Right here we go
Now the muncie box is my box of choice but budget constraints are an issue here.......the face to face adaptor will cost me £350 to have cut and hardened which is a bit pricey
So with this in mind I can get an adaptor made up for next to nothing on the ZF box due to it being an output flange!
The issue here is the box is 3 1/2" longer than the Muncie and not quite as tough although thats negligible! This is a box from a Pinzgaur or Volvo truck after all this I know from the selector housing with it being a long stick rather than the remote version used in the Maserati and Alfas (it was also mated to a Hemi)
Now the standard series prop shaft length is 21 13/16ths my old prop length was 14" with a crazy angle on it due to the R380 box.....
With the Zf box being 1" shorter than the stumpy R380 we're already winning here and mated to the LT230 using a 1/2" spacer plate we get to a 17" prop shaft on a rough estimate with the tape and a far better working angle as the box isn't as deep.
This combined with the fact that I still have 3" to play with up front and the Cadillac 429 block is 1/2" shorter than the RV8 this gives me a prop length of 20 1/2" meaning I'm not far off standard!
But I can also drop this box down in the chassis due to it being a little smaller so my working angle is further reduced! This means I'm no longer running a 35* rear prop angle and I'm much closer to about 15* another huge bonus as it means I can use standard UJ's instead of pricey wide angles
The front prop crossmember will have to be scalloped slightly but this isn't an issue as I can make it look like a military one like they have to run when on higher suspension setting.
My one gripe with using the ZF box is that I lose my granny gear
7.05 becomes 3.9 which is still lower than any landrover box! But no where near the SM420 crawler
I do however gain a cruising gear but it has a very weird set up for the gears where first gear is where second would be......I can see myself getting in trouble putting it into reverse instead of first for a while
You can see the LR ratios here for all boxes
Links
Anyway here's some pics
and I'm gonna make a start on the adaptor tomorrow