BW1354 vs BW4405

[410Fortune]

Your list of parts looks correct, since you are putting the 4406 into the 99 truck you COULD use the 97-98 version of the 4406 as well, just leave the speed sensor unhooked.

But it sounds like you already located your parts.
I am not sure why you want to rebuild the 4406 case, I personally would skip the rebuild as long as the used case is in good working order it should last a long long time under your explorer, they are rarely abused or worn out even with 100K miles on them.

I have a front disconnect IFS axle too I was hoping to install in my 96 5.0L truck, but honestly its more trouble then its worth, in 2wd I dont notice any power loss or hard steering like I did with the AWD. If you were to install a full time front locker then the axle disconnect would be a great idea, otherwise if it doesnt fit under the truck its just not worth the extra effort to get it in there IMO

 

[Cobraguy]

Wouldn't it be great to figure out a way to install hubs on these things??? Now there is a project.

 

[410Fortune]

no problem! solid axle!

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

Wouldn't it be great to figure out a way to install hubs on these things??? Now there is a project.

I've wondered that many times....

Two options
1) Hubs, bearings, CVs, spindles, calipers from a 98-01? Ranger. They had our front suspension and identical differential, but had vacuum hubs.

2) 95-96 Front axle, with disconnect. The only difference between hubs and disconnect is the CVs (and their bearings) still spin. Everything else stops, though.

 

[CDW6212R]

...
Manual 4406 from 1999-2003 F150 with either the 4.6 or 5.4
Shift linkage from same vehicle
Rear drive shaft from either 4.6 or 5.4 Expedition. Either manual or air susp is ok.
Front drive shaft from 1997-2003 F150 with 4.6 ONLY.

...

I agree with the others, the BW4406 TC is the best choice, stronger and more available. For the 99 truck you don't have to worry about the speed sensor.

I am about to swap a TOD BW4406 TC into my 98 truck. You need a rear shaft from a 5.4 truck only, because they had a shorter shaft than the 4.6 truck, because the rear is larger in the 5.4 trucks.

BTW, the two rear shafts for each engine are different. The air suspension option affects the type of front joint that is on it. I discovered that by ending up with the rear shaft that has the double cardon joint. It is larger at that joint, and that's the spot which will interfere with the gas tank. I would recommend avoiding the DC rear shaft, so that you have less space to clear along the gas tank. Good luck,

 

[jerryp40055]

4x4 prob

i have been reading your thread and don't under stand 90% but can you guys tell me what tcase should be in my 98 v6 sohc? the paperwork from the shop that put it in says 1354. any thoughts on my 4x4 prob would be great, seems to go in 4x4 w/switch in auto after a tight turn and stays there even after neg term and shift motor harness disconnect.
thanks

 

[Cobraguy]

V8...I guess the 95/96 axle won't fly on the V8's. 410Fortune says it won't clear the V8 oil pan. Bummer. I guess there is some kit out there that lowers the axle away from the pan that BARELY let it go in.

The scenario about using Ranger hubs is very interesting and worth looking into.

CDW...I am so frickin' confused with the driveline situation. I have no idea what will fit. There seems to be a lot of contradictory information floating around. The consensus seems to be a front from a 1997 to 2003 F150 with either engine will fit with the conversion joint. I bought a rear from a 1999 Navigator. I hope it fits. I've read here where it will. Guess we'll find out in a few weeks when I have this thing all buttoned up.

 

[CDW6212R]

The thread which Evan made is the best with the most accurate details. He sorted out the shafts with a little help during his project.

The Explorer needs the shorter of the two lengths which were available in those bigger trucks. The little 4.6 engine has a smaller trans and rear, which makes the front shaft shorter in those, and the rear shaft longer.
The larger 5.4 engine has a larger trans and rear, which makes the front shaft longer in those, and the rear shaft shorter. You see, you need the shorter front shaft and the shorter rear shaft, one from each engine choices.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

V8...I guess the 95/96 axle won't fly on the V8's. 410Fortune says it won't clear the V8 oil pan. Bummer. I guess there is some kit out there that lowers the axle away from the pan that BARELY let it go in.

The Superlift or trailmaster 4" kits will give you the clearance needed. I'm lifting my truck with the Superlift, which is how I'll be able to "revert" to the 95 axle with the disconnect.

 

[Cobraguy]

I really don't want to lift this car. I would rather keep it where it is. Nothing against lifting...it's just not my choice with this one. But that front axle would be nice. I'm going to look into that Ranger hub thing some more and see what possibilities exist.

As to the drivelines...this is what I can tell you. I have a front out of a 2000 F150 with a 4.6. After measuring carefully, (no transfer case installed right now) it appears it will fit with about a half inch to an inch of play left in the slip joint (splines). Not a lot, but should work. As to the rear, I have a shaft out of a ***see edit below***. It doesn't say what engine it had...but I have the VIN # so I could decode it. It does say it had the E4OD trans though. (EDIT: It's from a 1998 4.6 Expedition) Anyway, this shaft is too long. Won't work. But I'm going to keep it and have it shortened. It has the CV joint by the slip yoke. I REALLY like having that in a vehicle that gets a lot of highway use. Gets rid of a lot of phantom vibrations.

I have my 4406 scattered across my bench right now. It only had 50K on it, but I wanted to make sure it was good to go. It was. But I'm going to replace a couple of the bearings just because they had dirt from the salvage yard in them. Thank God the input shaft bearing is perfect. That is one very spendy bugger.

One other thing...on these 4406 cases. There seems to be a couple of choices when you look for one. An AB suffix or AC suffix. (Something like that...may be different) We haven't been able to determine the difference in the two. Well, in looking through a bearing catalog, there are two sizes for this case listed. I suspect that's the difference. Just a guess though...

 

[Cobraguy]

Another question for you guys on this swap...

What are you doing with the wire for the clutch in the transfer case? Just leaving it disconnected and tied out of the way?

Or let me ask you this...could you use a switch (brown wire mod??) and energize that circuit to switch it into 4WD and not have to use the manual lever? The reason I ask is I really don't care if I have low range. That's not a huge issue for me. And until I can come up with a cable operated shift system, I was just going to leave it in 2WD for now. But if I can figure out a way to use a dash switch to go from 2WD to 4WD, I would be a very happy camper. I think that's possible from what I see here.

Now, if I can figure out how to get the manual lever out of the case....

 

[gijoecam]

The brown wire in a 4406 is not used to make the shift in the same way the 4405 uses it. The 4406 uses the electromagnetic clutch to spool up the front driveshaft before the shift occurs. Without it, you must be stopped to make the shift. Using that wire would allow you to make the 2wd/4wd shift on the fly. However, you still need to be stopped, in neutral, with your foot on the brakes for the high/low shift. In any case, you'd still need to use the lever.

As for the Navi parts, that year would only have had the quad-cam 5.4 in it. It was the only engine available for the Navi.

-Joe

 

[Cobraguy]

I hate to hear that Joe. I need to look carefully at it and see if there is something I can do with that. To use all that just to spin up the front driveline is pretty silly when a snycro would do the same thing at a small fraction of the cost.

 

[gijoecam]

I disagree... With the electromagnet, there is no contact between the two parts that need to synch. Furthermore, a mechanical synchro would require the electric motor to hold the pressure against the two parts which would involve stalling the motor in that position until the parts match speeds. That's never good for an electric motor, and to do so would have further complicated the control system. It's way easier to tell the system to engage the electromagnetic clutch for 2 seconds before triggering the motor relay to shift the lockup collar.

IMHO, it's not at all over-engineered for it original application. If you want a simpler case, get an Atlas. Otherwise, you're stuck with the inherent design of the donor case you've got.

 

[CDW6212R]

... As to the rear, I have a shaft out of a '99 Naviagator. It doesn't say what engine it had...but I have the VIN # so I could decode it. It does say it had the E4OD trans though. Anyway, this shaft is too long. Won't work. But I'm going to keep it and have it shortened. It has the CV joint by the slip yoke...

Can you take a measurement of that rear shaft, it should work if it's from a 5.4 truck with an E4OD. That all matches what would be in a Navigator. I can compare it to mine, which may be the same thing, did you mean double cardon joint?

And not to get too far off topic, but is the electromagnetic clutch in that the exact same one in the TOD version of the BW4406? I wonder how much that costs to replace, I think that it might be the weak link for my TC. How much trouble was that to pull apart?

 

[410Fortune]

I really don't want to lift this car. I would rather keep it where it is. Nothing against lifting...it's just not my choice with this one. But that front axle would be nice. I'm going to look into that Ranger hub thing some more and see what possibilities exist

My thinking WAS the same as yours, I wanted to disco my front axle
I do not plan to ever do a drop bracket lift on my Explorer
I do plan to run a long travel suspension however.
Regardless the 95 style axle disco front diff will not fit in my 96 5.0L explorer so I decided against it.
The ranger vacuum hubs were problematic, I would NOT put those on my V8 explorer. I would live with the stock front differential, the tires always spinning the CV shafts. With no power to them from the T case you will hardly notice.

Would be nice to be able to disco the front axle yes, but think of it this way without it the front d shaft is always spinning (even with an open diff) so there is no need for the brown wire to be hooked up.

I use my 4x4 hi range all the time in my explorer, even at low highway speeds. Just reach down, grab the lever and pull her into 4x4 HI when the road gets slippery (Colorado happens alot)

My brown wire is not hooked up, 4x4 to 2wd works fine at all speeds so far, effortless

 

[Glen4X4]

I agree bout the ranger hubs but, there were manuals that also replaced the ranger autohubs they are AVM's don't know if that helps or not.

 

[gijoecam]

And not to get too far off topic, but is the electromagnetic clutch in that the exact same one in the TOD version of the BW4406? I wonder how much that costs to replace, I think that it might be the weak link for my TC. How much trouble was that to pull apart?

Completely different setup.... The TOD version out of the Expeditions and Navigators is very similar in form and function as the 44-05 in the Explorer. IMHO, it might make a better option if you wanted to retain the OEM 4wd on-demand function.

I use my 4x4 hi range all the time in my explorer, even at low highway speeds. Just reach down, grab the lever and pull her into 4x4 HI when the road gets slippery (Colorado happens alot)

My brown wire is not hooked up, 4x4 to 2wd works fine at all speeds so far, effortless

It should... I forgot to mention that point in my last post... So long as you're either running a live front axle or have a part-time axle with the hubs locked, the electromagnetic 'synchro' is redundant. However, in its original incarnation, the F-150 it came out of did not run a live front end, so it needed to synch the shaft speeds before engaging. Neither here nor there if you're running a live front axle.

 

[Cobraguy]

Joe...when I say syncro, I mean like is used in a manual transmission. There is NO drag whatsoever when not being used. When you shift to 4WD, it would simply shove the ring into the front output side and spin everything up to speed. Perhaps the mass of the entire front end is too much for that set up. However, there ARE syncro transfer cases out there. I've got this one apart and I think there's more to it than we think. But I'm still looking at it.

CD...it is a piece of cake to go through one of these cases...but I've been rebuilding manual transmissions, auto transmissions, differentials, and transfer cases for over 35 years now. But if you want to learn about these types of things, it doesn't get much easier than this...other than maybe a NP 205 case... My magnet is bolted to the back of the rear case half. The hardest part of the whole deal was the tone ring on the output shaft. Since I don't need it, I cut it most the way through and then hit it with a chisel. It cracked and came right off. It's a very tight press fit that my slide hammer wouldn't budge. You need a special puller I don't have.

Ok...I screwed up on the rear drive shaft. It's out of a 1998 Expedition with a 4.6. It was marked wrong. But I did some research and checked the VIN and it's definitely a 98 Expedition. It's factory length is 40.25" center of joint to center of joint. That's with a CV joint. I'm having it shortened by 4.5" and it will fit perfectly. I was going to just return it and get the one from a 5.4, but this one has a CV joint in it and I want that with such a short shaft. Maybe if they have a 5.4 shaft with a CV joint, I'll swap. Otherwise I'll shorten this one.

 

[Cobraguy]

One thing I did yesterday is throw the input and rear output shaft in the case and install it. Man, it sure is light and easy to work with when that's all you have in it! Anyway, I was amazed at how well it fits. I needed to mod the front tank hanger and that's it. Nothing else hit. But there are a couple of spots with only about a half inch of clearance I need to do something with. I also could get an accurate measurement for my rear drive shaft this way. The tank bracket I did a bit different than others. I actually cut out most the offending area and only had to roll just a bit of metal that way. It looks nicer that way too. There should still be enough material to support the lower half of the bracket.

I would finish putting the transfer case together today, but I lost a bushing that goes on the end of the detent spring. When I removed the spring, it went TAAWAAAANNNG. Bushing went to places unknown. At least there is a part number for the thing. So I'll set it aside for now and start removing the transmission today. Going to go through it next and see if we can't give it some durability and clean the shifts up some. Then the engine. Of course, the wife wants to go to the zoo today, and my son wants something fixed on one of his control boxes for his pool. I may not get much done on it today. Still looking at that ranger front end thing.