Bull gear blow out

Yip you heard me. I took the Jeep out today to take the kids and wife for a nice easy ride and well after a little driving I went up a hill and BANG!! Uh Oh. I couldnt get it to go in any gear without this loud banging. I knew it was in the t case, but what can you do out on the sand. Well I got it back home and pulled the bottom cover and found the bull gear completely destroyed and some other teeth in the transfer case damaged. I have assess to a dana 20, but i thought I read about converting one to twin stick. Am I right. I really like the twin stick on the sand. AI know I will need a different setup for E brake and the offset rearend wont matter much either as I have a 44s front and rear planned anyhow. Which brings me to my next question, Are waggy and J10 axles the same width? I know wheere I can get a complete J10 minus motor for real checp. Thanks guys. :stout:

 

No, J10 axles are wider by a couple inches. Sorry to hear about your transfer case.

 

Thanks for the info. I will continue looking for waggy axles, or scout axles. I believe the reason this bull gear went south was because of a chipped/busted tooth between it and the gear it meshes with and the chip getting between the 2. i have never seen a gear this bad before. Anybody know about the dana 20 twin stick set up?

 

The front track width for a J-truck is nearly 4 inches wider than a Wagoneer, and the rear is about 6 inches wider. Way wider.

 

Twin Stick. There's a bunch of info here on it. Check the Novak and Herm sites. The picture on Herm's site of the parts is what made it the most clear to me. And the several sets of instructions floating around. Basically you remove the twin stick parts from an old d18 and install them on your later d18 or d20. You do need to take both apart to do it so just plan on a rebuild.

I had several broken gear teeth but dodged a bullit in that none of the broken parts got jammed. Note that if the pieces got jammed in the wrong place it could crack your case and ruin it. I got used replacement gears from Herm.

Also note that this usually caused by worn out intermediate shaft.

 

I have examined the case and no appearant damage except for the intermediate gear and bull gear. I have another bull gear, abd have installed it, but I dont think I want to repair the t18 just because of the high horsepower engine I need the stronger transfer case. I dont need to rebuild the dana 20, but I liked the old twin stick design, easy to just hop from 4 to 2 wheel drive after getting rolling on the sand.

 

x2. I have t90/d18 combo behind a chevy 350 and don't have a problem. We all know I put 'em to the test on a regular basis, too

 

On a lightweight CJ, IMO you won't see any benefit in strength between a stock D18 and stock D20. The D20s are a lot more available, but the D18 has better gear ratios. IF you want to spend the money, you can build a D20 that's better than the D18 by buying 2.46 or 3.15 gears and a 32-spline output shaft conversion. Here's an article from Pirate: http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Uber-20/

Instead of the 32-spline kit, you can also carry a spare tailshaft housing from a D20 - cheap and easy, but potentially inconvenient.

 

i have plans of a centerer rear axle with dana 44s front and rear, thats why I am leaning toward the 20. Newer axles will have drum parking brakes so no real loss with the parking brake on the 18. Ya.ll know me and I am very hard headed. Once I get an idea, it is head to talk me out of it. I had a t86 gearbox before , actually 2 of them and they didnt hold up to my abuse, the funny thing is I was worried about front dana 25/27 axle, but it held up,,,,so far