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Home/ Registry/ Ford/ Bronco/ 1980-1986/ “Spartan”/ NP435 Swap supermotors.net/registry/20215/80439

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NP435 Swap

From 1981 Ford Bronco “Spartan”, documented by AbandonedBronco.

96 photos
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1981 Ford Bronco - Picked this running truck up for $300. 1981 Ford Bronco - Pulling the engine out of the parts truck. 1981 Ford Bronco - It's visible how long it took me to get the engine from the truck to the back of my Bronco. The previous picture of removing the engine is… 1981 Ford Bronco - After the drive shafts were out, the first major component I removed was the transfer case. 1981 Ford Bronco - Next out was the transmission and tail shaft. The shifter is a spring loaded setup where you have to push down on the "ball" cap connection… 1981 Ford Bronco - With the transmission, transfer case, and mat removed, next up was the floor pan. 1981 Ford Bronco - Not easy to remove. The bolts were simple enough, but it's glued on with some pretty heavy duty sealant. A hammer and a flat bladed screw d… 1981 Ford Bronco - This photo shows the interior floor of a vehicle, with a section cut out to expose the transmission tunnel and driveshaft. 1981 Ford Bronco - Loading parts up in my Bronco to take home. The truck is at my brother's house. 1981 Ford Bronco - Transmission parts and fluids are stored inside the cargo area of a 1981 Ford Bronco. 1981 Ford Bronco - While walking back and forth from the truck to the Bronco, a random passerby crawled in and made himself at home. 1981 Ford Bronco - Transmission on the back of the Bronco. It's tall. 1981 Ford Bronco - Tools all set up and ready for the big project. 1981 Ford Bronco - Removing the clackity clackity engine. Not sure what it's issue was (it had great compression, ran well, and had a new head), but it made a… 1981 Ford Bronco - Home and ready to go in. 1981 Ford Bronco - Pulled the cover off to check out the gears. Made the mistake of not checking to be sure it was in neutral first so I had to mess with it f… 1981 Ford Bronco - Disassembled transmission shifter components and tools are laid out on the ground. 1981 Ford Bronco - The shifter for the SROD is a bit easier to remove. Just two bolts and none of the difficult spring loaded stuff. 1981 Ford Bronco - Shifter and boots removed. This picture also shows the difference between the SROD and NP435 setup. The SROD shifters are right next to eac… 1981 Ford Bronco - Old transfer case removed from the Bronco. The chain was starting to slip in this one so, for now, instead of rebuilding it, I'll reuse the… 1981 Ford Bronco - The SROD is out. A very small and light weight transmission. I used the transmission jack I bought, but could have easily pulled it out mys… 1981 Ford Bronco - The hydraulic bell housing. I could have left my mechanical clutch linkage in place and just bolted the NP435 to it, but I wanted the hydra… 1981 Ford Bronco - Transmission removed from vehicle, with parts and fluids on the ground. 1981 Ford Bronco - The teeth look nice and clean. No chips, and everything moves smoothly. 1981 Ford Bronco - Disconnected the transfer case from the transmission. First time I've ever taken it off, and the first big step into a big project. Easy en… 1981 Ford Bronco - Lowering the transfer case with the jack. 1981 Ford Bronco - A transmission jack is a HUGE HUGE plus in this project. I don't recommend doing it without one. Lowering the transmission and transfer cas… 1981 Ford Bronco - The truck transfer case. I quickly realized that the tailshafts of the truck and Bronco transfer cases were completely different, so they'd… 1981 Ford Bronco - The mechanical vs. the hydraulic bell housing. Not much difference except that the mechanical just has the arm sticking out, whereas the hy… 1981 Ford Bronco - Another shot of the SROD. I couldn't figure out how to remove the tail shaft. Since the shifter is in the tailshaft, I'm assuming I have to… 1981 Ford Bronco - The broken transmission mounts. 1981 Ford Bronco - Just finished taking the engine out. 1981 Ford Bronco - Thought this was a cool picture of a straight through shot of the entire drive train missing. Can see the more robust transmission mount on… 1981 Ford Bronco - The size difference between the SROD and NP435 was crazy. I imagine the large gears necessary for the super low first simply demand a highe… 1981 Ford Bronco - Two manual transmissions, likely for a swap, are shown resting on the ground outdoors. 1981 Ford Bronco - Getting the NP435 ready to go in. 1981 Ford Bronco - The NP435 is MUCH taller than the SROD, so I jacked up the front of the Bronco to make room to slide it underneath. 1981 Ford Bronco - Getting the transmission into place to go up. I didn't want to mess with the crossmember (they're REALLY well bolted on on Ford trucks), so… 1981 Ford Bronco - The transmission wouldn't fully go into place with the floor pan on, so I had to switch jobs for a few, pull up the floor mat and remove th… 1981 Ford Bronco - Transmission bolted to the engine and hanging on its own strength. A little deceiving in this picture because, no, the blocks of wood are n… 1981 Ford Bronco - I'm not one that's much for cleaning stuff up unless it's a mating surface. The exterior is just going to get dirty anyway. 1981 Ford Bronco - Transmission and drivetrain parts visible from underneath a vehicle. 1981 Ford Bronco - Tailshaft housing is now bolted on to the transmission, transmission and bellhousing are now bolted to the engine, the cross member is back… 1981 Ford Bronco - Underside view shows the drivetrain components of a vehicle, with a driveshaft and transmission housing visible. 1981 Ford Bronco - Time to swap the tail housings on the transfer case. I hadn't been thinking, but as soon as I removed then, I realized that I had a bit mor… 1981 Ford Bronco - Would be a great time to change out the internal speedometer ring gear if I needed to. For what it's worth: The number of teeth for a corre… 1981 Ford Bronco - Detail of internal gearing and chain drive, likely from a vehicle's drivetrain component. 1981 Ford Bronco - The gasket that goes between the transmission and transfer case (the circle in the lower right) was in great shape, so I held on to it and… 1981 Ford Bronco - Transmission components are laid out on a concrete surface, possibly for repair or replacement. 1981 Ford Bronco - Disassembled transmission housing and adapter plate on a concrete floor with oil stains. 1981 Ford Bronco - This large C Clip is the ONLY thing holding the chain, gears, and tailshaft in the case once the cover is off. 1981 Ford Bronco - After the C clip was removed (a big one, so kind of a pain without the proper tool), everything else came right apart. 1981 Ford Bronco - The chain has NO lateral movement in it, so once the clip is off, you have to slide both gears on the ends of the chain off at the same tim… 1981 Ford Bronco - The other end of the chain, with the tailshaft. It lifted right out and there was nothing holding it in place except for the chain. 1981 Ford Bronco - A close-up view of a transmission input shaft, a large gear and blue banding, likely for a vehicle swap. 1981 Ford Bronco - When putting them back in, the only thing to check is that everything in the hole is lined up. There are a few discs down in the hole that… 1981 Ford Bronco - Both cases had this provision, but only the transfer case that was on my Bronco still had the magnet in place. It was covered with lots of… 1981 Ford Bronco - Magnet missing from the truck transfer case. 1981 Ford Bronco - This was the biggest noticeable difference between the transfer cases. The TC in the '81 Bronco was an NP208, and the TC in the '86 F150 wa… 1981 Ford Bronco - This is the different disc for the NP208F. No idea what the difference does. 1981 Ford Bronco - The shorter shaft is put in. Have to slide the chain around both gears and then drop both sides in at the same time. 1981 Ford Bronco - There is no gasket between the two sides of the casing, just a layer of silicone. I scraped off the old stuff, put some fresh on, and bolte… 1981 Ford Bronco - Transfer case and associated gears are laid out on a concrete surface, possibly for repair or replacement. 1981 Ford Bronco - The Bronco and F150 tailshafts have a different end on them. The Bronco has a yolk that bolts to it. I made sure to undo the nut while it w… 1981 Ford Bronco - I put the new floor pan in place and am going to swap over the front floor mat from the truck. Fortunately, both the truck and my Bronco ha… 1981 Ford Bronco - The white insulation on the driver's side is some I put in last year after replacing the fully rotted out floor pan. 1981 Ford Bronco - I trimmed the back end of the truck mat and the front of the Bronco mat so that they'd meet right in front of the seats. It went in really… 1981 Ford Bronco - Simple Green household cleaner worked wonders to clean up the shifter boots. They were covered in cigarette grime from the old truck and no… 1981 Ford Bronco - Time to put in the hydraulic clutch master cylinder. I've been nervous about this part since it has to be perfectly aligned with the pedals… 1981 Ford Bronco - The gasket from the master cylinder made a great template. 1981 Ford Bronco - Master cylinder ready to go in. 1981 Ford Bronco - I needed to move the brake booster out of the way to get the drill in. A circular metal saw drill bit worked perfectly and cut right throug… 1981 Ford Bronco - Ahhh..... Master cylinder is in. 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up view of the brake master cylinder and booster assembly. 1981 Ford Bronco - The clutch and brake pedals, ready to go back in. 1981 Ford Bronco - My old clutch is on the left while the F-150s clutch is on the right. Much sharper and cleaner hole on the F-150 clutch arm. Not sure why,… 1981 Ford Bronco - This close-up shows a rusty metal bracket with a distinct hexagonal hole, likely a component from a vehicle's mechanical system. 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up of a metal bracket with a cutout, likely a vehicle part, on a rusty surface. 1981 Ford Bronco - The mechanical and hydraulic clutch arms have different angles. The hydraulic clutch is back further, but has a stopper on the end of it. N… 1981 Ford Bronco - The mechanical clutch rod had a boxed end on both ends and allowed for no adjustment of any kind. 1981 Ford Bronco - The hydraulic clutch had a splined end that goes through the hole on the clutch arm. The splined end allows the clutch arm to go on in any… 1981 Ford Bronco - Once the pedals and rod are in, the clutch spring needs to be put back in. Unless you're The Hulk, there's no way you're going to get the s… 1981 Ford Bronco - (I tried zip ties but they didn't work) 1981 Ford Bronco - I first tried wiring only one side, but that didn't work either. 1981 Ford Bronco - After both sides were wired, it went back in easily. 1981 Ford Bronco - Back in place. One end goes into a slot on the pedal bracket and the other end goes into the fork on the end of the clutch rod. It's easies… 1981 Ford Bronco - Once it was in place, I used wire cutters to cut the wires off the spring. 1981 Ford Bronco - The splined end of the clutch rod. After I tried it this way, the rod twisted the splines out of the clutch arm. I couldn't track down anot… 1981 Ford Bronco - The clutch arm lined up nicely with the master cylinder. I need to get new bushings for the arm. They wear out and once they do, it's metal… 1981 Ford Bronco - Well, after a few weeks, the throwout bearing seized. Wish I would have thought to replace it when I first put the transmission in. Oh well… 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up view of a transmission bell housing showing green fluid and metal fragments, suggesting internal damage. 1981 Ford Bronco - Good thing I decided to pull out the engine to do the clutch, I found out it had a blown head gasket!! 1981 Ford Bronco - Found an excellent technique for torquing down the flywheel and clutch. Put the water pump pulley on backwards and then put a wrench on the… 1981 Ford Bronco - New flywheel bolted down. The old one had massive cracks in it so it was no good. 1981 Ford Bronco - New clutch and pressure plate tightened down and installed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Engine clutch assembly being worked on, with a portion of a red truck visible in the background.