So that's what caused all that leaking fluid!

[Yukon Jack]

Ran some ladders over to a buddy yesterday in my 69 K20 and saw an unusual amount of oil under my leaky Rockwell T221 transfer case. I'm guessing I got low on gear oil (been awhile since I topped it off).

Looks like it took out the rear bearings on the input shaft. Anyone have experience with this that can let me know what I'm in for repairing this. Looks like NAPA has rear input shaft bearings for about $32.

I do have an NP205 that I can swap in - I actually sold it to a the buddy who I was taking the ladders to and he says I can keep the NP205 if I need it.

I also have a spare Rockwell T221 - I have never used it so I don't know anything about it, other thahn the fact that it spins in all gear selections just fine.

I assume the transfer case has to come out if I decide to try to just replace the input shaft's rear bearing. Can't imagine that I could get lucky enough to be able to replace it installed in the vehicle. Also, I can only assume there are metal pieces from the bearing in the transfer case that need to be removed.

Probably want to do what is the simplest route. I know the NP205 would require making a new hole in the hump and with carpet I would have to either do a patch or replace the carpet. The carpet is very new and I doubt a patch would look very good.

From web researching today I see the NP205's crossmember sits 1.5 inches back compared to the Rockwell's crossmember. I also see that the NP205's crossmember is 1" deeper (the transfer case sits 1" lower). I also see that some driveshaft length adjustments may well be necessary.

One of my goals in the near future is to get rid of some of my truck's body lift. I had to increase the body lift to clear the bbc when I swapped it in. One option that I have been considering is moving the engine forward and also dropping the engine down a touch. Moving the engine forward 1.5" to 2" probably gets me the necessary firewall clearance to get the body lift reduced down to 1-2".

So, I haven't put a tape measure to all of this, but maybe I could leave my transfer case crossmember where it is and put in the NP205 and move the engine forward - thereby killing two birds with one stone. The reduced body lift will probably allow me to avoid needing to drop my existing crossmember down 1", unless I need to do that to keep the engine sitting at a proper angle, and I guess I need to consider if that causes any driveshaft angle issues.

My other winter project that plays into this is I'm swapping a Dana 60 soon - that might require front driveshaft lenght adjustments too.

Lots of issues, feel free to chime in with thoughts and recommendations!

 

[Greg72]

I'll start:

"Might as well....... "

 

[gaspass]

I've never seen that happen to a 205. Have you?

 

[Yukon Jack]

I've never seen that happen to a 205. Have you?

This happened to my Rockwell T221 - I understand they are notorious for having bearing trouble if they get low on gear oil since the input shaft is pretty high compared to where the oil is slung from.

 

[Yukon Jack]

I'll start:

"Might as well....... "

You're killing me!

 

[GotBoykins]

................bring In The 205!!!.........................

 

[Yukon Jack]

Get ready for probably more info than your interested in reading:

Spent about 30 minutes in the shop last night pondering my options and getting some measurements.

Here is a pic of one of my NP205 setups and another pic of one of my Rockwell T221 setups with measurements of their differences.

If I installed the NP205 right where the T221 is positioned it looks like that would move my motor and transmission forward 2". In looking at my firewall, moving the motor forward 2" possibly could allow me to remove 2" of the body lift. That is one of my goals. Moving the motor forward 2 1/2" would definitely allow me to remove 2" of the body lift.

I do note that putting in the NP205 will give me a slightly longer front driveshaft and while I didn't study the postion of the front yokes, that might help get rid of some of my front driveshaft angle.

When I swapped in my bbc, I used 4 washers (3/8" total) per motor mount bolt on the passenger side and 2 washers (3/16" total) per motor mount bolt to raise the engine slightly for oil pan clearance. Removing those will help with my firewall clearance on the drivers side since that in effect has the motor sitting a touch higher than it should be and about 3/8" closer to the firewall than it should be. If I remove those washers I anticipate removing the engine crossmember and cutting out the area that is too close to the oil pan then putting in a flat piece of metal angled to fix that problem area.

I do see an issue with my rear driveshaft. My present setup uses a carrier bearing. As you can see from the pic of the T221, the rear output for the rear driveshaft is very low, while the rear output is high on the NP205. I'm not sure what the maximum length a rear driveshaft can be, but maybe an option would be to get rid of the carrier bearing and have just a one piece rear driveshaft. My carrier bearing has maybe 1000 miles on it, but no big deal.

I'm low on truck funds at the present time so that is going to play into my decision. Additionally, I hurt my lower back in October and just rolling around on my creeper and climbing into the 69's engine bay one time had me hurting so I'm unfortunately pretty sure this will be a painful project, regardless of what I decide to do. Either way I have to pull the transfer case.

 

[bp71k5]

In the spirit of "Might as well..."

You know if you're worried about having the rear driveshaft too long, adding a doubler will shorten it by around 6 inches?

 

[Yukon Jack]

Ya know, if money weren't an object, a Gear Vendor's overdrive unit would sure be going in there - afraid with the way I use this truck, the doubler wouldn't really be useful to me.

 

[Yukon Jack]

Got some free time last night so I went out and popped the broke cover.

Looks like my truck has some missing balls

Here's what was floating around visible through the crack in the cover

Spent a bit of time doing some more eyeballing and it looks like moving everything forward and dropping 2" of the body lift will require me to rework the low tranny hump I added or go back to the high tranny hump. I'm on a very tight budget as this was not a planned project to happen right now so I will probably see if modifying the low hump tranny will allow me to still use my rather new carpet.

I'm thinking I can just move my exhaust hangers forward and avoid having to do anything to the exhaust - not sure on that.

Guess I will start ripping the transfer case out soon, yank the headers, pull the engine crossmember to modify it a bit, then move the engine forward, i.e. open a can of worms!