Atlas transfer case in Cummins powered '68 Ford CrewCab thoughts/opinions needed
- Thread starter eggman918
- Start date
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eggman918
Adventurer
First of all I want to thank everyone for the help/advice on this choice,I have been think and looking for parts and have come to a decision.
My plan is to do a 203/205 and for now keep the M5ODR2,I have found a Ford divorced np203 for a reasonable price and I got lucky in that
my divorced 205 has the whole face around the input bearing surfaced so that I can bore the case for the larger bearing that fits the married
31 spline input gear drill and tap the 4 bolt circle for the married retainer and the 6 bolt circle for the married mounting flange.
That wont be too big of a job as it can all be done in one setup on the mill the hardest part is fitting the case on my mill it is almost too big
and took some creative thinking to make it fit. This is probably not the coolest/sexiest way to go but it will give me the low range that I need
and keep the T-case in the factory position plus I can do the whole project right at $1,500.00 including rebuilding the 205 and the range box
from the 203. The only 2 drawbacks I foresee are that the intermediate drive shaft will be a bit shorter then I would like I think around 6" or 7"
and the fact that I am still not 100% sure that the M5ODR2 is up to the task, but if it is not I still have the option of a ZF5 down the line
I hope the M5 holds up because as I mentioned before it's gear spacing is ideal and the ZF's is not.
I will not be doing this project until this winter when I do I will post a build thread here.
My plan is to do a 203/205 and for now keep the M5ODR2,I have found a Ford divorced np203 for a reasonable price and I got lucky in that
my divorced 205 has the whole face around the input bearing surfaced so that I can bore the case for the larger bearing that fits the married
31 spline input gear drill and tap the 4 bolt circle for the married retainer and the 6 bolt circle for the married mounting flange.
That wont be too big of a job as it can all be done in one setup on the mill the hardest part is fitting the case on my mill it is almost too big
and took some creative thinking to make it fit. This is probably not the coolest/sexiest way to go but it will give me the low range that I need
and keep the T-case in the factory position plus I can do the whole project right at $1,500.00 including rebuilding the 205 and the range box
from the 203. The only 2 drawbacks I foresee are that the intermediate drive shaft will be a bit shorter then I would like I think around 6" or 7"
and the fact that I am still not 100% sure that the M5ODR2 is up to the task, but if it is not I still have the option of a ZF5 down the line
I hope the M5 holds up because as I mentioned before it's gear spacing is ideal and the ZF's is not.
I will not be doing this project until this winter when I do I will post a build thread here.
eggman918
Adventurer
excellant choice. hope the m5od holds out better than i think it willpost pics of your progress please!
I hope so to when I rebuilt it before I put it in I was surprised at how robust it appeared internally, many people running 4BT's use them....but we will see.
I will start a new thread for the doubler project and will attempt to document it better than I did my swap. I am also going to start looking for a ZF5 with the
Ford 300/302/351 bellhousing pattern,if I have one sitting in my storeroom the M5od will probably last forever and if not I am ahead of the game.
eggman918
Adventurer
I wanted to post an update to this thread.
Life got in my way,but I got the doubler in then we moved to N Arizona two houses and my machine shop made 4 trips with truck towing between 4.5K and 8K. The third trip west on I-40 was with the 8K load and the fact that the 4BT would pull the grades at 1500/1700 rpm did in the M5 so you were right BF but in it's defense it started "ticking" yet finished the move and moved it all again when we found a house to buy.It kept running for another 15,000 miles+ and finally threw in the towel just down the road from home and it limped home,it has since been replaced with a ZF s542.
The 203 under drive is very handy and shifts smoothly I use it in reverse all the time especially with the trailer and on the one short trip to the high country with the camp trailer double under was greatly appreciated by my clutch.
I took lots of pics of the whole process from rebuilding both cases and assembly through installation and will get that thread started in the next few days
Life got in my way,but I got the doubler in then we moved to N Arizona two houses and my machine shop made 4 trips with truck towing between 4.5K and 8K. The third trip west on I-40 was with the 8K load and the fact that the 4BT would pull the grades at 1500/1700 rpm did in the M5 so you were right BF but in it's defense it started "ticking" yet finished the move and moved it all again when we found a house to buy.It kept running for another 15,000 miles+ and finally threw in the towel just down the road from home and it limped home,it has since been replaced with a ZF s542.
The 203 under drive is very handy and shifts smoothly I use it in reverse all the time especially with the trailer and on the one short trip to the high country with the camp trailer double under was greatly appreciated by my clutch.
I took lots of pics of the whole process from rebuilding both cases and assembly through installation and will get that thread started in the next few days
