flat towing my muncie

Just installed a muncie 420, love it. How should I flat tow it? In gear? out of gear? disconnect the rear drive shaft? Ive heard many ways to do it, whats the best?

 

if you have the dana 18 transfer case all you should need to do is put the transmission AND transfer case in nuetral.i have flat towed this way for 300 miles at a time,no problem.the only thing turning is the lower output shaft,and if the other gears turned slightly from the viscosity of the oil it would be negligible. don't know if this is the best,it's the way i do it.

mike s.

 

I concur with Mike- Both in neutral, or in 2-High with the rear shaft disconnected.

The shifter clutch in the tcase isn't going to impart enough transfer in neutral to turn the SM420, even when the SM420 is in neutral as well, so really you're only worrying about the tcase, and putting the SM420 into neutral in case the tcase bumps into gear.

Flat towed my T14/D18 combo almost 400 miles thru the hills with a busted transmission and chewed up tcase with the tcase in neutral, did no more damage to the thing than I had when it busted.

 

http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/search.php?searchid=324293

 

Said it tons of times before and I'll say it again very loud. PUT THE TRANSMISSION IN GEAR AND THE TRANSFER CASE IN NEUTRAL! The reason is the gears turning in the transfer case will splash oil up, this is normal. However, the oil splashing can cause the output shaft of the transmission to turn. Unfortunately, when this happens the counter gear is not turning and the output shaft pocket bearings rely on the counter gear to splash oil up for lubrication. Those bearings end up running dry and can over time burn up and seize. Not good. By putting the transmission in a gear, any gear, it keeps this from happening. I've had to toss whole transmissions because of this. The input shaft had actually welded itself to the output shaft and we couldn't get the tranny's apart without a torch. Save yourself some money and headaches and put the tranny in gear. Nickmil

 

X2. This is the way I’ve always heard it should be done and for the explained reasons.
Good explanation, Nickmil. 8)

 

Interesting.

I'll have to keep that in mind.

Seems odd though, takes more force than I'd think would be in a neutral-shifted Tcase to spin the output shaft on my SM420 when its in neutral... then again, it's sat for a couple yrs and needs a good inspection.

 

You're probably right in your application, but I don't like to take chances where the pocket book is concerned . I also like to try and remember that other people on this board are reading these responses and that their results may be totally different due to minor other details. For example, T-90's are notorious for this problem and a guy with a T-90 reads this and thinks he won't have an issue because someone else didn't, not thinking about things like rotational force, etc. You'd be amazed at how the whipping of the gear oil can generate enough torque to move shafts, gears, etc. Remember, that's how a torque converter in an Automatic trans works and they are using a much lighter viscosity oil. Nickmil