WHOA!! HUGE Difference with T-18A

Hello All!

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Salesman in a bad economy, blah, blah, blah...

So I completed the upgrade from my T-150 to a wide ratio T-18A and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! The T-18A came from a CJ, but originally I think it came from a late 70's, early 80's Ford pickup. I kept and rebuilt my D20. Just needed an 1" adapter and new drive shafts...everything else was pretty much bolt on. Needed to heat the stick a bit for fitting, but did NOT cut into the tub. There was a slight modification to the skid plate under the T-Case, but with some heating, we were able to use the original plate.

I took the CJ Javalina hunting last weekend, got mostly rained out, but did manage to play in the mud a bit! R)

Some differences....

1) The CJ is not nearly as smooth as it was on the shift, feels more like a tuck than a light jeep now. The stick is longer and closer to the body. It swings a bit wider as well.

2) The tranny is slightly more noisy, but nothing too big of a deal.

3) 4L is WAY, WAY lower. You could almost do a Chinese fire drill while crawling. The power is amazing!

4) I cannot really use the 1st gear in the city. Too much power and not really that smooth (could be I'm not used to it yet). I generally am using 2-4 unless 1st is really needed on the trail.

5) On the trail, I noticed I am using significantly less gasoline.

Final thoughts...I would TOTALLY recommend the upgrade if anyone is contemplating the swap! That granny gear is WAY worth it!

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

 

I've been wanting to do this upgrade for a long time now. I've got an sm465 with similar gear ratios that's going into mine this summer.

Glad to hear you are happy with the results!

 

I never use 1st on the street ,only on rock trails
you'll get used to the shifting, heat up the shifter and bend it around to where it feels more comfortable,makes shifting it alittle easier .
I swear the jeep FELT heavier after I did the swap . but I was coming from a car muncie 4spd, which sucked for what I was tring to do with my jeep . good luck with it , thats a tough trans to kill.

 

your new 2nd gear is virtually the same ratio as the old 1st gear in your old t-150, so you might as well use 2nd as your "starting" gear in normal driving applications. in fact, in my np435, my 2nd gear ratio is lower than the 1st gear ratio from my old t-14.

changing to a truck 4-speed with granny low is pretty much the best stand-alone modification you can make to the OEM 3-speed jeeps, imho.

wally

 

Did the same thing with mine this winter, so far so good.
What did you do with your Crossmember?
Did you stick with the Factory and modify for the stabillizer pin and accept the loss of ground clearance or go for a custom X-member?

 

stock so far, just drilled a few extra holes, and moved it relative to its original location along the framerails. when i replace the frame, i'll probably go with a custom crossmember. i'm not really worried about the loss in ground clearance, as the control gained by having superior crawling ability overcomes that issue. oh, and it doesn't have the stabilizer pin installed, since the t-14 was missing it. however, i do have one to install when i swap frames and modify/create the crossmember.

 

I went kustom.....

 

Even customized the spelling.
Nice cross member. I love my T-18 also. I was a little disappointed with the lost clearance. Not a huge deal with such a short wheelbase though.

 

I don't paint much , I enjoy a good rusty patina ,paint just going to get scraped off anyway, more plate was added to protect the transfer pan after that pic ,been on there almost 2 years and still has no rust (chromemoly ,sp?),other than a few snow runs this jeep sees no rain.........................and doesn't get washed much either.

 

I grabbed these pics, threw a few dimensions on them and am in the process of making this for mine. I'm using 304 SST, no rust allowed, scrapped paint or not.
My thanks go out to cj5/442 for the idea.

 

5foxes- sweet,
not shown is the skid plate made from 1/4" plate , kind of just covering the pan and not tied to anything in the back .

 

Here's a few pics of mine. Not sure about the loss of clearence....we just bent the original skid plate a bit and refitted. That tranny/transfer is safe as in a mother's arms. It is still much higher than the axles....BTW, I have a stock lift with 31" BFG's. Also, The stick fit nicely with only a slight heat/bend.

 

All I see are red "x" instead of the picture

 

Working on it. There is some sort of sercurity thing that has to be removed for me to post pics...not really sure.

 

cj5/442; 5foxes - sweet,
not shown is the skid plate made from 1/4" plate , kind of just covering the pan and not tied to anything in the back .

Well here's mine, got'er welded up today, 29" tip-to-tip with 3 1/2" drop.
Tomorrow I'll mount it then transfer the mounting holes, then paint. I'll save the Skid Plate for another time.
Thanks again cj5/442 for posting yours, it's just what I needed and at the right time.

 

dude!!!! I like it , looks way strong, I also like that you took almost the same picture.
my skid has worked out real well,I really thought it might not fair well being only tied like it is ,,, but it has taken a good rock hit and it just gouged the metal alittle,,, with no bending . glad I could help out . I used a short concrete steel stake for my torque arm. if you need anymore pics let me know, good job,man

 

Yea, I consider it Hommage to a good design.
Here are a few of the final save the skid to come later.

Before:


After: