I abused the
stock T5 transmission knowing that when it died I would begin the complete
transformation of this CJ7. Almost every trailride would find the
5speed return home in a much worse state. Eventually it became undrivable
and I needed to think about what what be its replacement. I briefly
looked at the mighty NV4500 but I rarely used the overdrive 5th gear anyway
and those babies cost a lot of money to put in a Jeep... much more than
you might originally think. Enter the heavy duty truck 4spds. I've
driven two different T18 equipped Jeeps and the low 1st gear is awesome
off road but on road it is a tank. My friend kept mentioning a T19 he had
and how he felt it's gear ratio and shifting was superior to the T18. He
finally got it installed in his jeep and after one drive I was sold! The
T19 shifted much smoother than either the T5 or T18, also the gear ratio
was not so ridiculously wide as the T18. I chose the mid-ratio 5.11 first
gear which works well both on and off road.
The T19 used
by Ford and I.H.C., is essentially a T18 with all forward gears synchronized.
The main difference is the single step idler with separate first and reverse
gears.
If I had it
to do again, I would go with a Chevy auto tranny. I probably could have
saved some money on adapters and although I've never driven an auto offroad,
I imagine it allows great control for a Rockcrawler. Oh well, maybe next
time. Im sure my 90 to 1 gear ratio will make the Jeep quite easy to control
over the rough stuff.
My Dana300 Tcase
has a TeraLow 4 to 1 gearset installed in addition to a nifty adapter that
allows it to be clocked in one of three different positions. The third
position on the adapter will gain me 4.25" of clearence over stock! Have
a look at it...
Dana300
Pic 1
Dana300
Pic 2
My final gear
reduction will be more than comfortable...
5.11 tranny
first gear x 4.0 tcase low gear x 4.56 axle ratio = 93.2
