On a 2wd, gear vendors is the way to go, on a 4wd, I'd prefer to have the option of overdrive with 4wd-not an option with gear venders-electronic lock-out.
That said, if the interior is in nice shape, I would go gear vendors. I just did the NV4500 swap, but I have 4wd, and I rebuilt the nv4500 myself, so I only had $5-600 total into it.
Very cool VDub projects, got a '75 beetle I've been working on, going 74mmx87mm, only because when I purchased all the parts (3 years now....wow) 88mm forged wasn't available.
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