Rot Box’s Superduty

[mbryson]

Buy

 

[str8axleguy]

Agree, wire that big is expensive and after you buy ends and the covers I think you’d be ahead.

 

[1969honda]

If you do decide to build, I have a set of the big cable lug adjustable die crimpers you are welcome to borrow.

 

[Rot Box]

Thanks fellas 😎. I pulled the old positive cables out and I’m glad I did. They wouldn’t have lasted the winter.

 

[Mouse]

Thats a nice find, thanks for the link. I'll have to remember next time I need cables

 

[Rot Box]

Did a little more digging and ended up finding this on Rock Auto. The description sucks but the picture looked right. Turns out it’s just what I needed! Fitment is great and it has the HUGE 2/0 cable between the batteries whereas the stock one was quite small. For just over $100 shipped I figured why not.

Anyway it’s just a battery cable but I figured it might help some of you 7.3 owners as options are quite spendy.

 

[Rot Box]

Story time! So there we were my wife and I taking a lovely drive though some Idaho back country when all of the sudden I loose all forward gears….




I don’t know how or why but my transfer case decided to detach itself from the back of the transmission—😳. I was dead in the water but I could coast so I did for miles and miles. Downhill we went through the mountains hoping we could get cell service around every bend. Nada. We kept coasting…

Out of the mountains down through the foothills, through some farm yards and all the way to the bottom where we came to a stop right in front of an old store—whheeewww. Cell service and a cool old store that served food!



Looking back I probably shouldn’t have coasted with the transfer case like that but I didn’t/don’t really care. I wasn’t walking I can tell you that much haha.

To be continued….

 

[Rot Box]

We waited a long time for the wrecker but spirits were high, food was good and all we could do is laugh at ourselves.



I’ll tell you what the operator of the wrecker was such a cool humble dude. He shared his life story with us about the struggle and reward of coming to America from Guatemala in his late teens. I wish I could share it here but it’s way too much to type and I’ve been rambling enough as it is 😂

So the truck is effed…. I was able to limp it from the street to the driveway but it wasn’t happy about it. I think I may have lost the splines between the trans and t-case? I won’t know until I pull it I guess. Looks like the remaining bolts pulled threads out of the housing so there’s that.

 

[Mouse]

There are some transmissions and transfer cases on KSL - hopefully you get back on the road soon. I've never checked the transfer case mount bolts on my F350 (15 years owning it), I'll check them today

 

[Rot Box]

Thanks Mouse 😎 I’ve been weighing my options a bit this morning. The trans is the more desirable ZF5 (S5-47) but the syncros are in rough shape and I don’t know about the tail shaft now. Prob should have it pulled and rebuilt while I’m into it this far. I’m up for pulling the t-case but I’m too old to pull a transmission too haha.

 

[Rot Box]

Dang, my brother came over and spent all of twenty minutes pulling the t-case the rest of the way out. He makes everything look so flippin’ easy 😎

Turns out the spines are just fine—yay!! The case however does not shift out of neutral maybe it’s just a broke fork? Guess we’ll see.

It’s not a BW1356 like I had thought this baby is a NP271F. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not. At the moment that’s not a good thing haha.

Thanks for riding along.

 

[bryson]

From what I understand, those big NP/NV cases are pretty stout and reliable. They've also got a decent low range ratio, so I wouldn't be upset about it.

 

[Tebbsjeep]

My brother and I rebuilt the same t case in his Ford, and it was pretty simple.

 

[DAA]

I don't see any holes in it. I think things are looking up.

- DAA

 

[Mouse]

I swear there is a guy on KSL selling a ZF5...I'll look when I have time

 

[Rot Box]

Thanks Mouse! I’ve been keeping my eye out but they’re getting kinda hard to find. Mine is the more desirable S5-47 out of a 96-97 F series diesel so it might be best to just have it rebuilt. I’m not seeing anything bad though I’ll probably just run what I have the syncros aren’t too bad… 😂

Well we split the transfer case to see the damage and I’ve gotta say the main shaft and components in thing are HUGE. Not much to these transfer cases they’re pretty simple.

It appears as though my range fork bushings gave up and the fork rubbed on the slider and eventually wore though thus not being able to shift out of neutral.

 

[Rot Box]

I don't see any holes in it. I think things are looking up.

- DAA

Right! Been down that road before 😂

 

[Rot Box]

So I don’t know if this is helpful to anyone or not but in my quest I’m finding out there’s two revisions of the manual shift NP/NV271F transfer cases. In 2001.5 Ford (not sure about Dodge) switched to pressurized oil to lubricate the range fork. The early cases like mine use splash/fling oil to lube the range fork. You can upgrade the main shaft, slider and fork in the old case to the later style if you have the parts.

Mainshaft Update Kit , Includes, Mainshaft, Range Fork, Rang - Broncograveyard.com

This is a 100% New Process Gear(NPG) product.br Sealant Kit Includes:br *Input sealbr *Front and rear output sealbr *Rear output sealbr *Oil pump housing sealbr *Adapter gasket setbr *Spline washer setbr *O-ring setbr *Ultra black 598(sealant)br

shop.broncograveyard.com

Are the earlier cases less desirable? I’d say yes but… there’s a million of them on the road still and mine failed at 250k miles without any love prior to me owning it so I personally wouldn’t say they’re unreliable just less desirable imho.

At the moment I’m on the lookout for a used case from a 2001.5 and newer Ford with the 4R100 transmission (31 spline input).

Hope this helps someone down the road. I’m not finding much info online in my search 🫤

 

[Rot Box]

Had a great time with my daughter this weekend. We met up with some friends from Expedition Utah and watched the sun rise though the sun tunnels. Really great meeting up with old friends 😎

 

[DAA]

Great to see you again! And congrats on the hot coffee .

- DAA