A welding shop afraid to weld. A hose company afraid to make brake hoses, I've ran into this sort of stuff. I'm glad the girls at the gentlemans club ain't afraid to do their job!!!

 

Chase, Made any progress yet?

Duane.

 

Not much progress yet. I dropped my Bronco off for the swap a couple weeks ago & it just sat in the shop bay, all alone. I picked it up for the weekend, took it to the beach & dropped it off again last Monday. They still haven't started on it. They're supposed to start this Monday (tommorrow) and if they don't get started this week I'm gonna pick it up, rent an engine hoist, & do it myself!!

I did test fit the NP205 with my TR 4 Sp O/D, i think the adapter is for a NP208. I seems to fit except that one of the t-case shift rails hits the adapter. I'm gonna notch it and flip the pin up-side-down (to get the cotter pin out of the way). I found a thread on this site that explained how to swap a 205 for a 208 on a newer truck and it mentioned notching the adapter, so I must be doing it right. That was my only fear, I know I can handle the other fitment problems (I say this now, we'll see!).

Trust me, as soon as I'm zoomin', I post & brag about it.

Seeya,
Chase

 

Chase, made any progress? I haven't done a thing to mine. New baby ,etc..... I guess there is always hope for next year!!

Duane :

 

Hey Duane,

I have made some progress, kinda, not in the direction I thought I was going. My mechanic turned into a primadonna. He started crying when it took a little extra effort to make things fit, he also cracked the adapter for the O/D tranny trying to force it into place by tightening the bolts when it was obviously hanging on something. I ended up grabbing a NP435 to make it easy for him. It turns out that although the adapters share bolt patterns, the 208 adapter isn't deep or wide enough to accept the 205. If the shaft part was either wider or deeper, it would work. I need to find a 1356 adapter to see if its different. In the mean time I think I found the answer on ebay but I didn't get home in time to bid on it. I think the part was mis-labelled, so I have been trying to figure out what it came out of, so far I'm thinking that it was from a 60's to 70's single speed t-case. I had the square bolt pattern on the tranny side and the '78-96 Ford t-case bolt pattern.

I've also been thinking about keeping the NP435. I started looking for O/D because I'm running 4.88s to get some pull out of my six banger. Now with the 351 and the 6.69:1 granny first gear, I could drop back to a more civilized gear ratio; I need to do the RPM calculations before I decide.

I learned another important lesson in the process, it would have been cheaper to go with a rebuilt motor from Napa or Discount than the used truck route that I took. I ended up buying a new water pump, carb, starter, timing chain, valve cover gaskets, main seals, oil pan gaskets, and I'm sure I'll need to replace the alternator sooner than later. All that plus paying to pull the motor and buying the junked truck...I screwed up! And now the motor is making ugly noises and I'm gonna get an "I told you so" from my wife. That sucks!!

I may sell the O/D, but I'm still too stubborn, I know I can make the O/D work and with the 3.29 first gear and overdrive, it would be a very functionable tranny for trails, beach, pulling boats, and highways to all of the above.

Anyway, here's another long post, and its looking like next year for me too. Congrats on the new baby!

Chase