Dana 20 Shifting Technique

Contributed By: Ken Wetheral

(editor's note: this is quoted in its unadulterated entirety, unedited, as it came direct from Ken, as usual for Ken's posts to the fsj-list that end up here.

one of the best techniques i have found for shifting the d20,
is to shift the d20 BEFORE u lock the hubs. now this
is for going from 2hi/4hi to 4lo only!!!!

with the engine running and i shift to P, then pull, in
one continuous movement, the lever from 2hi to 4lo.
then go out and lock the hubs.  to shift outta
4lo back to 2hi..back the jeep up for maybe 40 feet, and then
do the shift like above...

the prob is that with the curved teeth on the gears, to engage
or disengage, the shafts that these gears are on
have to rotate just e v e r sooo slightly, and since
u got the front hubs lock, the front driveshaft aint gonna
spin, therefore the extra required effort. hence the shift
inot 4lo with the front hubs OUT!!  but of corse
u guys w/o front hubs..this is all wasted type.

also, in the d20 when going from 4hi to 4lo, u have to move
BOTH slider gears to the rear of the case to
engage the lo gear set. now u no that shifting 2hi to 4hi is just
'pull the lever bac', is becasue ur only moving the front slider
about an inch from the center of the case to the front. in regards
of going to 4lo, u have to move the rear driveshaft slider and the front
driveshaft slider from the front of the case to the aft..hence
the required extra effort.

u think u got it bad..u should read the OEM Kaiser Jeep procedure
for shifting the SW d20 from 4hi to 4lo!!!  u have to put
one hand on the lever, and one hand on the trany shift, and
shift between D n R while at the same time sifting the d20 to 
the desired range.
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