I have a 1989 bronco with the aod and electric transfer case im looking at buying a transfer case from a 1988 bronco that is manually shifted for $75 my question is is it worth it will it fit and what all has to be converted over when changing?

 

It is WELL worth it if only to have the peace of mind that you can actually be certain you can get the transfer case to engage when you need the 4WD. I did it to my '93 a couple years ago and never looked back. The swap should be a direct replacement. You will have to remove the cover plate for the shift boot in the floor. But that amounts to slicing through the sealer and pulling the four screws that hold it in place. The cover plate is in the driver's side of the "hump" and will require cutting the carpeting to access it. Alas you will need longer screws for the shift boot rather than re-using the ones in the cover plate. You might want to find out which transmission was in front of the t-case you are getting since the shift linkage lengths differ between the manual tranny and the auto. The shift links are easy enough to find or fabricate if the length is wrong. Since the manual and electronic versions of this t-case are the same length, there is no concern over changes in driveshaft length.

The ONLY pitfall to this is the fact that when Ford changed the rear driveshaft mounting to the flat flange design, Borg-Warner changed the output shaft diameter by .020". 1988-1989 should not present any issue though since if I recall correctly the change didn't occur until sometime in 1990-91. It was my good fortune to acquire the manual BW 1356 I now have because one of the members here made this discovery AFTER purchasing a t-case from a '94 for his 88. With the output shaft .020" BIGGER there was no amount of beating and banging that would allow his u-joint yoke to mount properly.

 

Even if there is a problem with how the rear driveshaft mounts to the T-case you should only have to swap the outputs between the two T-cases to fix the issue. So dont throw the original t-case away until after the swap is complete, so you can pirate parts as needed.

 

Both trannys are aod in my bronco and the donor bronco also both have bolt on yolks so im thinking everything will bolt right up the only thing i was really worried about was the position switch on the manually shifted case i know the electic case works through the shift motor i just wasnt sure wha twould have to be done to make it all work

 

With the manual t-case the switch is really only a trigger for the dashboard indicator. If you are worried about it, you can refer to the wiring diagrams in a Haynes manual for the pair that run to the dash indicator.