my brother drives a 97 dodge 4x4 one ton dually diesel. tonight he is going over the pass on mt . hood. a five percent pull with his gooseneck on and a pickup on that. just about to the top he was pulling the hill in third when he saw his 4x4 lite flicking and a loud whine , he went to pull it down to second to pull off and it stopped abruptly bound up in gear. some smoke came thru the shifter boot. and a few drops of oil underneath. i hauled it home to work on it and wondered if anyone been around this issue. rear end seems ok. got to be trans or transfere case i think. how hard is the getrag five speed to overhaul and is the transfere case anything special to gut and overhaul. thanks

iirc, the 1997 should be an nv4500...

you are correct i looked at the tag and it is a NV4500 and the transfere case is a NP241 DHO. i jumped in it on the trailer and started her up and the shifter moves freely and feels normal but when you let the clutch out it dies when shifter is in nuetral. must be broken shift fork and I am stuck in two gear and a bad bearing either in trans or transfere case or rear end. any good books on overhauling a nv4500 out there or is the factory manual about it?

There is also a good chance it got low on fluid and welded the input shaft to the main shaft in the front of the tranny.

the local rebuilder in portland quoted a price of 1600 bucks exchange. from what i have been reading if it needs much inside thats a fair price. i would have to install it to get that price.

Sounds like a fair price, a new unit can be had for $2495.00 from advance adapters.

figured i would pull it out later in the week and pull the top cover and drain the oil out and see what i can see . then i can make a little better decision . thanks for the replies. this is a picture of the dodge leaving the farm with his old chev 6.2 on the back. here is a picture of it coming back. we unloaded the chev on mt hood and he drove it home.

just to let you know i got her drug into shop today and drained all of a half quart of fluid. pulled pto cover and all teeth on input shaft ground off and counter shaft toast ect ect ect .. ....

The NV4500 has a problem with the 5th gear nut coming off. It's possible it came off and got thrown around in there.

The NV4500 has a problem with the 5th gear nut coming off. It's possible it came off and got thrown around in there.
Not very likely. When the nut backs off it just spins on the main shaft, it doesn't spin off and fall inside.

he just had it seviced in the last month at some quicky lube don't know stuff from a hole in the ground place. this did convince my dad to let me service his pu's again. he thought i didn't have time. i told him i don't have time for major overhauls on things like this. brothers pu was parted on yard by farm shop before his trip , no oil on ground . there is alot of oil on backend of trans and transfere case. so i don't know if it was a blow out of oil coming or it was already dry just sitting here

The NV4500 uses a special fluid that contains NO friction modifiers, there is a good chance the shop used a normal hypoid gear oil and the friction modifier caused the seals to blow out.

welll not enough but a case for me to rebuild , talk to my local trusted trans. shop and he agreed. sent off for a rebuild . got it home yesterday . new clutch, surface flywheel and rebuilt trans. $2031 i still going to tear transfere case down and inspect and reseal.

got the trans installed today, dodge has a real pain in the rearend for a pivot on the throw out bearing. it has this cheesy little retainer clip to hold fork inplace and the whole fork kept comming off the pivot on the pass. side. finally wired it into place temp. until trans was in ok now. got tranfere case gutted looks great . new seals and a updated snap ring kit. start putting it back together in the next couple of days.

been kinda busy lately just got the dodge on the road. backed out of the shop and looking under hood to see if all is ok before test drive and i see the serpentine belt has a seperation in it and it has climbed the ac pulley. shut off engine and grabbed fan and bearings were shot could move fan a good inchand a half. got it taken off and bearings removed. see alittle water staining on weep hole of water pump pulling it off tommorrow. allso changing bearing in belt idler while here.

and the ac clutch is shot and the water pump is dripping and the radiator is seaping. and and and trying to keep eyes closed when working . just alot of maintainence that has not been done due to quickie lube use.