The Lone Ranger – 1350/1354 Doubler with D&D Machine Kit
This is my first foray into any transfer case. Thankfully it turns out that they’re quite a bit simpler than I thought they would be. I don’t know if the gear driven cases are any more complicated, but my guess is that they’re even simpler.
I’m using the D&D Machine kit from Duffy (he also makes the “Box For Rocks” kits for the Jeep stuff as well). The kit really is quite simple to put together (heck, even a goofball like me managed to get it done without too much of an issue). If you really had to hammer though it, you could probably knock this project out in a day easy (day + plus whatever time you need for the form-a-gasket to cure).
Duffy’s kit comes with the adapter plates, block off plates, all the bolts needed, shorter shift rail, and the all-important splined shaft:
Once you have the kit, you’ll need a BW1354 (either an E or M will work as this is the rear case):
And also a BW1350 (Manual) case for the front:
Rear case portion of this is stupid simple to put together (BW1354 case). But before you can slap it together, you’ll need to do something about the breather as it will be in the way of the dobuler adapter plate. Either drill and tap a new one, or make a 90° elbow work as I did. Remove the stock breather and do a little clearance grinding on the case:
Then grind your 90° elbow to allow it to spin onto the case, and stick your old breather vent into the 90° elbow to finish this part off:
Once that’s done, you get to move to the first portion of your doubler build. That being, slapping on the rear adapter plate. Don’t forget to seal it up!
Now it’s time to start tearing the BW1350 apart to prep it for cutting. I started out with the Box + Tranny adapter:
Unbolt the case halves and everything just falls apart (Note: if you pull the Rear yoke off, it is a little easier to split the case. I got lazy and just did it this way):
Once the case is split, lay the adapter plate on top of the BW1350 and mark a cut line. Make sure you leave some “fluff” that you can clean up with a grinder later:
Remove the snap ring holding the front yoke on, and pull the planetary gear set out (bolts on the front of the BW1350), and get cutting!:
Slap the adapter plate back on to check your cut line and grind to your liking (Note: the vent shown was not supplied in Duffy’s kit, I picked that one up at Home Depot, more on that later):
After you’ve done some grinding to get rid of the excess T-case stock, you get to start trimming the block off plates to fit. This is the one spot I’m a little disappointed in the kit. It would have been nice to have the plates a little closer to the right size (minor complaint, I realize that).After whacking off about 3/8” off the plates, and doing some rough grinding:
You can either have these welded on, or just use some form-a-gasket to seal them off. I opted for the latter as this is just an Aluminum transfer case, I want to be able to pop these blocks off in the future if something were to happen the doubler case.
Once the blocks fit to your liking, its time to clean out the case and swap the shift rails out:
Seal up the adapter and block off plates, don’t forget to tighten up the screw for the new shift rail!:
After the sealant has set on the front case, slap some sealant on the surface between the adapter plates and screw them together. This is my only other complaint about this kit. Instead of having the shift rail screwed to the back side of the adapter plate (another place to possibly leak). It would have been nice to have the rail ‘float’ instead which would allow you to pull the shift fork out while tightening down these screws. Getting under the shift fork is a pain for folks with big hands! TIP: Drill a hole in the sift fork to allow you to get to the allen bolt underneath it (I forgot to do that, it would have made life easy). This is also the point in which you get to decide to clock the rear case if you want. I left mine stock at this point to keep from having to clearance the cab too much:
Plop the shaft in and slide the planetary set back into the front of the case (It helps to rotate it as you insert it). Don’t force it! It will slide in easily once everything lines up. Give everything a spin to makes sure it feels good while you’re at it. (And yes, you’re allowed to giggle as you make it spin in double low while its on the bench).
Now you just need to address the vent tube for the front case. In the latest revision of this kit, Duffy put a tapped hole on the adapter plate to be used for a vent. Since that hole sits higher than the stock vent, it’s wise to just plug up the stock vent tube hole:
For the Main vents, I made them “T” into each other to less the amount of lines running around under my truck. At this point I think I’m going to run the vent line out back behind the cab, but that’s subject to change once I get the doubler under the truck.:
Fill it up with fluid (about ¾ of a quart) and slap it in the truck (I don’t have it in my truck yet so no pics). It looks like I’m going to get lucky with the linkage as my case came with the 1350 linkage for the AL4D. So it should work with my M5OD tranny and make life simple. If not, I’ll make it work.
As a side note, when looking at the guts of the 1350 and the diagram of the 1354E. I’m thinking it might be possible to take the mechanical linkage out of a 1350 and make it work in the 1354E case to lose the electric shift motor. If I come across a couple of cheap cases in the future, I might have to give this a try.
As another side note, If you have a spare 1354 laying around, you can pull the Planetary, shift fork, and slide gear to upgrade form the 4 gear set to the 6 gear set (1993+ 1354’s). I didn’t have that luxury, so I’ll just rock the 4 gear set. If it breaks, I’ll worry about it then.
The doubler adds 6.75″ to your driveline
One Finial note, make sure when you assemble this that your rear case is not clocked like this as your CV will come in contact with the crawl box:
2 Comments
Anthony Meyer
Whar can I buy this kit
Kage
Honestly, you’re going to have to look for it. They pop up on Ebay from time to time, or you can try to track down Duffy directly. I do not have his phone number anymore so you’ll have to do a little searching on your own.
Sorry I can’t be more help!