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GETTING CLOSER to the 4l80e+np205 config.

M

mike reeh

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well im so excited i can hardly keep my pants on but im making REAL good progress with this 4l80e and np205 that im going to put in my 77 K25 shortbed.

its been a lot of work and ive gotten a lot of good advice from this board... If all goes as planned, Ill have a setup that:

uses a common/cheap 2WD 4l80e,
uses a common/cheap small input bearing NP205 w/ no machining required,
uses a factory th400/np205 adapter, w/ no machining required,

and ill do an official article write up w/ pics and part numbers and sources for parts.. I still got a lot of work to do, but I thought Id let you all know what Im workin on... stay tuned..........


mike
 
well i dont even have it bolted together yet... once its installed and working and reliable, Ill write an nice detailed article, with part #'s and pics, and plans thats I have drawn up.. the part numbers were one of the hardest things to track down.. I have many many hours invested in this, it would be in MY OWN best interest to write an article on it because Ill forget about it all in about 2 weeks .... and if I can help someone else out, great :)
 
I dont know if Ill ever have extra cash for a 4l80 but I am very interested in how thats going to turn out. What are you going to do about the controller for the 80?
 
a lot.... roughly the same amount it would cost me to put together a nice dana 60 and 14FF rear.. so if you look at it that way, its not so bad. I think it will be worth it.. the 700r4 I have in there now is a complete POS. This should be the "final solution" as I like to call it..

the big money item is the controller.. they can be had used for 400-500 dollars, some new controllers are around 700, the GMPP unit im buying is around a grand....

the price of the trans/t-case could vary quite a bit.. i bought a np205/sm465 combo for 100 bucks.. some 205's alone will cost you $300+.... depends on what you got, and who you know, and how long you spend gathering parts. the trans I had from a vehicle i parted out a while back.. Ive seen them go, rebuilt from anywhere from $600 to $2K depending on who/where...

keep in mind ill have to have my driveshafts changed, modify a bunch of stuff like t-case shifter, column shifter rod, etc etc... In other words: im not doing it because its cheap. its a labor of love... This weekend should be a good one, Ill have a lot of parts finally that Ive been waiting for for a long time. unfortunately I think I have to setup a ring & pinion for a buddy of mine, so I hope that doesnt eat up all my wrenching time. I dont think Ill have a penny less than $2K into this setup when its all said and done, and thats including a lot of stuff that Ive gotten for CHEAP or free over the last year or so...

mike
 
I believe TCI recently released a controller that you can program with your PC, I believe I saw it advertised for around $500.
 
mike reeh said:
i cant believe nobody has nothing to say :/
Click to expand...

Sorry if the responses were a bit slow, but what you are doing sounds great!
I want to do this exact swap and a good writeup with part numbers would be incredibly helpful. So....get that truck together and tested and then get working on a writeup.

Gary
 
Now that i have this set up coming my way a official article write up would be great. mike
 
here are a few pics that will hopefully keep everyones interest peaked...

as for the adapter, im in talks with the machinist to have more than one made so I could possibly offer some for sale... More on that later..

205_1.jpg

205_2.jpg

205_3.jpg

205_4.jpg
 
Im gonna take a quess and say thats one of those special bearings for putting a 32spline input in a small bore case!
 
That's precisely what it is. I ran that setup in my first blazer 20 years ago behind a serious 396, and rattled two of those apart. Bored the case for the larger bearing, and the problem went away.
I'm not saying it doesn't work, but don't put 500+ ponies through it.
Jimbo
 
Jimbo* can you tell me more about what you did and how you did it, and what failed and why?

when you say "rattled two of those apart", can you please give more detail?
 
Mike, the first one I shelled was in a stock (used) transfer case, and lasted about 6 months. The bearing simply fell out of the case upon dissasembly, and was way too loose to even consider using again.
I completely rebuilt the case with all new bearings, rollers, and seals, and the bearing lasted about 2 years this time. When the case started rattling, I knew what the problem was. Same thing on dissasembly.
The guy at the bearing house strongly suggested boring the case and using the larger bearing, which I did. This time it was still going strong 4 years later when I sold the truck.
I really can't explain why the smaller bearings didn't last, because they were Timkens like all the other bearings in the case. However, if you look at all the bearings in a 205, they are the same size, and obviously designed that way.
Jimbo
 
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