Two piece drive shaft, using a center bearing? I'm thinking it would take the vibrational load off the tc bearing? It might be cheaper to get the correct driveshaft made.
blown...i have to agree with
the lincolns tend to have the damper style slips on them. but i for sure agree with a 2 piece shaft, and you can fix the yoke by drilling the output and running a hardened stud with a 28 spline flange style slip. spaced accordingly it will lock the position and really reduce the wear, the effort in a seal washer to do that along with the drill and tap is way out there for things worth wasting time on though imo. a standard two piece arrangement would likely be the best way to go all around. this should handle a boosted....or rather...sanely boosted 4.0 if it is set up cleanly.
i am sure you have looked through all the same literature as i did, and the controller for the 28 seems forward enough to be retained as long as it works with the rear and front speed sensors of the later rangers. for what i have seen it sure looks like it will to me. that mkes it an even better situatio...you can power it on for auto...or just lock it for emergency...
I was actually thinking the 144 for my V-8 - it would require someone like Moser to re-spline the output from my 4R70W to the 23 splines for the New Process tc (recutting external splines is cheaper than internal).
i have installed efi 351 and big blocks into waggys. some had the 229 or 228 case...some 208. i simply swapped the ford 208 input shaft into those...and sometimes had to have a spacer or trim of the output shaft of the trans to make them work but they worked. one style i think required some lathe work to turn down something possibly...might be mixing that up with the borgs..
the 228-229 were full time cases..at least i thought they were 228-229 style...i have put them in rangers before as well..of course i may not remember those mods correctly..something with seals comes to the front...no details...but the extra low range parts i see as bad for your big block rampages, and they are weak compared to the 203. the eagle style cases are very light and the 119 seemed the simplest of those as i recall. what i dont remember is the input shaft situation on those.
i do not have access to one, if i do see one i will try to pull it apart and look at the input shaft. that family of cases has the straight cut style input, though there is a larger/smaller diameter with some...so maybe it is possible the single speedcase shares the same style input as the others in the family.
if that is indeed the case, you can simply swap in the ford 31 spline to go behind the 4r70w. that would make the 119-128-129 a bolt on with only a spacer or trim of the 4r70 output to go together.
no experience with the 144, it does not look to be in the same family as the 208 style. great lakes off road and many other companies make spacers/clocking rings to further in adjustment of these things. i have had people buy those for various issues over the years. the ford and jeep patterns are the same, dodge as well but on the other side...gm is off like 90.
i just drilled my spacer to put my ford 208 behind the gm 4l80 in my ranger, clocked it flat as possible and popped in the chevy 32 spline input.
i mention this because the 208 can be an issue to fit in the sla chassis when using the oem drivetrain with clearance in relation to the front drive shaft. the am style case fits awesome, but may need to be clocked up to clear the t bar/trans member for driveline.
leaving the 44 series that came behind the 4r70 the obvious choice. you know it fits, they came that way.
conversely....if i was wanting to big block rampage rally race and hillclimb a low awd ranger....i would use a th400 and awd gm case with a pwm controller on a dial and trigger. that reid case for the 400 is ridiculously strong and pricey but the capacity to handle big block tq is 1st rate.