Dana 18/ Dana 20

Well with the Rebuild complete on my Dana 20 and something Was done Wrong by Myself possibly I get ready to pull it out and take it back up to a Buddies For round two with this beast, I bought a homebrew twinstick for this puppy but not to sure I like the set-up. my questiion is the similaritys between the Dana 18 and Dana 20 are really close for the most part. will twin stick shifter housing plate from a Dana 18 bolt onto a Dana 20 with little to no modification?

 

The housing will physically bolt to the 20 case but you cannot make a 20 a twin stick using 18 parts. They simply don't interchange due to differences in the output shafts, housing, bearings, how the bearings are retained, shift rails, etc. etc. I wish they did, I'd make a fortune selling kits to people with model 20 transfer cases. Nickmil.

 

Darnnitt Man OH well

 

Of course you could just build your own twinstick. Its pretty simple. I made one for my 75 and it works good. You need to remove the interlock pill from between the two shift rails which is the hardest part. Other than that just cut the tube mount that sticks out of the front housing at some convient point. Make a bracket to hold a bolt onto it. On that bolt will go the pivot points of your two levers. I used some of my old linkage and some new cheapo rod ends to connect the shift rails to the levers sticking down from those pivots. Then I just welded longer levers made of 3/8" roundstock on top of those pivots and threaded them for some round shift knobs. I need to redo the levers as there is some slop and rattle and I need to get the floor fixed up so I can install my twinstick boot to finish it. Works good, shifts easier, and I know what gear(s) its in at all times now.

Kevo

 

I've done that too and it works great. One thing you may want to do is to shim up the detents nice and tight. The 20 relies on the linkage also to hold it in gear and when converting to the twin stick it's common for these to start popping out of gear. Nickmil.

 

I have a set of twinsticks I bought off of ebay was just looking at other options is all