So I made the 6 hour per leg drive to pick up my 4500 today. Pretty uneventful at first. Got about 4 hours in and stopped to sell some tires to a fellow wheeler. All good. Start the truck and it sounds funny. Pull over and its got a pin hole in the weld going to the collector. Ehhh....not big enough to make me miss out on a 500 dollar 4500 and 241.

Keep rolling. Get to the tranny and buy it. All is well.....Im a happy guy. Dude knew his stuff, had a good chat.

Start heading home and this is where the fun started.

The pin hole turns into a full out broken weld. The manifolds on my cruiser come down to a wierd Y then weld into the collector. The front manifold broke free of this assembly, and was venting and making a hell of a lot of backpressure. Say goodbye to acceleration.

Sigh......make it to my next stop. A 92 cherokee Im buying for 500 bucks and towing home. Now I should have known better, but Id been in the car since 530 and stupidity got the better of me.

Pulled the rear shaft, but its a slip yoke and I didnt want all my fluid shooting out. Double neutral it and figure Ill be ok(yup Im retarded, sue me). Get about 40 miles down the road and damn near roll my truck. T case siezes up and explodes. The jeeps back tires jump off the ground and come back down locked up and fishtail the dolly and pull my truck almost off the roadway. I managed to get control without flopping my tow rig, but just barely. Pull off in a fog of white smoke(tires and grenaded tcase) and swear at my own stupidity. Pull the rear shaft, who cares if the fluid leaves now, besides I think the 10" hole in the lower half of the case probably took most of it with it anyway.

Moral of the story. Dont be stupid like I was. 10 bucks of fluid isnt worth killing yourself of someone else.

Sigh.... what a day. Pics and more info on the 4500 tomorrow.

 

Lol, that sounds a lot worse than my experience when I went to pick up my nv3500 and np231, but it does bring back memories. When I went and picked up the transmission, it was a 4 hour drive per leg. This was literally the day after I did the body lift and it was below freezing outside (snowed that morning and it doesn't snow much here). So I left my house in time to make it there by 6 pm... when the guy gets home from work. I look over the transmission and chat with the guy for a while and leave his house by 7. I stopped to get dinner on my way out of town before I jump back on the interstate. I made it half way home and stop at a rest station, leaving the rest station, stupidity got the best of me cause there were no other cars in sight and I had a straight stretch of on ramp... so I pushed the pedal to the floor. Long story short, the dry rotted transmission cooler lines didn't like the new angle they were sitting at from the body lift and with the freezing tempurature and spiked pressures they split open and leaked out 5 quarts. Now, this was a little after 9 and it was pitch black and I was running 80 mph... I had no idea anything had happened until the transmission started slipping. I managed to baby the truck to the next exit (down to about 40 mph by then) and had to get it towed home. Thank God for AAA.

Moral of the story... it would seem as though the trip to go pick up a transmission is cursed, so don't go too far to get one :P

Can't wait to see those pics skyshark!

 

Lol. Yeah I can laugh at it now. It wasnt the least bit amusing then. Ive got a decent number of connections in this area, so replacing the case for 100 bucks shouldnt be a problem. Fortunately its only a 100 dollar idiot lesson.

Im still digging to see what Ill have to do to convert it for sure. I dont think it will be much.

 

as a old tow truck drive i would say if you don't want to dump fluid on the ground leave the shaft in there and strap it.
Sorry your day was horrible. Tomorrow will be better

 

One thing I was just thinking about... the input shaft is different between the Dodge and Chevy versions, but the only thing that the input shaft goes into is the pilot bearing and the clutch plate. If the diameters are different, can you make your own pilot bearing sleeve and install a chevy pilot bearing? Also, if the spline count is different, can you use a chevy clutch disc that is the right diameter for your flywheel? Just some food for thought before you go ripping into the transmission.

 

Jeep should have been fine in neutral. Leave the tranny in gear, t-case in neutral.

 

Lucky for me, when I went to pickup my 42RE (Little Rock, AR to Dallas, TX), all I had was a close call. It was rainy out.


Should have been, but obviously wasn't.
When my truck just stopped going forwards on the interstate, and I didn't know what the problem was, I didn't hesitate for a second to pull that rear driveshaft (front driveshaft wasn't installed).
I didn't know at the time what the problem was, but wasn't about to risk permanent damage to the transfer case or my brand new transmission.
Of course, ended up being the t-case was damaged, but there was no external evidence of it. Which is why I have a new 231.

 

Yes it should have been. But for safetys sake its always best to remove the shaft. I didnt, and paid the price. Could have been the case was damaged or just a freak accident. Quite frankly it doesnt matter.

Look at it this way. The truck has a new motor and rebuilt tranny. Now it can have a new Tcase and I dont have to worry about the major components for a while.

 

You know I had been considering the same. I dont imagine the bearing sleeve is much if any different. I may see if I can pick one up from my parts store and see if its different. if it is maybe I can lightly modify it to work.

I need a bellhousing and a flywheel first.

 

http://advanceadapters.com/category/...550-parts.html

http://advanceadapters.com/category/...smissions.html

Will you need a flywheel? I was not planning on needing one for mine when I use it, maybe I am wrong.