Cj T18

A while back I acquired a T18/d20 combo out of an early 70s CJ. It is the close ratio, however it did not come with a bell housing or the adapter that went between the bell and transmission. The input shaft sticks out about 9 inches or so, and as far as I can figure out, the only way to use the tranny is with the adapter, which I can't seem to find anywhere. Does anyone know who carries these or where to find one? Or some other solution? I'd sell the transmission, but I don't want someone else to get stuck with it.

 

Did you try Novak or Advanced Adapters???

High5

 

It may be hard to come by, since you can't really use the transmission without the adapter. Thus there won't be any out there that aren't paired with a transmission. AFAIK it's just a plate, so if you have the bell and the thickness, you can make it pretty easily. The bell is the same as the T-15 bell, again AFAIK. I think the T-15, T-14 and T-18 bells are the same part for those years.

You may be able to get the thickness measurement from a T-14 or T-15 by measuring the stickout and bell depth, then comparing it with your transmission.

It's a long shot, but you might try one of the big Jeep-only yards like J&W Jeep or Scotties in CA. Nick's friends at R&P seem to often have this kind of stuff.

http://www.jwjeep.com/
http://www.scottysjeepand4x4.com/
http://www.r-p4wd.com/site/

 

Another option is to swap out the main drive gear (input) to a Ford unit and swapping the bellhousing to a '76 and newer. Do a search and all kinds of info should pop up as we've covered this pretty exhaustively in the past. Best of luck. Nickmil

 

Uh, Nick, I thought you could not swap gears between the 4:1 and 6:1 transmissions? Or maybe there was a 4:1 Ford T-18? Or you can use the 4:1 T-19 gear?

 

I've found a conversion to make this transmission work with a Chevy bell/motor, but that's about all I could find. According to Novak's website, there is no input shaft conversion available for this transmission.
If I get ambitious this winter, I may try to make a spacer/adapter as Tim suggested. I have a T-15 bell that should work.
If anyone could supply the specs for that part, I'd be grateful, otherwise I'll wing it.
LOL, I bought this thing as I figured it would be the easiest T18 to swap in (since it was stock to my model CJ), now it may prove to be the most difficult.

 

Yup, a 4-1 T-19 input works just hunky dory. Done it once or twice. Nickmil

 

Hold the phone....you got my attenion here Nick.
I've not heard this before, but sounds interesting. So I can swap in a 4:1 T-19 input shaft/gear and that's all. Front bearing & retainer and seal is the same?

I'm getting that giddy feeling again......

 

You will need the ford Bearing retainer also as well as the seal inside. The bearing retainer od will match the '76 up bellhousing no problem. You may have to change the clutch disc, not sure what spline you have now, but needs to match the Ford input. You will need a pilot bushing as well to match the Ford input and the crank of whatever engine you are running. Should've mentioned that before, sorry about that! Partsmike and R&P can both supply all the parts needed for this. You will need the matching synchro ring for the main drive gear, there are two possibles, one thick, one thin. One other thing I almost forgot is depending on which input you get it may use the same input bearing you have now or may need a wider one. The wider one is the same as the rear output bearing so are readily available. These are all available from anyone who rebuilds tranny's or supplies transmission parts. It's really pretty easy to do and gives the shortest combination of parts possible with this tranny which equates to fewer adapters needed and a longer rear drive shaft in a vehicle with already too short of a driveshaft. Nickmil

 

That's pretty cool Nick. I hadn't realized that the T-18 and T-19 share gears. Can you go the other route with these parts, ie use the T-18 main shaft and adapter in a 2WD T-19 to make a 4WD T-19?

 

I wish you could. There is an extra snap ring groove in the T-19 main shaft and one of the others is moved to a different location. Due to slight design differences where the 1st speed gear presses onto the shaft you can't just take a T-18 main shaft and cut in the snap ring grooves for the T-19. Some of the parts interchange like bearings, counter shaft, reverse idler shaft, 2nd and 3rd speed gears, input shaft (as long as the tooth counts are the same, remember, T-19's came with 3 different first gear ratios, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1 roughly). Some won't interchange like main shaft, counter gear, 1st gear, reverse idler, case, top, and the adapter won't work on a T-19 case either. The spacing of the counter gear shaft and reverse idler shaft is different and the stock adapters don't account for this. Most aftermarket adapters are designed to work with both and address this issue. Many T-19's also only had two rows of bearings supporting the counter gear total and the spacer inside is longer. I take the stock spacer and throw it away and put in a T-18 spacer and put in 4 rows of needle bearings to add more support to the counter gear. Makes the counter shaft last longer too. Nickmil