Mitsubishi Transfer Case to Tera Low231 NP231 ...

If you're asking yourself what exactly does this mean in English then you probably don't care about any of this. And, most people don't need to care about this. However, for those of us who curse Mitsubishi's 1.92:1 transfer case ratio on a regular basis this is a big deal. What this translates to in English is simply this: We're not stuck with a transfer case with silly tall gearing. Now there's an option. Actually, now there are several options but I'm getting a head of myself. For my application I chose the NP231J transfer case because there are thousands of them out there, they're cheap, and there's great aftermarket and stock support for parts; also, because I found one out of a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with less than 140 miles on it for dirt cheap!:-)

TeraFlex makes the Low231 4.0:1 kit as well as the short SYE and ultra-short SYE kits. Several other companies make short and utra-short SYE kits as well. In my opinion, the really nice part about the NP231 is the availability of replacment parts from common autoparts stores like Napa, Checkers, AutoZone, Carquest, etc. If something in my t-case breaks in southern Utah I want to be able to fix it right there immediately. That's impossible if it's a Mitsubishi part. Especially if it's a transfer case and it gets even worse since my t-case is the 5-speed manual transmission transfer case, of which apparently there are only, like, five in existance.:-( Asside from all that, even if parts are available in stock which they aren't, the closest dealership to Moab is Salt Lake City or Denver. Yea! Can you say $2000 tow bill?

So, I finally sat down and worked out the engineering details of a transmission to transfer case adapter, the shift mechanism, and drive shafts. The plan is to build an adapter that is longer than the existing spacer and has the existing stock transmission and transfercase levers built into the adapter rather than the top of the transfer case. Then have a transmission output shaft to t-case input built. Take the existing transfer case out, swap the new one in and hook up a cable to shift the new transfer case using the existing t-case shifter. This may sound like a lot of work but so far it's been less work than getting gears from AU. And, rather than the 2.85:1 t-case gears I'll have 4:1. I'm just getting started on this but I'll keep updating this as it goes along.