i was thinking of changing to a 5spd or possibly a c6 behind my 460 mostly for more drivability a highway speeds. but i would need something that would bolt up to my np208 transfer case. what would my options be. the truck at this point is for about 90% offroad driving with a np435. but i would like to drive it a little more around town but still be able to tow a decent weight up a grade.
any ideas?

 

I put a ZF5spd behind my 460 to replace the C6. I like it a lot. My mileage went up 4mpg, I can tow uphill about 20mph faster than I used to, and it's just more fun to drive. The 208 would bolt to a ZF, but I dont know about the linkage. It looked like it could work, but I never got to try. I ended up using the BW1356 that was already behind the 5spd.

 

what kind of cost would i be looking at if i put in a zf from start to finish. i could swap transfer cases. just need an idea, probaly sell my 4sp's and extra axles to fund the project. what year trucks would i need to get a tranny from, what else would i need as far as flywheel, clutch, linkage. would i be able to use the master and slave cylinders?

 

Cost is really hard to estimate. I paid $700 for a complete 1990 F-250 that didn't have a title. I sold enough other parts from it to make all my money back plus some. I then had to spend some of that money on a new clutch set, and new slave and clutch master cylinder. If you were to so this, you could keep your original clutch master and hose, it should connect to the slave as the original one did. I used a 85' CM with the 90' hose and slave. Keep your flywheel, not sure about the clutch, you could check the spline count between the 4spd and the 5spd to see if they are the same. I bought a clutch for the 5 spd and had no problems. If you use a newer t-case, the shift lever is in a different spot so you have to cut a hole in your floor. You may want the floor pan(small section in the middle) from a 5spd truck so you dont have your old t-case lever hole still in the floor. You will also need a different rear driveshaft with the newer t-case. I had to elongate the holes in my tranny X-member and turn the mount backwards to bolt it up. You may need the 5spd X-member too. Mine was previously a C6 so I dont know if the old ones are different between auto and stick. I have seen the ZF5spd in trucks as old as 88, so at least 88-97 would be a good place to start looking. Your best bet is to find a donor truck, I was suprised how often I had to go back to it for other parts. I also got lucky that my donor truck was the same configuration, so I was able to use the driveshafts as well which saved me some money.