T18 swap

I have some questions about swapping a T18 tranny into my 1973 CJ5. Currently, it has a wimpy T15 three speed connected to a AMC 360. I've noticed, however, that the input shaft of the T18 appears to be significantly smaller than the long T15 shaft I have now. Will this be a big issue when I do my swap? I figure I'll probably have to move the crossmember closer to the engine, I was just wondering if anyone could give me an idea on how much. Anyone done this swap before who minds giving me some insight?

 

What did the T-18 come out of? Does it have the bell housing and Dana 20 adapter as well?

My T-18 came out of a 1978 J-series truck. It is a much larger tranny then the T-15 and uses a shorter bell housing to keep the shifter in the right place. So it will have a shorter input shaft as well. I used a T-150 Bell housing to mount my T-18 along with a short shaft conversion. You will also have to replace your pilot bushing and probably your clutch disk as the T-18 uses a different size input shaft then the T-15.

Here is a comparison pic of my T-14 to T-18. The 14 is in front. The 14 and 15 cases are simular in size. On the back of the T-18 you can see the adapter/mounting plate for the Dana 20 T-case.


Go to http://www.hudsonhawk.net/jeep/jeepmain.htm and click on the tranny putton at the top of the page.

 

If you use the Ford T-18 input shaft, you need the bellhousing from a CJ that came with the T-150 or T-176 transmission. Nick says the T4, T5 or SR4 (?) bellhousing will work to - the same casting but it will need to be drilled for the new pattern.

 

Nice picture, HudsonHawk! Now I have a general idea on the different sizes of these trannies. I'm not sure what my T18 came out of. All I know is that it is a Ford and it is the 2WD version. I'm going to get an adapter so I can mount my Dana 20 to the rear and I plan on using a T150 bell to mount it to my engine. I noticed you said that you had to do a "short shaft coversion". What did you mean by this? Did you have to replace the stock T18 input shaft with a longer adapter-type?

 

I dont think you need to worry about a short shaft conversion with the Ford T-18. I do believe you will have to disassemble the tranny to change out the rear output shaft on the 2wd tranny. Here is a link with detailed instructions/pics on the teardown and rebuild. You may as well replace all the bearings and syncros while you have it apart. http://okcnetworks.com/bronco/t18/t18.htm

Here is a kit from Novak to adapt the Ford T-18 to a Dana 20 T-case. http://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/kit_188.htm
Also check out Advanced Adapters, they may have a kit as well.

 

Short Shaft Conversion

The input shaft of a J-series T-18 is 12~14 inches long. It uses a huge adapter plate beteen the bell housing and tranny. To make this tranny work in a CJ-5 you have to replace the input shaft with one oddly enough from a ford T-18. Which is only 6~8 inches. Then you can use the T-150/T-176 bell housing to mount it correctly.

 

Not true. The 6 cyl fsj came with a shorter 9.25" shaft. If you want to see the arrangement of the adapters have peek at these pics:

http://members.shaw.ca/karl.norrena

About the location of your cross member. The '73 has holes that accomodate a couple of different tranny/tcase configurations. I did some measureing on mine with the ford t18 and t276 bell in mind and found that the t15/d20 set up was shorter by about 1" measured from the back of the engine to the d20 adapter. There were no predrilled holes that would accomodate the ford configuration.

Karl

 

And this has what to do with a Ford T-18? I was just explaining what a short-shaft conversion was because he asked. I was not trying to be specific. If so I would have posted this link:
http://www.off-road.com/jeep/tech/trans/t18.html

 

Thanks all of you for your advice. I especially like the detailed rebuild instructions for the T18. Hopefully, I can get this all together without too many problems.

 

I will tell you right now the biggest problem on the rebuild will be the 3 detent balls under the 3rd or 4th slider gear. They are a royal pain to get back into place.

 

Hudsonhawk,

I was merely pointing out that not all FSJ t18s came with a 12"-14" input shaft, and that the input adapter is not always "huge". That type of comment lead me to initially believe that my t18 d20 was from a cj and it was not. That little bit of misknowledge (if that is a word) lead to some frustration for me and I was aiming to clarify.

BTW,
I am fairly sure that the detent balls are in the 1-2 slider and that the 3-4 slider has little metal blocks that have teets on them. Nevertheless, the detent balls are a PITA.

A really good site to read on the t18 is a site by Dr. Vern:

http://www.vernco.com/51wagon/id54.htm

Although the site is actually on the t98, the t18 is derived from the t98. In fact, rumor is that some parts can be exchanged between them. I used this site as an additional resource to rebuilding my t18. Along with this site is the following:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/9/044/article/T18_Transmission_Rebuild_Part_1.html

This guy does a fairly good job on rebuilding the ford t18.

Hope I didn't yank your chain too hard. I have visited your website and consider it a good resource as well. As I mentioned earlier, I was merely trying to clear up some potential confusion, because the fsj t18, d20 adapter, and d20 use slightly different parts than the cj and ford ones.

Karl

 

You're right. I was thinking in order from the front of the tranny not the actual gears for the detent balls.

Major Pita... It took me 2 days to put the tranny back together. After having to hunt those balls and springs down for the 20th time in my garage I go so frustrated I had to call it a night or I was going to take a sledgehammer to the whole project. the next day I was finaly able to get the gear on correctly.

 

Ya know I lost one altogether and could never find it. I spent two days looking for the darn thing. I even had my wife out there helping me. I wound up having to go to a local wrecking yard to rape a ford t18 of one just to finish.

Moral of the story, when disassembling the 1-2 slider wrap it in a rag.

Karl