BW1350/BW1354 Who's Stronger?

[Clem]

OK, I am working on my 86 B II, putting in the front and rear end, and engine out of a 92 Explorer, and M50D-R1 trans from a salvage yard.
Is there any strength difference between the 1350 and 1354 transfers.
I know about the slip joint in the 1350 and the difference in the rear flange.
The stock B II front shaft has the correct u-joint for the D35 yoke, it is just an inch to long with the TK5 trans, hoping the M50D will solve that problem.
I haven't been able to find much about a difference in strength between the two, except for the drive line connections.
Thanks for any help.

Ray

 

[NMB2]

the 1354 was available in a 6pinion planetary gearset which is stronger than the 4pin in the 1350. Although most 1354 came with 4pin as well AFAIK.

the main advantage is the front output.

 

[4x4junkie]

The biggest strength difference is the 1350 has an internal u-joint on the front output whereas the 1354 has a standard yoke directly coupled to the output shaft. The rest of the two cases are pretty much identical. It's not often someone breaks that u-joint though.

I also have not seen many issues with the 4-planet gearsets which some early 1354s also used, so i wouldn't factor that too heavily on it's overall strength. Overall the two cases are pretty close.

 

[tanbuddy]

Didnt they chance to the 6 planet around 1995 or so?

 

[4x4junkie]

1993.

 

[slammer67]

'93 was the change to 6-gear planetarys.
I would go for the 1354 if you had the choice because the 1354 has a much better shift fork setup. I have a 1350 case for a doubler and I had nothing but problems with the unit popping out of gear, after 3 sets of plastic shift guides and two shift forks, I read how you could swap to a 1354 shift fork setup (along with the 1354 planetary) and haven't had a problem since.
You should be able to swap outputs/flanges between the two cases