Power Torque 2XT "splitter" auxiliary transmission troubleshooting

[euphonius]

Greetings all,

I'm a (newbie poster and) new owner of a 1984 F-350 that is basically stock -- 6.9 liter IDI diesel, Borg Warner T-19 transmission, Dana 50 TTB front end, Dana 60 rear (modified with dual tires) -- with one big exception: It has a Power Torque 2XT auxiliary transmission, commonly called a "splitter", sandwiched between the transmission and bell housing. The 2XT is not currently working. I tracked down the original owner who had it installed back in 1984, and he dredged up from the fogs of time that the second owner had changed the 2XT transmission fluid, maybe putting something wrong in, and never got it working right. The splitter is like a Brownie box, adding a parallel range of gears to raise the gear ratio of all four forward gears and the reverse gear so you have eight forward gears and two reverse gears. I'm pretty sure the 2XT adds a higher range, making for better towing at speed, etc. It's activated (or should be) by a pull switch on the main shift lever.

Power Torque was based in North Arlington, TX, until it closed maybe in the early 1990s, so that's a dead end. I reached out to AdvanceAdapters.com, which makes an analogous splitter, but it's not the same and they declined to give advice.

I've read through FORDification, and found only one reference to auxiliary transmissions: a post titled "brownie type boxes urban myth": http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =4&t=46912

Is there anyone here in FORDification who owns an 1980s-vintage F-250 or F-350 truck that has the Power Torque 2XT installed and running, or who knows about this device, who might be able to give me pointers for getting mine back into operation? The truck runs fine with the standard 4-speed T-19. I've swapped out the front hub locks, one of which had failed, with Mile Marker hubs, and re-installed the front drive shaft, which had been removed by the previous owner (15 years ago) because the hub had failed.

I am homesteading a forest property on the California coast, and could really use an auxiliary set of gears for pulling trees out of the forest, delivering loads of firewood, etc.

The attachment is a brief blurb from Popular Mechanics back in the early 1980s.

Thanks!

[basketcase0302]

I'll bump your post back to the top as I've seen a lot...more than just one post/topic about the brownie boxes here over the years.
I've been told to use outside search engines, (with the words "fordification" in yuour search) for better results.
It is a highly desired "option" most of us want and need to drop the RPM's for better fuel economy.