T-18a in a 76' Cj-7?

[Dan77CJ7]

i found a jeep that was rolled the seller says its t-18a/Dana 20 they run a jeep shop in CO. did the 76 come with a t-18a behind the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l . if so when i go down to look at it what can i look for that would tell me its a true wide ratio? BTW its still in the CJ.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

The T-18 in a CJ always came behind the AMC I-6 except for 1979 where the factory offered it behind both the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and the AMC 304 . There was a recent thread where a board member states that he had a T-18 mated to a AMC 304 “from the factory” for 1976, 1977, and 1978 but I believe this would be an anomaly rather than the norm.

The T18s at the start of the 1976 CJ model year were all “close” ratio (4.02:1) then sometime during the model year, no one seems to know exactly when, the ratio changed to the “wide” ratio (6.32:1) So, being a 1976 CJ you are looking at the T-18 could be either one if original. Novak has some good information about casting numbers on their site http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/t18_t19.htm that may help. If you find a casting number on the tranny that matches the numbers for 1977 or 1978 that could be a good thing. 1977 to 1979 CJ T18s should not have an adaptor between the bell housing and the Transmission as the bell housings were drilled and tapped for both the CJ T-18 and the Ford butterfly pattern. Also check the location of reverse. Over and up means the tranny is 1978 or older; over and down is 1979 & up.

You might look for the build date of the CJ. There should/ may be a VIN sticker on the dash that would give the build date if it is still there. Assuming a 1976 model year if the jeep was built close to the end of the model year then it may have come with the wide ratio Transmission but conversely if the jeep was built early in the run chances are it is not wide ratio.

Others on this board may know something I don’t as whenever I have bought a T-18 in the past the Transmission has been out of the vehicle so it was easy to put it in gear and count the rotations.

 

[Torxhead]

I would suggest having them pull the top off and looking for that huge 1st gear. Living in Colorado it would come in handy:
t18a tranmission 1st gear pics - Bing Images

 

[tarry99]

I would suggest having them pull the top off and looking for that huge 1st gear. Living in Colorado it would come in handy:
t18a tranmission 1st gear pics - Bing Images

Pull the cover off as suggested and look at the front input shaft gear just inside the front of case..........should be 17 teeth the huge gear is on the counter shaft below and should be 43 teeth which might be hard to count.........that's a normal 6:32 low gear first wide ratio gear box.

Now Borg Warner did make numerous versions of the T-18 tranny for Willys / Jeep mostly in input shaft lengths but I have seen odd ball input shaft gear and counter shaft gear counts that might be off by 1 tooth ????Go figure!

 

[HackFabrication]

...did the 76 come with a t-18a behind the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l .

My 76 CJ5 came with the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and the T18b.

The T18s at the start of the 1976 CJ model year were all “close” ratio (4.02:1) then sometime during the model year, no one seems to know exactly when, the ratio changed to the “wide” ratio (6.32:1)

My 76 was build in Apr 1976, so it had to be after that. AMC was notorious for 'using up' inventory parts, then switching to the next year model parts.