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ideas on the np208

twoslo4five0

twoslo4five0

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ok so everyone loves the np205 because of the strength,and ouputs right??but im putting a 208 in my truck and i have some ideas questions i would like to get yalls opinion on...

the big three drawbacks to a 208 are

slip yoke
chain drive
pops outta gear all the time

ok the advantages
lightweight
good gear ratio

so here is what im thinking

obviously we can do a sye on the 208 to run a fixed yoke shaft and larger u joints/yokes

cant do anything about the chain drive

and the shifter here is why i started this thread...i think the reason (after disscussing this with cb77gmc) that the 208 pops outta gear all the time is due to the body mount shifter so im looking into diffrent ideas or ways to do the shifter..he has already done one on his truck and has no problems now but i havnt seen his

anyone got any good ideas or proposals to make a shifter for the 208 that does not mount to the body??
 
What about a cable setup? I've seen guys do it on the Atlas cases...

I have a 208 in my truck and agree 100% with ya'... it's a good case for those of us that don't go nuts BUT even in the sand where I play it pops out of gear from time to time so I can only imagine on the rocks...
 
i dont think a cable setup would work in this case but it would be sweet (i dont know alot about cable shifters) i was thinking about making a rod come off the shifter on the tc and up through the floor board but it has to be removable it also cant be that easy 4 some reason
 
I'm at school until 11:00 tonight but tomorrow when I get home from work I'll crawl under the k10 and brainstorm...
 
i honestly think the reason they pop out is from body flex..the shifter is tied into the floor and everytime the body flexes it causes it to pop out..look at the np205 it isnt tied into the body just has a boot around it and it never pops outta gear..mabye im wrong but if iam im looking for someone to give me a reason why
 
do the 241's pop out of gear as well? ive never had my 208 pop out of gear. when it pops out of gear are u in 4high or 4low? does it go into neutral or 2wd?
 
I had that same problem with my 208, found a bodymount on the cab that had hardly any rubber left, replaced it and it only did it once or twice after that. Has to be body flex related.

Now onto another note, I have been brainstorming on my own about a manual valve body & an art carr shifter on a center console with new buckets in mine. Of course if I build a console I would like to carry it on to the dash, but that blasted shifter is in the way. I have been trying on my own to think of a way to mount a cable shifter to it, and perhaps use an art carr shifter (or something that looks very similar) just for the bling factor (Im a pathetic mall crawler)
 
A cable shifter would be simple... you just need an anchor point for the cable sheath to mount to at the rear of the tranny. I would however try to keep the floor mounted shifter on the drivers end by mounting it in your console. Again, you just need an anchor point to mount the cable sheath at the shifter.

By using the original shifter and a cable you would keep the same ratio of motion between the tcase and the shifter, plus the safety detents to prevent going from low to high without stopping.

EDIT:
I should say mounting the cable is the easy part... you may want two cables though. One running one direction and the other running in reverse. There are detents in the tcase that the cable would be great at pulling, but suck for pushing. By running two cables in opposite directions you will always have one cable pulling the lever on the tcase.
 
muddybuddy said:
do the 241's pop out of gear as well? ive never had my 208 pop out of gear. when it pops out of gear are u in 4high or 4low? does it go into neutral or 2wd?
Click to expand...

My 208 pops out of 4hi (since that's what I'm always in)... not sure about low...
 
The 208 and 241 T-case are known to pop out of gear if the plastic shift pads on the shift forks are worn. I have a 2421 and have never had it pop out of gear. There is the possibility of the floor mounted shifter with a large amount of body flex causing your problems though. If all the body mounts are good and tight this won't be an issue.
 
4X4HIGH said:
The 208 and 241 T-case are known to pop out of gear if the plastic shift pads on the shift forks are worn. I have a 2421 and have never had it pop out of gear. There is the possibility of the floor mounted shifter with a large amount of body flex causing your problems though. If all the body mounts are good and tight this won't be an issue.
Click to expand...

I also have a 241 and it has never popped out of gear, and in the last 4-5 years it's been pretty much a dedicated wheeler so everytime it's driven it spends more time in 4wd then 2wd, including some pretty serious flexing. Years ago when the original body bushings were shot and the floor supports were rusty I never had an issue with it popping out of gear (you could feel the floorboards moving when twisted up and hear the body creaking and groaning).
 
4X4HIGH said:
The 208 and 241 T-case are known to pop out of gear if the plastic shift pads on the shift forks are worn.
Click to expand...

I agree. My 208 used to pop out of 4HI and as time went on it would pop itself into neutral upon hard braking :mad:. Not only were the pads worn through, so were the forks themselves. After rebuilding that case 4 1/2 years ago, it hasn't popped out once.

If you think about it, the shift linkage moves pretty far to get between gears. The drivetrain is almost centered up between the body mounts so the body flex should be almost axial to that linkage. If the movement of the body relative to the T-case is making it shift, the engagement must be borderline to begin with. This makes me think the forks are worn or the linkage isn't adjusted right (i.e it isn't really fully engaging to begin with). Now if your body or drivetrain is sliding front to back you have bigger issues to worry about than popping out of gear.
 
Blue85 said:
Now if your body or drivetrain is sliding front to back you have bigger issues to worry about than popping out of gear.
Click to expand...

Yes, that means you live in a northern state like MN, MI, ME, ect... I bought a Suburban in MN once for my family. I finally parted it out after a couple years of daily use only to find that none of the structural body mounts were left with any metal holding the body to the frame. It was just sitting on there by gravity and friction alone.
 
i ahvnt put my 465/208 in my truck yet but im trying to do whatever i have to do before i put it in...i used to run a 700/208 and it poped aout a few times but ALWAYS in the worst spot like a decent where you were moving very slow (513s 700 fst gear) or when you were going up trying to get over something...im just narowing down the possibilities...im gonna do a rebuild on my 208 when i put my dodge rear half on it but im still thinking about shifter ideas...im kinda liking this cable setup
 
I would bet you a million dollars Jay that its somethign to do with the shift forks in the case. I just rebuilt mine because it was having the same issue. Easy as pie to tear into those cases.
 
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