Peugoet swap

I am just starting my build up, and I am wondering if the Puegoet is really worth swapping out for an AX-15. Mine has given my family 215,000 miles of service without complaint. I am planning on using the T&T Y-link, and swapping T-cases for a STAK (5.44:1), and it matters with both which tranny I use. Has the Puegoet unfairly gotten a bad wrap, or have I just been extremely lucky with mine? I am planning an extensive build up, and I want to make sure I do it right the first time. Thanks for your help.

My $.02: Synchros and 5th gear seem to be weak links of the Peugeot. With the propensity for the synchros to go out, and the cost to rebuild, which will exceed the cost to swap over to an AX15, I'd make the swap sooner than latter, especially if the TC you're buying is trans sensitive.
Second gear shifts with my old Peugeot were slow and slower, depending on the weather. I looked into buying new synchros, as I needed to disassemble mine to stop a leak at the half-case seams. The costs were outrages( sorry, don't remember how much) so I just lived with it, always wondering if I'd be left stranded in the back country with a dead trans. I latter installed an Atlas transfer case and needed a 21 tooth input gear to match the Peugeot. Latter, I swapped in an NV4500 and had to spend extra $$ to change my TC input gear to match the new tranny. I'd say make the swap now.

My last Puegot that died finally quit with just under 450,000 miles on it. Now, before people start crying B.S., keep in mind that THIS XJ was NOT used for the trail very often. I used it mainly for work around the house, farm, snow removal and the interstate when I had to travel in something other than my Freightliner. The only thing that was bad in mine was the front bearing gave up. Long story made short, a lot of the life of the Peugot depends on HOW it is treated. For a trail rig, I would go ahead and up-grade if you are doing a big build like yours, otherwise, I would just run it until it goes (of course, how you drive most likely has a lot to do with the lifespan of the tranny to start with). I have an '88 model XJ with the Puegot in-it, and it has 258,000 miles on it with NO tranny trouble and it DOES get beat on at least 3-4 times a week, sometimes for the whole day! Now, when the Puegot goes out, the NV 3550 goes in ( it is in the garage waiting ).

Cornfed-87XJ said:

I am just starting my build up, and I am wondering if the Puegoet is really worth swapping out for an AX-15. Mine has given my family 215,000 miles of service without complaint. I am planning on using the T&T Y-link, and swapping T-cases for a STAK (5.44:1), and it matters with both which tranny I use. Has the Puegoet unfairly gotten a bad wrap, or have I just been extremely lucky with mine? I am planning an extensive build up, and I want to make sure I do it right the first time. Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

Either you have been lucky, or I've been unlucky - I went through FOUR in three years of street driving. Finally got an AX-15 out of a 1990, and it was an easy swap (although I still want to swap to the later front end, so I can get rid of the internal slave that's driving me batty.)

If you're planning an "extensive build-up," or plan to really use that 5.44:1 low range, the Peugeot is likely to grenade on you, given time. No point in waiting for it.

The big problem (apart from the fact that it's under-spec'd for a truck) is that it has aluminum synchronisers. Also, I tore one apart (I had it handy) for my Materials and Processes class, and the heat treat on the gears is done wrong - they actually make the gears too hard - which makes them brittle. I seem to recall that they were about HRc60-65, when the "sweet spot" for powertrain gears is something like HRc40-45. Make steel harder, you make it more brittle. Oops. Probably something that could have been handled with post-hardening normalisation, but they didn't do it.

I didn't get a chance to section a gear and take a "hardness profile" of it, but I'm inclined to think it's a surface hardening, so at least the core would have been good (but the gearbox I tore apart did have teeth missing on second and third - and it was in good shape when I put it in...)

5-90

The swap is a non event and worth the piece of mind I did it and never looked back...Do yourself a favor make sure you do the external slave.

I'm swapping in an NV3550. You might check on prices of an AX-15 vs NV3550. The NV3550 is a bit stronger. Still, I'd take the advice if your going with the AX-15 get an external slave.
Tom