’t already shot.

It drives really nice I have no regrets doing this swap

This fell in my lap for super cheap and they are plenty strong

Square bodies aren’t common where I live. I junkyard often and haven’t come across a hydro pedal assembly in the last couple years

I live where there is a ton of squarebodies in the junk yard, pedal assemblys go quick