[OrrieG]

In 85 I put a Doug Nash shaft kit in my 203. Drove it as DD and off road until 98 when I took it off the road for the current rebuild (74 drive train in a 59 Fleetside) putting about 60-70K miles on it. I took a look at it and everything is still in like new shape, a little chain stretch but not enough to warrant replacement. I believe some has picked up the rights to it and is making the same kit.

The Milemarker type kits use wedges and a thin wafer bearing. Over time the thin bearing fails letting the internals move. I have heard (never experienced) that this causes bad things to happen inside which destroys the aluminum output housing. But there are lots of them out there. I don't think time to convert is a big factor between the two, just the initial cost. Having said that, I see 205's around here all the time for the price of the shaft kit. I just did not want to do through the effort of redoing everything.

The shaft hit eliminates all the spider joint assembly and makes it a true in or out box. Still have the chain drive but I always ran out of nerve before I ran out of truck. I was limited by my still open axles. When I converted from full time I picked up about 3 mpg.