# My Truck Had A Tranny Failure



## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

I had a new 33qb Heartland greystone in tow to Kamloops, BC. I fueled in steele, ND. Just after that I began hearing a noise like one was machining a piece of steel on a lathe.. I thought hmmm not good, lol

Pulled of at the rest area and figured my clutch was having a failure, but it sounded like it was affecting the tranny.

I figured I may as well take the trailer to Miles City, Mt. I figured if I could find someone to take the trailer on to kamloops, I could just shoot strait south on hwy 59 to home.

My clutch was making a bad groan at takeoff, and a tick, tick noise till about 3rd gear. My tranny was real noisey after 3rd gear. Like a machining sound.

I called the next morn and sure enough a guy was 3 hours from me and was more than happy to take my trailer.

He pulls up, we get to talking. Hes got a 2008 dodge with 320k miles on it. Hes never had a problem yet, just normal maintance. He said he was saving for the bad day that was surely just around the corner. Compared to him Ive had all sorts of problems. We pretty much had a laugh about it and we both said some are good trucks, and some aint.

Anyway I headed south and made it home.

Got er apart and the hub on the clutch disc has all but seperated itself. It had been wallering badly. I could feel the input shaft on the tranny was not good. The input shaft also had a groove worn in it from the pilot bearing..

I thought shoot, I need tranny work. Lots of it. That hub done some damage to my tranny.

So, I flipped er on its rear and tore it apart. I found that the input bearing was toast. The bearing behind the input was bad too. The rest could stand replacing. My tranny gears and synchros looked amazingly good for 320k miles. They actually look new.

I found a bearing kit for 300. I found a kevlar pilot bearing for 40. The kevlar bearing allows using an injured input shaft in it so I dont need a 1200 dollar input shaft. These g56 trannies are horribly expensive. 3000 grand for a rebuilt, 2000-2500 used. 5500 brand new. They are made in brazil by mercedees benz. Inside of them all of the hard parts are made by Eaton, the king of manual trannies. But still, for this much money I should have a benz G85 instead of the wimpy G56. But I really cant complain. that tranny has made me alot of money and has lasted 320k miles. Yeah Yeah, I want more! lol I have 3 synchros in this tranny. Replacements are 720 each. Each gear is around 400, I have 6. The input shaft is 1200, and the countershaft is around 2 grand. These babies are expensive and delicate. Nothing like the eaton trannies I know from trucking. At least she came apart pretty easy, hopefully she goes back together as easy.









I put a hd clutch in my truck some 250k+ ago. The clutch was very rough. I hated it. My throwout bearing lasted about 110k, and disentagrated and totally ruined that expensive hd clutch. I figured whats the point in having a hd clutch when the throwout bearing cant go much past 100k.

I also feel these heavy duty clutches are vary hard on the tranny. They give lots of shock to the already weak manual trannies found behind any diesel pickup.

So last time I went with a LUK brand from napa. I loved that clutch. Very smooth. It made it 125k and the throwout bearing was still in pretty good shape. So, I am going with another LUK clutch. I just loved that clutch too much to give up on it. Will swap it at 100k next time. Ive learned now that the mighty cummins is a clutch eater. I need a zipper on my tranny cause I can turn out 100k in about 8 months.

So I'll have my 4th clutch and now a rebuilt tranny at 320k miles. Lucky me I can do all this myself so will have er all fixed for not alot of money.

Talked to the guy I got my bearings from. They have built about 500 g56 trannies. He said get rid of the atf+4 synthetic fluid that dodge specs for these trannies. He said if I go to syncromesh 30 oil, my tranny will last much longer. So will be adding synchromesh oil too.

I have got tranny parts all over my garage. What a mess. Figured Id post since I anit around here very much. Been way busy trying to keep up with rv deliveries.

Sure is nice to be home. Im taking 2 weeks off, now I have an excuse,









On a side note Im doing an oil study for a new brand of citgo motor oil. I have been having pretty good luck with it. Had to agree that I could be used in radio, paper and tv advertisng in trade for free oil for 6 months or so. I also have to turn in samples and mpg reports. I thought what the heck, I'll take free oil!

And sorry for being boring here.. Pretty much all technical here. You guys know how I can get sometimes, lol Technical is my middle name. Just thought Id fill you in on my lovely broken down life.









Carey


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## Ridgway-Rangers (Apr 18, 2008)

So....I got it.....Tranny damage and "hmmm not good".









If it were me I'd be wimpering as I write out the check for the repair.
All hail to Carey.


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Ridgway-Rangers said:


> So....I got it.....Tranny damage and "hmmm not good".
> 
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> 
> ...


If I had to write them big repair checks Id be driving someone elses truck. Thats the great fun in hauling rv's.... I can actually fix the truck in my driveway. If she blows totally up on the road we have a bunch of big trucks and trailers already set up with winches since they haul multiple rvs. I'll have them buds haul the old girl home.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Ridgway-Rangers said:


> So....I got it.....Tranny damage and "hmmm not good".
> 
> 
> 
> ...


X2 I just tell the service writer that "It's making noise.... Fix it please"


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## Joonbee (Jan 18, 2008)

Feel your pain Carey, but also know that we kind get a kick out of having a garage full of parts laying around. Brains not be wired right, by some peoples standards, but we see this AS A CHALLENGE. Good luck with the repairs and yes, you may wnat to go with the "velcro" sealer to put it back together. Makes for easier maintenance when you are doing that kind of mileage.

Friend of mine told me a story about when he was in high school. Asked his dad if he should try auto shop. Not sure I want to, but I may want need ot know some of this stuff one day, right? Well son you have a choice to make. You can take auto shop and learn how to get your hands dirty or you choose a career path that allows you to make enough money to pay someone else to get there hands dirty. Well he is a very successful financial planner!! oh and the Lexus in my gallery was bought from him for less than $1000 because his son blew the trans and it needs some other stuff and his estimate from "the mechanic he pays to get dirty" was $4000. Bein able to get your hands dirty can help in a variety of ways sometimes, I guess.

On a side note Carey, I just ordered a Smarty Jr, S&B cai and some Diprocol gauges for the a-pillar.

Have fun, I mean good luck with your challenge


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Hey Jim, you and Camper Andy need to get together. He has an S and b intake too. He was working on a water injection when I met him prolly a year ago. I have never heard how that went. But now that your have got the bug the skys the limit. You might really like water injection. Id love to have it, but it just wouldnt work for me.

I buy a few parts from this guy. http://www.doghousediesel.com/

He is a really good guy, his name is Rich. He is also set up with dodge five star so he can get you dodge parts for way under list price.

Here is his dodge. 



 Its a nasty dodge, lol His cummins makes 800hp and 1500tq







Tows with it too. Just a super nice guy to deal with.

Carey


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Hey Jim, you and Camper Andy need to get together. He has an S and b intake too. He was working on a water injection when I met him prolly a year ago. I have never heard how that went. But now that your have got the bug the skys the limit. You might really like water injection. Id love to have it, but it just wouldnt work for me.
> 
> I buy a few parts from this guy. http://www.doghousediesel.com/
> 
> ...


I'll bet your tranny lasted longer than his will!!!


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Nathan said:


> Hey Jim, you and Camper Andy need to get together. He has an S and b intake too. He was working on a water injection when I met him prolly a year ago. I have never heard how that went. But now that your have got the bug the skys the limit. You might really like water injection. Id love to have it, but it just wouldnt work for me.
> 
> I buy a few parts from this guy. http://www.doghousediesel.com/
> 
> ...


I'll bet your tranny lasted longer than his will!!!








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lol


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## Lmbevard (Mar 18, 2006)

I was just wondering how many miles you put on you Dodge a year now I know. That is the only thing I have ever heard bad about a Dodge is that the tranny, both the Auto and Manual, are only good enough. where I had my Auto tranny rebuilt he was telling about building up trannies for a guy that races his truck. He keep jacking up the power of the engine and blowing the tranny.

I had seen one of those Dodges that put out 800 Hp+ that could smoke all six tires. That would be some serious hauler. But, it would also shorten the life of the engine. I was talking to a guy that works in the factory that put together the Cummins engine. He stated that the best engine was the 24 valve made around 2000 because they were detuned to allow the engine to last. Afterwards to compete in the number game, Dodge order them retuned to produce the numbers, decreasing the life of the engine.

Glad that you can work on the old girl yourself. I know how much it cost to have someone even look at it around here. The closest place to have it worked on is 20 some miles away since no one in this town wants to even touch it. I'm thinking I had better get a good repair manual so that I can learn to do some stuff my self.


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

You may not know but the marine version of our cummins makes 800hp. It comes from the factory that way. The crank and rods are the same in our engines as what comes in the marine engines. Based on that, one can safely expect to make a pretty reliable 800hp cummins. Now as far as it lasting 10000 hours nope not gonna happen. Its common knowledge that in marine an engine is worn out at 3-4000 hours.

I have 8000 hours on my cummins. but it only makes 325hp or so. How long will it last.. Dont know, we have a bunch with more than 20000 hours on them. No tranny can hang with that.

This isnt a dodge thing, all diesel pickup engines can outlast there transmissions. The dmax and ford used a zf6 manual tranny. Now they dont even offer a manual tranny. Those trannies would be hard pressed to even make 300k before needing bearings.

Whats crazy is my tranny never failed. the clutch took out the pilot bearing and input bearing in the tranny. This caused my tranny to need a new set of bearings. Only 2 really need replaced, but Im doing them all. The gears and synchros still look brand new. I thought that was incredible.

The dodge auto was weak until the new 6 speed auto came about in 2007. Those are all lasting to around 400k in our line of work. No longer can they be considered weak. That tranny is right in line with the life expectancy of the allison. Ford is making much better trannies too. unfortunatly for ford, there tranny can outlast there current engines, 6.0 and 6.4. I hope the new ford changes all that.

So I really cant complain at all. My tranny had a failure because the clutch hub was about detatched from the disc. This caused the disc to wobble which in turn wipped out my input bearings in the tranny. I caught it right off the bat so I am able to just rebearing it.

I have the new aluminum g56 tranny. They basically are an unknown tranny. The prior manual was a New Process NV5600. It was cast iron and pretty stout. But that tranny rarely makes 400k too before needing a bearing kit too. So I sure arent unhappy at all. But do i want more? heck yeah!

Carey


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

I bought my truck mar 1 2008. It had 28500 miles on it. I put it to work Mar 22 2008. I then worked till oct 1 2008. The truck had 125k on it then. I laid myself off for 4 months because of the rv industry collapse.

Went back to work feb 1 2009. Truck still had 125k onit. Its now may 2010. I have 320k on it.

I put about 15000 a month on it average. Some months I do 20k or so, others I do 10k or so. This will be a 10k month, broke down..

Carey


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## Joonbee (Jan 18, 2008)

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Hey Jim, you and Camper Andy need to get together. He has an S and b intake too. He was working on a water injection when I met him prolly a year ago. I have never heard how that went. But now that your have got the bug the skys the limit. You might really like water injection. Id love to have it, but it just wouldnt work for me.
> 
> I buy a few parts from this guy. http://www.doghousediesel.com/
> 
> ...


I'll bet your tranny lasted longer than his will!!!








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lol








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You must mean Rich from Doghouse diesel. His trans wont last. NOT mine







I actually did talk to Rich the other day. Were your ears ringing, we were talking about ya. I should be ok. My trans was just rebuilt and I don't plan on drag racing anytime soon. When I can afford it, I will upgrade the torque converter and valve body. But for now it is just gonna be the wifes daily driver and our tow vehicle, so I don't see us makin anywhere near 800hp and the Jr is only capable of 100hp extra. Just looking for a little extra reliable fuel mileage.

Jim


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Joonbee said:


> Hey Jim, you and Camper Andy need to get together. He has an S and b intake too. He was working on a water injection when I met him prolly a year ago. I have never heard how that went. But now that your have got the bug the skys the limit. You might really like water injection. Id love to have it, but it just wouldnt work for me.
> 
> I buy a few parts from this guy. http://www.doghousediesel.com/
> 
> ...


I'll bet your tranny lasted longer than his will!!!








[/quote]

lol








[/quote]

You must mean Rich from Doghouse diesel. His trans wont last. NOT mine







I actually did talk to Rich the other day. Were your ears ringing, we were talking about ya. I should be ok. My trans was just rebuilt and I don't plan on drag racing anytime soon. When I can afford it, I will upgrade the torque converter and valve body. But for now it is just gonna be the wifes daily driver and our tow vehicle, so I don't see us makin anywhere near 800hp and the Jr is only capable of 100hp extra. Just looking for a little extra reliable fuel mileage.

Jim
[/quote]

Yeah he's got a heck of a tranny in his beast. Let us know how much that smarty helps the mpgs. Maybe I will get me one someday. I just have a little mpg box. I kinda figure since my truck weighs so much whats the use.

Carey


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