Need some guidance on full time T-cases

[eggman918]

I'm starting a new project that will be the Wife's winter daily driver,we live in northern Arizona and she is a fire dept. dispatcher so reporting for work is mandatory regardless of weather/road conditions.We are building a '67 Jeep Wagoneer with a VW tdi motor mated to a nsg370 6 speed manual trans and I need a full time T-case with 23 spline input and 6 bolt round mounting flange that has user friendly handling characteristics as unexpected ice at highway speeds are a real possibility.I have next to no experience with full time 4x4 ideally a T-case from a later Wagoneer would be me first choice as I could find a donor vehicle and get the D 44's and T-case for one price.What are my options??
I know many will say the TDI is too small for the Wagoneer but I'm sure it can match the power output of the OEM 327 and it will sit back much farther and weighs much less which will help me get to a 50/50 front to rear weight distribution.

 

[1stDeuce]

I'd suggest a 242 out of an XJ or ZJ or KJ. Stay away from cases out of XJ's built before 1990, as they were only 21 spline.

The 242 has 2-hi, 4 "Part Time" (locked center diff), 4 "Full Time" (Open center diff), N, and 4 Low. It has a 50/50 torque split in full time mode, which is good for stability, and is fully open, which is much better for turning on ice than any of the later "quadra trac" t-cases, which bind up some and can cause understeer. The 242 is a solid t-case, and should hold up just fine. I seem to recall the KJ version being slightly more HD than the XJ/ZJ versions. I think it was just a larger output shaft for the rear.

If you don't care about 2wd, the other source for a t-case would be a early 2000's Dodge Dakota or Durango, which also used a version of the 242, but without the 2wd mode. I'm not sure the spline count on those t-cases. Military hummers also used the 242 t-case without 2wd, but in a 32 spline input, so it's a pretty robust unit.

There is one drawback to running a 242 with a manual trans though... It can be just a little lurchy when turning sharp in "full time" mode due to the u-joint style axles. I switched the front axle shafts to the CV units used in the ZJ on my TJ and all the lurching went away completely, but I'm sure you'll notice it some, particularly when turning sharply, like into a parking space, or a left turn into a driveway or parking lot. Mine was probably a little worse because of the tru-trac I'm running in the front... I recall it being less harsh when we tried it on a normal TJ with an open front diff when I worked at Jeep.

One thing to watch is the length of the input vs. output. Do some measurements when you bolt the two together to be sure you have adequate spline engagement. There were short, medium, and long input gears for the t-case, and I don't know which versions might work with our NSG370. I can tell you that a later model XJ 242 worked fine beind the 3550 in my TJ, so I would assume the later cases would work behind your NSG as well.

Chris

 

[Eaglefreek]

I concur.