GV likes to make people think that all you can loose is the splittng, but that's just not true. There's a few situations that can happen internally with those things that will leave you dead in the water. I've had it happen on a few cars, and if you do some poking around on the web you'll find quite a few folks who have have the newer GV units go completely TU on their pickups and motorhomes ( some of them darn near brand new ). Doubtful that it will happen while under warranty, but when it does it's easy to rebuild the things. so you don't have to spend a gazillion dollars sending the thing back to GV for rebuilt unit. It's just a handful of special orings and some gaskets and a special wrench that you'll have to fabricate, or you can get them from a few places. There's a guy in Kansas City who sells parts for the things, real reasonable.
You won't get any info on fixing the things from GV, but no worries, you'll find what you need
here
Along with some great troubleshooting info on
this page where it references M46 and laycock. The '86-95 volvo m46 trannys had the same P type laycock that you have under your truck ( except the volvo unit has a better cone clutch ( and this is according to a source at GV , they were forced to change the material due to environmental regs, so if your cone clutch ever folds, hit the volvo boneyard for a tailsection and...
) If you notice on those pages a guy named Duane Hoberg there should be some links to contact him, if not, I have his email around here somewhere, he sells parts for those things, including the ever elusive orings for the inside of the solenoid so you can rebuild that turkey instead of dropping $160 for a new one
This place also sells light rebuild kits
You do need a special recessed
pin spanner like this to replace some of the orings in the thing. I imagine you could fabricate one pretty easy, just keep in mind those things can be tight and you don't want to tear up the holes on those retainer caps .
Just some more ideas for things to throw behind the seat
If you don't already have it, you might want to look into getting Good Sam emergency road service, that will tow you unlimited miles to the nearest authorized service center or something similar. Seeing the terror tales involved with GV customer service is what really was the deal killer for me on putting one in my truck. If it craps out, it's up to you to get the thing to the nearest GV authorized service center to get it repaired, and those places are few and far between. That one has broke a few people.
Tomorrow we will see how double overdrive works on the freeway. Something really interesting too. The truck accelerates smoother and the really slight vibration under power is gone. I had about 100,000 miles on the drive shaft so maybe some of the u-joints were subject. It sure is nice now.....
