Converted 9 sp to 13 sp into an 18sp?

I meant to go edit that to make it clearer, because I think I put the wrong name on that gear. It's the aux gear, it's between the splitter and range gears on the aux main shaft. Only place in the trans where a gear can be drive/neutral/driven depending on which gear you're in. Every other gear is drive/neutral or driven/neutral. I hope that makes sense, it just means power can flow either way through that gearset.

I'd forgotten til I found the manual that the splitter is in FRONT of the range, so it took the same load in both trannys. When I saw the extra bearing, I went "huh," but finding the power flow charts made the light go on. It's not the splitter that was the weak point, but the gearset that was loaded when the splitter was in high and the range low that was the issue.

And I actually enjoy digging stuff like this up, my brain is a sponge, and seems like it ain't happy unless it's soaking something up!

 

Ok... So for those of us who have been driving all day and are at the moment really tired and a little slow... Was that a yay or nay in converting Road Ranger 13's to 18's with a knob change?

 

Thats a nay!!!

 

Can it be done, yes.

Is it functionally practical, mostly.

Is it reliable, probably not, no first-hand information.

Is it a good idea, your call...

 

can you say kaboom ?

 

if you go to roadranger.com

it says 9.10,13.15,18 are all based on 5 speeds with different auxillary sections

18 has a 4speed auxillary

13 has a 3speed auxillary

 

Nay,nay! They both have 4 speed aux's, go look at the service manuals. To the untrained eye, the two transmissions look identical internally.

 

The high range gears on 18 spds have a bearing unlike the 13s just spin on the shaft. therefore would just eat up the gears in the aux section

 

I know that in the RTLO the O stands for overdrive. This being the case I don't understand why you guys are saying that in a 13 speed the splitter is an underdrive. In my current truck and this info comes from the mechanic at the dealer, the 9 speed top 2 is a 13 with the splitter only working in the top gear and shifted by the ecm. Currently at 75 mph I'm turning 1750 rpm as the top 2 function has been turned off in the ecm. So no overdrive. Not sure why yet and the ecm record shows it being changed 171 times so dealer is scratching his head over that. Anyone know what is the deal here? Also when I go into 6th there is a pretty heavy vibration and the speedometer hangs up till it stops. Any ideas? Trans is coming out to have seals replaced today so they will have the back half apart.