Mr. Spooky

I am wanting to get a complete transfer case unit from either marlin or davez and I was reading Marlins tcase bible and it says the tcase for the L43 has a fuseless input shaft. I see nothing of that mentioned on either marlins or davez website as an option when ordering a case. Will their top shift t cases work with my L43? Also, what does a fuseless input shaft mean? Good? Bad? Doesn't really make a difference?

Thanks
Mike

scottd

I have Marlin's top shift case (with 4.7 gear set) mated to an L43. I believe that Davez will work as well. IIRC, the 'fuse' means that the stock input shaft tapers down just before the input bearing on the post-L43 transfer cases. The input shaft on the L43 case does not have the taper (in fact, it gets wider I think, so if you want to use an L43 case with a later transmission, I believe you need to grind down part of the input shaft), so that's why they say it is 'fuseless'. I believe that all of the aftermarket transfer case input shafts are similar in design and will work with any of the '79 - '95 L, W and G series transmissions (except the G58? - I think that uses a chain drive transfer case with a different spline count).

As far as the fuseless input shaft being good or bad, I suppose it is a little stronger because I think there is some additional spline length, and it doesn't have the reduced cross section at the 'fuse'. But these transfer cases are all pretty bulletproof. I think the weak link is the L43 transmission itself (it's not known for it's strength), not the transfer case.

By the way, I don't think the aftermarket transfer case input shafts (Marlin's, Inchworm, AA, etc) have the fuse? I know mine from Marlin doesn't - it has a uniform cross section and some additional spline length (but it doesn't get wider like the stock input shaft on the L43 case, so it is compatible with multiple types of transmissions as stated above).