greetings

and salutations and all of those nice thing

I have a badly delapidated 68 plow willys. runs great, looks bad and has a few quirks

now the body is off and i am welding in new panels (i like steel bodies)

had a few things to get advice on before i start buying parts

the first of many minor issues is the noisy transmission. the casting on the side clearly says
t-86AA. I have read elsewhere about the interchangibility of t90 parts with t86. what is the difference between the 86 and the 86aa? I havent found an 86aa rebuild kit, and i't hate to buy the t86 or t90 kit and not have the right stuff.

the second is the rear axle. I have a nicely built center diff 44 with gears that match whats in there and I'd like to put in a dana 20 transfer case to compliment it. I have read so much swapping stuff lately and it's all starting to blend together. the 20 should just bolt right in where the dana 18 was right? i seem to recall something about the gear or shaft might need to be switched.

thanks for the help
see you on the trails this spring

 

Greetings to you and welcome. You will enjoy these guys and their insight and downright enginuity.

 

Howdy! welcome aboard! Just curious, why swap out the dana18 and go to the trouble of switching to a centered diff? If you fill out your info we know better what your working on and where you live, there might be some one close that can help if you need it. Oh, and we love pics!R)

 

welcome, i'm guessing since you have a t-86 and its '68 you got a buick :v6: in it. the t-86 in most opinions are weak. not saying its horrible but thats what i hear from alot of people. rebuilding it or a t-90 is quite easy. just finished mine today. this site has excellent help in the tech section on rebuilding and novak adapt has good info too. do a good inspection of the internals before getting started. i tore mine down and ended up waiting for parts to arrive. good luck

 

rebuilding it and whatever shouldn't be a problem for me, I have done a few VW transmissions in the past. I am still contemplating a 420/465 swap. I like to throughly explore options before i get into things. (thus all the reading and confusing myself with what i have read.)

the dana 27 was trashed and gutted by the previous owner, who handed me a 5 gallon pail o' differential parts includingg a ring gear missing 4 consecutive teeth and a cracked diff carrier. i swapped in a dana 30 last year and the slightly wider stance in the front didnt bother me. it came with a matching 44 with bigger drums, one piece axles and a locker of some sort in it. both axles were had for beer from an upgrading friend. then in all my reading I can really see a benefit for not haveing everythign turning in 2wd. i had an fj55 landcruiser that grenaded the transfer case and i always thought it seemed kind of an odd design.

i don't do any crazy wheeling thanks to the wife and kids, mostly two trackin with mudholes and occasional obstacles. i figured rebuilding the 86aa swap in the 20 and the 44 would be fairly cheap and easy, as opposed to the 420 swap(which would get the 20 anyway) on one hand the 86 would be sort of stupid insurance mentally causing me to take it easy, where if i had a dump truck sized trans in a swb jeep i might be inviting a costly break elsewhwere(being honest with myself)

I am in the middle of michigan, closest major city is lansing.

pics, like the ones with holes so big i could throw a cat through it, or plowing with no bidy and a seat strapped to the framerail?

 

doing any hard wheeling will show a vehicles weak points. if you bust the tranny and replace it with the same thing, odds are it will bust again. if you build a heavier tranny then you'll break the next weakest thing. could be u-joints or t-case, or driveshafts. seems like alot of my wheelin buddies will keep breaking axle shafts till they upgrade them. then they start breaking t-cases and drive shafts. in your case, you probably won't need the 420. but if you do put it in, you are right, you'll try crazier things. just have to build it for what you plan to do with it. a 420 in a daily driver isn't doing much good. just my 2 cents.

 

Welcome from San Diego

 

I couldn't agrre with you more Mr. Stalin440
the upgrade bug got the better of me and i sold my old jeep, took a break for a few years and got this one with a stockier and smaller type mentality. It's not a daily driver, just a winter plower and a summer cruiser and maybe run the family out for ice cream. trying to build it tough and durable whilst keeping it looking fairly sleeperish. I'm sure you all can relate to how a stock old willys will walk around a built wrangler (29"tsl thornbirds on it, dont like thornbirds but the price was right)
pic of the old jeep (350 sm465/205. full width d44/corp14welded. 38" groundhawgs)



and some pictures of "rusty"

 

The T-86 is basically a T-90 with a beveled sliding gear and a different main shaft. The main shaft has spiral splines for some reason - shifting or ... don't really know why. But the gears are the same size as a T-90, and the straight-cut 1st gear of the T-90 is slightly stronger. You can put all the guts from a T-90 into a T-86 case. Sometimes this is the best path becasue T-86 parts are harder to come by than T-90 parts.

The main advantage to a D20 is it's cheap and quieter than a D18. The D18 has a lower low range (2.42: v. 2.0:1) and the offset output makes your rear driveshaft angle less, and lines up the front and rear pumpkins. This can be an advantage in moving over obstacles (ie big rocks).

The flanged rear axle is definitely stronger, but whether that matters really depends on your driving habits.

 

killed a model 20 rear end darn near the same way