NP-435 4 speed grinding into 3rd gear

[Shran]

No, they used the T18 in half tons and T19 in 3/4/1 tons up through the early 90's.

NP435 has a 6.68:1 first gear, it is the lowest first gear available in any Ford trans to my knowledge. T18 is close but for rock crawling purposes, losing 0.36 of your first gear is huge. It was that and an Atlas, or that and lower gears in both axles, I cheaped out and used the 435.

FWIW you can get a T19 wide ratio with 6.32:1 first gear in 83-86 F250 4x4 460 trucks... according to Novak anyway. I had one at one point, that would be pretty much the ultimate four speed but it was not ideal for my purpose.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

I am leaning toward a worn synchro too. I've had a bunch of these transmissions and put a ton of trail miles on them... they either work really nice or have some stupid quirk like this one does. If you find a good one, they are damn near bulletproof.

Out of curiosity. What did you use for clutch hydraulics?

As far as the master cylinder I think it’s always been the stock ranger master. I may have upgraded it but that was 10 plus years ago and I don’t remember. It’s probably in my build page somewhere if you want to look through it.
For the slave cyl it was the stock one that camr on the trans when I got it from pick n pull.
The trans was a 2wd trans, I built a tail shaft adapter to a Dana 20. I don’t know if the 2wd NP435 had a different clutch or not is why I mention it.