Overdrive Q,s

[The Warden]

The Ranger III overdrive goes between the engine and bellhousing I'm pretty sure. They look like a pretty cool unit, I personally wouldn't mind the manual shifting, contributes to making the truck unique and a conversation piece and probably reduces the amount of people that want to borrow it. Tim are you sure you can't use a Ranger in front of a ZF5? Also if you find a DNE2 or someone else does, make sure it's from behind another ZF5 or a C6 as the 4 speeds have a different spline count and you would not be able to adapt them together.

The Ranger goes between the bellhousing and the transmission...which is why you cant use one with a ZF with the integral bellhousing This pic's from Ziggster's page:

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And, regarding the spline count, how do you mean? Given that a transfer case that originally went onto a T-19 will fit on a ZF without any problem, I'm not sure how the same wouldn't apply to an OD unit.

FWIW my main issue with the GV's is that you can't use it in 4 wheel drive....if I had a 2WD I'd certainly consider one...

 

[RLDSL]

I sure was pulling for that dude here with the knockoff units to sell a bunch of them and not to get sued out of existence, i guess I should have supported him by buying one of his units but 1500 still seemed like a lot of money for me, then I am cheap. .

I wonder what ever happened to that guy, Haven't heard anything from him for a long time. Now I'm getting worried that they may have sent some goons over to his house and taken him for a *ride*

 

[aaron1976]

That ranger unit looks pretty good in there. I didn't know they made such a thing. I like the idea of that and it would work great with the t-19. Thanks for posting the picture with it.

 

[Diesel JD]

I see now that makes sense about the Ranger and the ZF. Between the bell and the trans...weird! Now with the DNE2, there is an adapter that has to spline onto the shaft that sticks out the back of your transmission. The T18/19 have one count of splines and the C6 and ZF5 have a different count. I don't know if you could still get the gear adapter from US Gear or not. I know they had idled production of the new units but last I heard they still hadn't eliminated Jim's job and still had some new old parts. But yeah, the drive gear for the Doug Nash box has to adapt to your tranny's output shaft.

 

[DragRag]

Here is another overdrive unit if you have never seen it or heard of it. This unit is called a Mitchell Gear splitter. It has a high and low range in it, with manual gear shift lever, not electric. I picked up this truck as a parts truck and brought it home a couple days ago because it had this unit in it. I may put it behind a T19 in the 86' crew cab, not sure yet. I am trying to find a ZF5 for it right now, so it may end up in another truck. This unit is made right here in Calif in the bay area in a town called Healdsburg. Not sure if they make these any longer, a Google search doesn't bring up a site for them. I* have read they make model T overdrives currently, but not even sure on that. Here are the pics, the truck was a no start, and this and the trans are good still. It is mounted where the carrier bearing goes on the drive shaft, so it is a divorced unit. There is a rod between the unit and the shifter, not a cable. Pretty stout looking, and have also read they were tough.

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[The Warden]

Everett, thank you for posting that! I've seen one of those before, but didn't remember who made it. There used to be a guy on ford-diesel.com who had a Mitchell splitter in an '85 or '86 crew-cab dualie. I never actually saw it in action, but I always thought it was a cool idea. The guy was down in the desert; ended up moving out to Texas and getting a Cummins...

Now with the DNE2, there is an adapter that has to spline onto the shaft that sticks out the back of your transmission. The T18/19 have one count of splines and the C6 and ZF5 have a different count. I don't know if you could still get the gear adapter from US Gear or not. I know they had idled production of the new units but last I heard they still hadn't eliminated Jim's job and still had some new old parts. But yeah, the drive gear for the Doug Nash box has to adapt to your tranny's output shaft.

JD, I think you're referring to the units meant for 2 wheel drive installations. I say this because, if the spline counts for the output shafts on a 4x4 tranny were different, you'd have to use different transfer cases between different trannies. When I swapped to the ZF5, I was able to reuse the 13-45 transfer case that was originally behind my T-19 with no trouble whatsoever. If the output shaft splines had been different, that wouldn't have been possible. And, as I understand it, if you put a U.S. Gear unit on a 4x4, it simply bolts onto the tranny where the transfer case attached originally, and then the transfer case bolts in place aft of the OD gearbox.



BTW, I remember when U.S. Gear stopped selling OD units. IIRC someone at the time said it had something to do with them shifting away from civilian sales due to the war. However, based on their page, it looks like they're selling them again

http://usgear.com/dual_range.htm

I haven't called to confirm, though...but the webpage says it was last updated in June '08, which IIRC was after people said they'd stopped building them.

 

[RLDSL]

That mitchell unit looks a whole lot like my brownie