Well, I got dealt another blow today. I've been in work on changing out the clutch. Took everything out, shafts, Tcase, Trans, Bell housing, clutch, flywheel. I'm going back together, replaced the rear main seal, pilot bearing, resurfaced the plate and reinstalled. Installed the clutch.

I inspected the bell housing and found 2 of the transmission mount holes cobbled. I took it to the machine shop for vatting and inserts. Today I’m working the tranny, cleaning 23 years of crud off it and remove the intermediate case from the back and one of the corners breaks right off. I guess whoever put it on there last over torque it. So, I search around the internet, 250 clams,, ouch!!!! Here's a pic of the replacement.

 

I was hoping someone here might know where to get one, anyway, I found a NIB for 185... It's on the way. Time to finish cleaning all the muck off the tranny and putting in a seal kit.

 

This on that big brown brick?

 

Yessir Russo,,, Things are coming together and it will indeed be even better then it was. Got my vatted bellhousing today, new inserts and cleaned. New intermediate case on the way.

It's just amazing the things that can be found upon disassembly of a 23 yo vehicle. I guess I could left it alone and drove it. The clutch was working fine, just throw out bearing noise. But, I just didn't feel right about it and wanted to pull it apart and make sure before I took it on a long trip, or got into a rock garden. Now I'm really glad I did.

 

Good to know. I'll bet that granny gear helps to move the 35's
What gears are you running?

 

3.55 which to me seems like a good all around gear...

 

I'll bet that works out pretty good with the whole driveline combo and 35's
Sometimes I wish I had the ol 4 speed.

 

Its a good tranny, I had one in my jeep. The only downfall is on rock climbs, operating the clutch, brake and gas pedal at the same time is impossible. The fix is a hand throttle attached to the shifter. A future mod.

 

I don't plan on rock crawling with my truck haha. It would be nice to have the lower first gear and be able to run bigger tires without a major regear.
But then I would lose my hurst ):

 

russo if u went 4 speed ud have to make the hillbilly hurst like i made hahaha

 

I could sell my hurst and fund a t19 swap.
But I won't

 

My understanding was in 88 the T19 was only bolted behind the diesel from the factory. Yours isn't a T18?

Adrianspeeder

 

87 was the last year for the 4 speed in any trucks as far as I know.
The idi and bigger gassers got the zf and the 300 and 302 got the m5

 

I can put it in first without coming to a full stop so it's synchro'd, so its a 19. Mines is a 300 6 so evidently it came behind other engines then just the diesel in 88.

I hung it today (with a friends help). Rented a trans jack and lined the cradle with plywood, used and ratchet strap, cut the heads off some 5.5in bolts and installed in the top holes of the bell housing to use as guides as per the manual. Got it installed without to much difficulty. All new, improved and rebuilt forward of it. Hung the tcase as well, cleaned 23+ years of sludge off it, and resealed. I'll be dinging around, hooking it all back up over the next couple days.

 

Sweet.
Just because I'm curious now, what is your trans code on the door tag? And what are the last couple numbers of your vin?
Like mine is 0074 or something like that since it was the 74's off the line.
I'm just thinking maybe it was a very early "88" build and got a t19 over an m5 for whatever reason.