The transmission that one of the previous owner's had installed in my truck was a Ford toploader. This is a 4spd transmission that came in many of the old Ford cars. I suspect that the choice of this transmission was an effort to overcome the steep gearing in the original axles. A stock Willys PU drive-train will provide a top speed of about 50 MPH. I am sure the idea of adding a car transmission seemed sound at the time but the outcome of this transplant was less than satisfactory.

The biggest problem with the Ford toploader transplant lies in the shifting mechanism. The shifting takes place through a mechanism mounted on the driver's side of the transmission. The shift lever is directly attached to this shifting mechanism and the result is a shift lever that is offset to the driver's side. In order to make this transmission fit, the PO had grotesquely butchered the floor. To make matter's worse, the shift lever provided very little room for the driver's right knee and shifting into first would smash the driver's fingers between the shift knob and the metal dash board.

Due to the shift lever problems mentioned above and the gearing inadequacies of my NP205 transfer case, I decided to search for a transmission with a centrally located shift lever and a low first gear ratio. As you may have guessed, the SM 420 & 465 are an excellent choice for my situation. The 420 has a first gear ratio of 7.05:1 and the 465 has a 6.54:1 ratio. Finding a 4wd version of the SM 420 proved difficult but my efforts did locate an SM 465. I picked up the 465 at a wrecking yard. Fortunately, it had the 4wd adapter housing still attached.