NP231 Q's

New to the board and new to jeeps. Ive owned a ton of 4x4's over the years. Do all my own work and mods. Right now I have a project I'd like to start. I have a coupld of options. There is a Cherokee with a blown 4.0 and has been stripped to a point. I can pick her up very cheap. It has an automatic transmission and I am going to reach out here and assume that its an NP231 tcase (?). What I'd like to do is toss the automatic but keep the tcase and convert it into a divorced style tcase. One of my buddies has done a few toyota tcase's this way. Looks fairly simple from what he has shown me. I will be mating this to another automatic using a short driveshaft. If I do it the way chris does his it will work out great.

My main question is has anyone converted an NP231 over to divorced style?
I want to stay with the stock tcase but it isnt important. I know I can use another tcase that is already divorced. But for now I want to look into this as an option.

thanks

How would you do it? The input gear is inside the case? Would you make a slip yoke to go in it?

I havent seen on the 231 is set up yet. when i get some more info i can see how it compares to the other setup i mentioned.

i just redid mine. I have one torn appart on the bench now. The front is bolted straight to the tranny. There is a female input gear for the output of the tranny. This gear rides in the low range cluster. The only way I see to do it is with a reverse slip yoke. Splined shaft with a yoke. Then you have the problem of mounting it. Hmmm intresting idea though. Why would you want it divorced?

My making it divorced you'll shorten the rear driveshaft and have to deal with worse angles too. I'm curious too as to why divorced? Are you going to put a crawl box in-between or something to lower the crawl ratio?

I am exploring the 231 divorced because the engine I want to use has a decent transmission I'd like to stay with.

I own an 1983 Mercedes 240D with an automatic. I bought this car last year to use in a diesel conversion in a first generation 4runner. This was my very first 4runner. I am used to TLC wagons with four doors. It was a PIA to get the kids in and out when I only had the 4runner. So I sold it in hopes to use a mid to late 80's cherokee instead. That would give me a decent rig that we could still have fun in and allow me to convert it to diesel. Also there are some other benefits to using the mbz auto that I wont get into right now. I have never owned a jeep. I have owned several land cruisers and chevy's, GMC's and one ford, as well as a few other brands of 4x4. I normally keep my stuff as close to factory (minus suspension, tires). But I am more then capable of rebuilding anything in front of me.

I am not sure on the stock cherokee weight, but the 240D is about 4000 pounds. It doesnt smoke at all and I just had it smogged. Limit is 45% and we came in at 7% with 200K on the engine. I would easily expect another 150-200K with proper maintenance.

Anyway one of my friends likes to use the benz diesels for diesel conversions. Ive been wanting to do this for about 3 years now.

Also wanted to add to what I have posted above...

I just located an 1983 Nissan LD28 diesel engine. Its an L-6 engine 2.8ltr.
I think these are similar to the SD33 and SD33T diesels that were used in the IH Scouts so they should have the same bolt pattern. I am not sure how reliable the LD28 is. I do know the 240D I have is very reliable and simple to work on. I have it tuned for a little more power. It wont win any drag races but it doesnt have to. It will get out of its own way.

Let me know what you all think.

just get some other t-case.