22 to 23 spline crawlbox adapter/coupling for Manual trans to 4.0L Marlin Crawler Tacobox

Don't make me use "ride" in here

Saw it was Marketplace and not GB so I guess I stated the obvious.

 

@Beretta4x4 get in here dude

 

Got it

Right after responding to your post lol

 

Tentatively in, hopefully for the $200-400 range. I'd it's in there, I might bite.

 

Who's ready for some sticker shock?! Called up and got pricing from the shop.

1 adapter = $1,500 each
2 adapters = $1,050 each
5 adapters = $600 each
10 adapters = $475 each

 

Woohoo lol. Hopefully we can get more than 10 signed on

 

Ugh.

I'll do $600...

I'd prefer $475.

I'd love to see Marlin Crawler address this. $3k for a crawl box has me seriously considering an unbreakable Atlas 4...

 

I just spoke with Marlin on the phone to see if we could work together on this and they have zero interest. They want to work with their own machine shop, at their own pace, when they are ready.

 

The response I got last we spoke was, "we will be working on this sometime in the future. Not the near future, but we will eventually be getting around to it."

 

Merlin making their products be like

 

Guess you gotta have patience if you want to go slow.

 

There is a certain irony to the fact that they are slow building and delivering products that make your truck go slower.



So now that @Littles has some hard numbers, who will commit?

 

It's difficult. $475 is a lot, but in a realm I'm capable of spending... Ish. Will this work for more than one crawl box or just marlin?

 

Probably just marlin. It's being designed specifically for the their 23 spline total spline input which I think is a longer spline than some other gearsets. It is the same 23 pattern as the AT transmission output and AT transfer case input, so in theory it would also fit any input gear with the same spline pattern, but the depth of the splines may not be the same. That was the big thing marlin said they wanted change, I think because the old inchworm adapter was designed for inchworms shorter input spline. I mean I could make it shorter to be more likely to fit others but that was not my plan.

 

Fair enough. I know marlin has been around for a while, but I'm adverse to putting all my eggs in one basket. Basically, the big deal is the adapter for the back of the transmission and the spline adapter, correct?

 

Totally understand. I'm pretty well committed to this marlin setup and sharing what I know.

It is 1) the spline adapter/coupling I am having made, and 2) the aluminum oil seal extension housing that are transmission specific. The adapter is crawl box brand specific, but the extension housing is not crawl box brand specific based on what I have been told.

Marlin is also working on the adapter plate to deal with an issue where the extra space that is allowed to fill with oil betwen the trans and the crawl box is creating extra back pressure that forces oil through the shift boot. I dont think this is a problem on the auto.

Right now the adapter plates are not trans specific. I don't know what their plan is for the future one they are redesigning. I will be running the old style adapter plate with the case low on oil to prevent leakage as others have done.

 

Weird I never had that problem. I'm thinking they just use that as an excuse on why they don't have any product available lol. I have the old inchworm coupler with the total spine input gears and have never had an issue, so again I think marlin use that as an excuse on why their product is not available like ever haha

 

It will work with any 23 spline input. Marlins "total spline" input shaft is so that it increases strength. The OEM 23 spline toyota input shafts neck down right where it enters the transfer case,





You can see that the total spline doesn't neck down like the factory input shaft. This should increase the input shaft strength and reduce fretting on the coupler. But again, the input shaft for a 23 spline case whether it's Marlin, Inchworm, Trailgear, Lowrange, etc. should all be the same "length" and therefore the coupler is not specific to a marlin input gear.

 

@DJ KRAZY K - you need yourself a crawl box
All the cool kids are doing it