The Mitsu t-cases ARE tough. I've got about 200k miles on mine now without any major issues. Had to replace the rear output yoke a couple weeks ago because that finally wore out but otherwise it's been good. The problem with the t-cases is the lack of low range gear choices - like that's news. 2.85:1 is OK but not quite deep enough. The TerraFlex Low231 4:1 conversion for the NP231 is a much better ratio choice for me. AND, I can get an entire new NP231 with the supershort SYE and Low231 for $2400 ready to install. If I blow the hell out of it in Moab I can buy a replacement there for a couple hundred dollars, install it in a couple hours and be on my way. They're dirt cheep, solid and easy to support anywhere. That my mantra.:-)

And, even that doesn't concern me as much as Mitsubishi stoping production on the MK 5-speed manual transmission transfer case and half the parts in the MK 5-speed transmission.

That was the big news for the day.:-( Mitsubishi no longer manufactures the 5-speed manual transmission transfer case. The rights to reproduce the t-case have been sold off to "Vintage Reproduction Parts" or something like that. And, at least half of the parts in the 5-speed transmission are also unavailble from Mitsubishi. Same thing. The rights to reproduce those parts has been sold to some other company - the same one that bought the rights to the t-case. The worst part is that a good number of the 5-speed transmission parts are not availble EXCEPT through Mitsubishi dealership parts departments. I had a quote on an entire rebuild and install of a 5-speed through the Mitsubishi dealership I deal with and the quote was for just less than $3700.00 - and that is with my discount on the parts added in.:-(

The MK 5-speed transmissions are getting hard to come by. Or maybe it's just me but I've spent about 8 hours on the phone in the last two days and I've only found 4 transmissions nation wide. And one place wasn't even really sure that it wasn't an automatic.

I agree Dave. Since they fixed the problems the old manual transmissions had it seems like a good trans. However, I'm on transmission number 2 now and this one is getting ready to blow up into tiny pieces. Believe me, they're not indestructable. Not that I blame Mitsu. I don't think they had in mind rock crawling in 105 degree weather with a vehicle that weighs in at 6400 now.:-)

I did finally settle this afternoon on picking up another rebuilt 5-speed (and they're giving me a loaner trans->t-case adapter for a template) just so my truck stays driveable. I'll work on the tramsmission swap this year after they finish the t-case adapter.

I did finish working out all the details of the 5-speed manual transmission t-case swap last week. Including a way to keep the stock shifters and shifter locations.

Edward