Mitsubishi Transfer Case to Tera Low231 NP231 ...

Update: February 8, 2008 I admit it. I sissy'd out. I got lazy and decided to not use the stock transfer case shifter. It was going to take a little extra machine work and some time with a calculator and after hearing about Mitsu stopping production on manual transmission related parts I decided to just do away with the factory shifter. I stopped by On-Trac Performance here in Denver and they sorted through their manuals until they found a company in California that sells push-pull cable shifters. They sell the shifters in sort of a 'build it to suit' way, so I picked out the configuration, handle and a couple other things I wanted and they should have me a price by Monday. OK. So, maybe I only kind of sissy'd out.:-)

While searching for cable shifters, I found out that the Jeep Liberty uses a cable shifter on their NP231J transfer cases. Unfortunately, like the rest of the Liberty, the build quality is pretty, well, uh, how to put this in a politically correct way? Hmmm. Cheesy? Pathetic? Yea, something like that. IMHO, build your own if you want a cable shifter.

I picked up the aluminum for the face plates (that's the big silver rectangle picture). 6061 T6 12"x24"x1". At $45 a foot it's not cheap but that's enough to do the face plates, the shifter mount and the cross member mount with a little left over for miscellaneous. Unfortunately, I think 1/2" is too thin and I couldn.t get 3/4", so.... Betcha they won't break!:-)

I ordered the Dakota Digital SGI-5 'Universal Speedometer Signal Interface' Thursday night from Summit Racing. Many thanks to NathanC from the Mitsubishi 4x4Wire Forum for figuring this one out in advance, and for all his other help!!

The new NP231 is done and at the machine shop with the TeraFlex ultra-short SYE and Tera Low231 4:1 kits installed. Looks nice, but it'd look a LOT nicer if it were already installed! Sigh. Can't get impatient!!!:-)

Did a ton of surfing and spoke to several places here in Denver regarding drive shafts. I think Tom Wood's Driveshaft's will be the solution for the back and probably the front, too. I'm very impressed with what I've seen of their stuff and the back driveshaft on my Sport will take a lot of abuse. I don't want to be reengineering the drive train in a year. I was also impressed with the design of the new Bigelow/Cornay CV joint. I've never been a fan of the 'standard' Spicer CV joints. Not because they don't work, because they do, but because it's not a very efficient design. Any vibration anywhere in the drive train means a loss of power at the tires which directly translates into lower gas mileage and with gas prices in the $3-$4 a gallon range that can get expensive very quickly. Unfortunately, the Bigelow/Cornay joint isn't available yet but after speaking to someone that's testing them on a Dodge 3000 I'm hoping they'll let me be a guinea pig and test one or three out on my Sport in a couple weeks. Anyway, they're an interesting concept. I highly recommend checking them out on Tom Wood's Driveshaft under the 'Bigelow 40 Degree CV' link.

So, everything is pretty much worked out. I still need a cable but I won't order that until the shifter is here. Otherwise, the shop is starting work on the adapter so it shouldn't be too long before I have something tangible.

Below is a link to all the pictures I have so far. The Jeep NP231J before the TeraFlex ultra-short SYE and Tera Low231 4:1 kit were installed and after. Pictures of the V5MT1 transmission and transfer case from my 1997 Montero Sport, and pictures of the factory 5-speed tail shaft housing/adapter. I found two diagrams of the V5MT1 and a picture of the Dakota Digital SGI-5. And, a picture of a giant hunk of aluminum that will be used for the new adapter mounts.

For those interested in other than a NP231 here is an excerpt from the Tera Low231 4:1 installation guide...