Custom T-Case shifter setup(s) and Behemoth

[Lifelong Jeeper]

Do you use yours on the highway? Just curious if it stays in gear etc.

You used a cable shifter as well right?

I had mine pop out of gear once on the highway but it was before I had my cable shifter done. We had just been Jeeping all day and it popped out of gear going down Parleys Canyon. I thought my trans went out. My brother towed me home and I went to work to get it fixed. Luckily I had an epiphany that night and thought to check the strong box before pulling the Transmission. Sure enough, it was in Neutral. (I used to shift the strong box by hand by reaching in from under the Jeep which was totally inconvenient.)

Here's what I ended up doing with mine. Twin sticks control the STaK 300 box and the stick by my ebrake handle is the cable shifter for the strong box. Forward is low range and back is high.

I still need to work out handles for the shifters.

 

[RockChucker]

I had mine pop out of gear once on the highway but it was before I had my cable shifter done. We had just been Jeeping all day and it popped out of gear going down Parleys Canyon. I thought my trans went out. My brother towed me home and I went to work to get it fixed. Luckily I had an epiphany that night and thought to check the strong box before pulling the Transmission. Sure enough, it was in Neutral. (I used to shift the strong box by hand by reaching in from under the Jeep which was totally inconvenient.)

Here's what I ended up doing with mine. Twin sticks control the STaK 300 box and the stick by my ebrake handle is the cable shifter for the strong box. Forward is low range and back is high.
View attachment 97886View attachment 97887
I still need to work out handles for the shifters.

We need to make you some shifter knobs...

 

[thenag]

Sorry I did not check the forum before I tore mine apart and reinstalled it.

No worries, I am a pull it apart put it back in quickly guy, I wouldn't have waited if someone wanted to see mine.

After talking with Jacob earlier in the week I dropped my strong box and found my problem was a snap ring that had come out of its groove and was hidden behind the front input seal.

When I first built mine, I didn't read the part in the instructions that talked about that snap ring. I installed the input seal first and so didn't see the groove for that snap ring. I didn't like the in/out slop that I had with the input shaft and so called Jacob. He figured out right away what I had done wrong. Pulled the seal, installed the snap ring and then a new seal and it's been golden. I can imagine how that would have been problematic on the road. I seem to remember that the input gear was grinding against something inside the case. I was glad to have figured omit out before installing it on the Jeep.

This may be what is going on with my father in laws behemoth. I have had my 231 apart recently and was reminded of that friggen snap ring. I know that we did NOT install a snap ring in my father in laws. The input seal was installed when it arrived from Behemoth so we didn't think we needed to pull it apart to install the snap ring. I am assuming you use the original snap ring that was on the planetary?

My father in law pulled his behemoth/d300 and put his stock case in for now.

Thanks

Nathan

 

[Lifelong Jeeper]

Yes. It's the original snap ring. His box is probably the same as mine and therefore should need it. Might as well check it while it's out be on the bench. Seals are a cheap peace of mind.

 

[Lifelong Jeeper]

By the way I will be pulling my whole case apart soon to inspect everything and to try to diagnose a vibration that I have. If anybody wants to check it out, let me know and I'll keep you posted when it's time.

 

[Pile of parts]

By the way I will be pulling my whole case apart soon to inspect everything and to try to diagnose a vibration that I have. If anybody wants to check it out, let me know and I'll keep you posted when it's time.

I'd be interested. Probably drag a friend along with me that would be interested too.

 

[thenag]

So as my father in law and I were building and re-building his d300 shift linkage we talked about a ton of ideas on how to improve the simple lever design. I also came up with some ideas to make it more serviceable.

So since he pulled his behemoth/d300 for now I decided that the ideas we talked about were too good to forget and so I redesigned my d300 shift linkage.

The goals were to;
be able to remove the center console without removing the entire shift lever
decrease the total number of pieces. (weld washers in place etc) so that I wouldn't have a ton of 1/4-20 bolts/nuts/washers.
move the pivot from about 3.5 to about 4 inches so that the levers will have less throw
have some adjustment in lever to allow fine tuning.
try to fill the hole in the floor better so less air would come in the cab.
upgrade the look so it looked less hacked together.

First was to replace the tcase end links with rod ends


I then made a mount for the a 3/8 rod end to mount to the d300 shift rail



I will skip to the end on this part. I used the shoulder of a 3/8 bolt to make a pin to fit into the end of the rod end, this pin will slide up and down as the lever moves in an arch, this will reduce the binding and any up/down pulling on the d300 shift rail



As for the hole in the floor I have always used a piece of foam. This works pretty well. I added two pieces of rubber on top of the foam.







So on my old levers I welded a 2 inch long piece of 1 inch steel onto the end of the lever. This worked well but was not removable, so to remove the console I had to un-bolt several pieces from under the jeep to get the levers off. After dropping my belly skid plate. So I started trading some emails with my machinist friend in Durango. I wanted to drill a 1/4 hole through the center of a 2 inch long piece of steel. Of course as you start to over think this, there is plenty of ways to screw that up even with a drill press. The two critical things are making sure that the steel is cut at exactly 90 and drilling in the center of a round piece of steel. He of course said it would be easy for him, so I asked him to do it for me. He looked through his scrap and didn't have any mild steel, he only had stainless steel.

(these are so bling-ing I am going to put them on the next post)

Wait for it

...

 

[thenag]

HOLY CRAP I WANT TO BUY A LATHE OR MILL OR WHATEVER HE USED!



Installed



Counting every nut and washer my old setup had 36 pieces



My new setup has 25 pieces, but I added removable nubs and some adjustment.



My pivot bolt has a 5/16 nylon washer drilled to 3/8 that is tight on the bolt shoulder so that the washer and lock washer do not fall off. So that if I remove the setup I don't have to chase washers around. I also welded a washer on each lever so that the washers between the levers are attached to the levers, this prevents me from trying to jam washers in between the levers while installing.

In addition to the nylon washer, I also put a split washer on the bolt this keeps some tension on the levers. These two things prevent the levers from rattling.

I spaced the pivot bolt out so that it bottoms out so it *shouldn't* work loose due to shifting.

All of my goals were met, and an added bonus is that the shifting is A LOT smoother, it always worked well, now it works GREAT!


I will update when there is progress on the tj's behemoth/d300.

 

[Pile of parts]

Looks great Nathan! Glad to hear it works so smoothly. Thanks for posting this. Keep us updated on the tj's progress.

 

[Lifelong Jeeper]

Bringing is right! Looks great.

 

[thenag]

Looks great Nathan! Glad to hear it works so smoothly. Thanks for posting this. Keep us updated on the tj's progress.

When my father in law gets around to to getting back to his behemoth I will let you know, he said you can come check it out when he has it apart. His projects usually take some time so it will probably be apart for weeks when he gets around to it.