It followed me home, can I keep it?

[The Warden]

Let me start this thread by thanking towcat for catching this ad on CL that I would almost certainly have missed otherwise. I also need to thank my dispatchers at work, who somehow forgot to include me on the schedule for today, giving me a rare Saturday off and making it possible for me to run up to Vacaville to snag this before anyone else was able to. maybe my uncle's up there keeping an eye on me

For the reasonable sum of $650, I'm now the proud owner of a Doug Nash overdrive unit. The guy I bought it from said that, when he looked at it, he saw a tag saying it had been rebuilt...he wasn't sure when, but given how clean it is, I'm guessing it wasn't too long ago. I didn't have a ready source of 12 volts available at the time, so I haven't been able to test it, but it spins smoothly and he said that it shifted just fine. Hopefully all will be well!

I've been wanting to either add an OD unit or swap to 3.54's for many years...quite simply, I spend so much time cruising on the freeway that, even with the ZF, my RPM's are higher than I'd like. IMHO this gives me the best of both worlds...with the 4.10's and the F-450 tranny's lower 1st gear, I can get any load started that I want, and if my calculations are correct, I should be able to cruise at 70 mph at 1889 RPM...which is my RPM at 55 mph without the OD unit.

I'm excited and had to share ...

 

[fury9]

Sweet find, I've heard good things about the dne2's

 

[The Warden]

It's basically a U.S. Gear unit (IIRC U.S. Gear bought out Doug Nash at some point and kept building the boxes basically unchanged), so parts should still be available if needed. I need to get an Eaton switch for it What I've always heard is that it doesn't shift quite as fluidly as a GearVendors, but it's a more stout unit...while you can use either unit on a manual or an auto, I've concluded that the Doug Nash/U.S. Gear unit's more manual-transmission friendly and the GearVendors is more automatic-friendly...

I'm a happy camper at the moment, although I'll be happier when it's installed...although that gets to wait until I take my truck out of service. I've been wanting one of these for years...

 

[gandalf]

Good show. You didn't waste any time on that one. The force must have been with you. You spoke with Towcat ~12:30-1:00 about this, and you've bought it and have pictures online by 7pm. You must have run over three little old ladies in your rush to get there.

Congrats on finally getting an od unit.

 

[Sycostang67]

Nice!!

 

[Brutis]

 

[pybyr]

Drool; envy [oh, and congratulations, too!]

I was under the impression [maybe the misunderstanding?] that the DN-type OD units had to go on the tail of the transmission, which made life complicated if one had a 4WD with non-divorced transfer case like I do (I'd need to change the length of the front drive shaft in addition to the back). Can this type of unit go between the back of the transfer case and the rear driveshaft? I may be asking dense questions, but I'd like to learn. My 4.10 axle ratios are great for some purposes, but I'd like to boost the MPG under other situations.

Thanks

 

[The Warden]

Good show. You didn't waste any time on that one. The force must have been with you. You spoke with Towcat ~12:30-1:00 about this, and you've bought it and have pictures online by 7pm. You must have run over three little old ladies in your rush to get there.

Congrats on finally getting an od unit.

According to my phone logs, I talked to towcat just before noon...he called me at about 1000 while I was still asleep (for those of you who don't know, I work evenings, so I'm usually in bed around 0400 and up at noon). The guy with the OD unit called me back at about 1245, and I was out the door by 1300...I figured I'd better get up there before someone else could Fortunately, Pacifica's closer to Vacaville than the South Bay is (OTOH, coming from the South Bay, I could have gone up the 680 and avoided just about all of the traffic I ran into)...I was slowed down a bit by traffic in SF and Berzerkeley, but I was up there by 1430 or so. I actually got back here around 1730, but was on the phone, so I couldn't post it immediately. But, I was a good boy and didn't run anyone over ...actually, I didn't break past 70 once on the trip.

And, thank you very much

Drool; envy [oh, and congratulations, too!]

I was under the impression [maybe the misunderstanding?] that the DN-type OD units had to go on the tail of the transmission, which made life complicated if one had a 4WD with non-divorced transfer case like I do (I'd need to change the length of the front drive shaft in addition to the back). Can this type of unit go between the back of the transfer case and the rear driveshaft? I may be asking dense questions, but I'd like to learn. My 4.10 axle ratios are great for some purposes, but I'd like to boost the MPG under other situations.

Thanks

I think that the OD units for 2 wheel drives replace the tranny's tailshaft, making it more difficult to install. For a 4x4 application, it's actually really simple...just unbolt the transfer case, bolt the OD unit in place of the transfer case, and then bolt the transfer case to the back of the OD unit. With that said, yes, I'll need to lengthen the front driveshaft and shorten the rear driveshaft.

I'm pretty sure it's not possible to mount a Doug Nash/U.S. Gear OD unit that's meant for a 2 wheel drive, behind the transfer case. However, the GearVendors unit is meant to go behind the transfer case on a 4x4...IIRC some GV units include a new case half for the back side of the transfer case, with provisions to mount the unit to, and other units are meant to replace the carrier bearing. I'm not sure, though...I'm not as well-versed on the GV units. Mel would know


BTW, looking on U.S. Gear's webpage, they're talking about an electrical control module that's supposed to be used with the manual transmission. I had been under the impression that all you needed was an Eaton switch? I did NOT get a control module with this unit...the guy didn't have one, and I was under the impression that it wasn't needed with a manual. Can someone who's done this before shed a light on the situation? Thanks in advance

 

[typ4]

If you drive it and are gentle on the shifting an eaton switch should work just fine. I have worked on some of the DNE2 units and the best way is to not shift on the fly unless neccessary.

Oh nice score, I would love to find a unit for mine with all the commuting I do.

 

[The Warden]

If you drive it and are gentle on the shifting an eaton switch should work just fine. I have worked on some of the DNE2 units and the best way is to not shift on the fly unless neccessary.

Oh nice score, I would love to find a unit for mine with all the commuting I do.

Cool! I'm generally pretty gentle with my equipment...as I understand it, you're supposed to shift it by moving the switch while the clutch is still engaged, wait 2 seconds for the mechanism to load up, and then partially (or completely) disengage the clutch. Is that about right?

As far as wiring it goes, the guy I bought it from said that it shifts gears by reversing polarity of the two connection points on the unit. Does that sound right? Anyone have any idea how many amps are needed i.e. what wire gauge to use?

Thanks again

 

[icanfixall]

Gees.... You rock getting that for such a great price.... Did Calvin get a 12 pack finders fee.... When these are attached to an auto you load the drive and shift it but.. Nothing happens till you let off just a little power. The electric motor loads a spring. then letting off a bit the aux trans shifts. Its all gears without any clutches. But with your standard tran you can shift it easily. Now you have twice as many forward gears as you had before... So maybe 10 forward gears... The one down side is this... If it breaks... Your stuck there... If a gv breaks you loose only the gv... You still have your trans... Thats the only reason I bought a gv aux trans... Otherwise I would have gotten a US gear.... I actually have another gv with a C6 tailshaft adapter... Kinda a spare unit.... I know... Thats just plain stupid but as most of you guys know.... I like spares and only buy when they are a great deal....

 

[The Warden]

Did Calvin get a 12 pack finders fee....

He hasn't yet, but that's only because I haven't seen him yet. He will on Monday unless my cold decides to come back in full form I'm feeling better than I did last week, but I am sick and tired of this cough!!!

When these are attached to an auto you load the drive and shift it but.. Nothing happens till you let off just a little power. The electric motor loads a spring. then letting off a bit the aux trans shifts. Its all gears without any clutches. But with your standard tran you can shift it easily. Now you have twice as many forward gears as you had before... So maybe 10 forward gears... The one down side is this... If it breaks... Your stuck there... If a gv breaks you loose only the gv... You still have your trans... Thats the only reason I bought a gv aux trans... Otherwise I would have gotten a US gear.... I actually have another gv with a C6 tailshaft adapter... Kinda a spare unit.... I know... Thats just plain stupid but as most of you guys know.... I like spares and only buy when they are a great deal....

Nothing wrong with spare parts unless you don't have a place to store them...which is my current problem. With gathering parts for my project this summer, my apartment looks more like a parts warehouse than a place where someone lives And, the way you described it, sounds about right...I just wasn't 100% sure what Russ meant about shifting on the fly. To me, that implies not releasing the clutch at all, but I don't see how you can shift one of these without at least partially releasing the clutch

 

[The Warden]

Not good

Well, thinking that it might be easier to get all the electronics from U.S. Gear than it would to cobble it together myself, I E-mailed U.S. Gear to see how much the parts would cost.

Got a very quick response

The Dual Range Auxiliary transmission has been discontinued and parts are no longer available from US Gear.

Considering that that was the entire text of the E-mail, I have the impression that they don't want anything to do with me, but I replied and asked if they might know of any place that might make parts for it still...but, I'm guessing that no one else would bother to make replacement parts.

Also, upon further research, I think I understand why the control box is needed. The unit switches gears via a reverse-polarity motor that, with 12 volts feeding one side and the other side grounded, will run continuously. The control box is meant to shut off current flow when it senses that the motor's fully engaged one way or the other...and the Eaton switch on the gearshift lever supplies 12 volts to one or another terminal on the control box, and the box then switches polarity and/or cuts off electricity to the unit as needed.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I have a feeling that the electronics by themselves aren't going to come up on Fleabay very often...does anyone know of any other electric shift setup (or anything else, for that matter) that might work in a similar manner?

Thanks!

BTW, I'm basing my understanding of the electrical operation of the unit from this site: http://usgear.com/dr_elect_tsm.htm and this site's also worth looking at: http://usgear.com/dr_elect_in.htm

 

[towcat]

tim-
no worries. anything can be reverse engineered
Monte's CC doesn't get out often, he's got a complete electrical in his. there's nothing to mapping out an electrical system on one.

 

[The Warden]

I forgot Monte had one....yeah, that should work although IIRC his is behind a C6, right?

I think my cold's in remission, finally...I'm coughing a blue streak but mostly feeling okay otherwise. Hopefully I can get down there this Monday...if I don't fry to a crisp at the Scout event this weekend