My CTD goes in to 5th gear fine, but won't come out. It will pop out of 5th if you are rolling and push in clutch and jiggle it a bunch it finally comes out. IF I am stopped it will not come out of 5th gear. If I pull too hard the shifter slipps out of the shift forks and it feels like it is in neutral, but it is still in gear. Got towed home, because it would not come out of 5th. I can drive in 1-4 and reverse. Is this a bad shift fork? Bad gear, syncro? THanks.
Transmissison has 135,000mi and clutch has 3,000 mi. Fluid is full.

 

first change the fluid its probably nasty then quit luging it in 5th with dirty fluid they will stick been their done that. if you tow a lot change the fluid every 6mo. or 35k. been thru 7 nv 4500. you might have messed up the shift fork last one i got out of gear with the tranny top of and a bar to pry it out while poping the clutch. ggod luck

 

I ran into the exact same problem on a '97 last year. What happened was the end of shift stick had worn so much that it allowed two forks to be engaged at once. It would bind up and wouldn't come out of 5th until the top of the tranny was removed from inside the truck and the forks realigned with a screwdriver. It would stay "fixed" as long as you shifted carefully.
Unfortunately the stick isn't available separately, it was a junkyard item but rather easy to come up with.

While searching for the cause of this problem contacted Drivetrain Specialists at 800-216-1632. They were very knowledgeable and said there is also a spring in the tranny that can become weak and cause the same problem.

 

Most shops said to get it rebuilt, because the 5th gear is bad. Just replacing the 5th gear assebly is $1100, I can get a complete rebuilt NV4500 with updates installed for $1750. Sounds good. One guy said it was the 5th gear nut and just to update that and I would be OK, but most other shops said do the overhall/complete rebuild because I would be back in within 6 months with problems with other gears. On shop called them "NEW 'AD' VENTURE" beccause it was a new adventure to find out what was wrong this time.