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Cheapthrills wrote:Is the 208 stronger than a 229?

I would say they are about equal strength. There is an extra maintenance feature to consider with the 229 and that is keeping the vacuum shifter leak free and working. Both have similar chains and were used in late model J20s. The big difference is the 229 uses viscous coupler that acts as a limited slip differential in 4HI. In 4LO, the 229 is locked front to back. It works very well if you have ice and snow to drive on. The 208 is locked in 4HI and 4LO and is more suited for dry conditions. My 88 GW came with 229 and I picked up a 208 to put in it when I got to CO. A couple years later, the 229 failed and I put the 208 in. It kind of sucks driving it on snow and ice. The sucking part is my butt grabbing the seat when it goes sideways.

So it boils down to preference, asked because I was given a 208 from a j20. My bronco is locked in 4 hi and low it does great in the ice and snow (driving accordingly lol) I may swap it out since mine has 160k on it and won't have worry about vac or the viscous coupler not knowing maintenance history

87 grand Wagoneer mostly stock
90 grand Wagoneer (stalled 5.3 project)

Cheapthrills wrote:So it boils down to preference, asked because I was given a 208 from a j20. My bronco is locked in 4 hi and low it does great in the ice and snow (driving accordingly lol) I may swap it out since mine has 160k on it and won't have worry about vac or the viscous coupler not knowing maintenance history

Pretty much. I forgot to mention I am locked so skids happen when it gets slippery. If that 208 came from a J20 with a T18, it will not mate to the 727 or the t17x trannys because of different spline count.

What is the 727 spline count?

87 grand Wagoneer mostly stock
90 grand Wagoneer (stalled 5.3 project)

Everything except the J-20 T-18 was 23 spline.


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10 4 ... thanks guys...
Edit it's a 23 spline.. so shifter and drive shafts all I need after I pull it apart and do some maintenance.

87 grand Wagoneer mostly stock
90 grand Wagoneer (stalled 5.3 project)