yet another np203 question

[wild03]

hi all, first I'll like to thank everyone I found some usefull information on this forum.
I just got a 1977 GMC sierra 15, 4x4 pickup, the first thing I did was get the chilton book on it and read as much as possible.

There are some things the chilton doesn't cover, like the shift patterns, I was able to find those here. the truck was missing the shift plate.

anyways I noticed the shifting on the np203 had a lot of play, I looked under the truck and one of the rods that moves the inner lever was not connected. the chilton book refers to this lever as the lockout shift lever, the outer lever as the range shift lever.

My question is how are this levers suppoused to work, There's a lot of play on the shifter itself so I couldn't figure out a pattern.

The outer lever on the np203 moves to about 5 positions, my guess are that those are the HI lock HI N LO and LO LOCK, but the inner lever is stuck on at 5 o'clock position. how should I force this lever to move?
how meny positions should it move to?

also how those the levers on the shifter should behave, there seems to have a lot of play.

thanks

I don't know if this forum notifies users by e-mail when there's a reply...if anything plase drop an e-mail to wdiaz03@yahoo.com

[wild03]

Ok I managed to scrape about a pound of dirt off the 203 and get the inner lever to move, IT seems to only have two positions, 6 o'clock and 5 o'clock,  the outter lever seems to move into 3 positions, 7 o'clock 6 o'clock and 5 o'clock, the shifter seems to be behaving a little better, but I will take it appart and clean it inside.

but my guess is that the outer lever is only for LO, N, and HI, and the inner lever moves to LOC or UnLOCK

So with both levers vertical at 6 o'clock the case is on neutral, one push fowards and the outer lever moves to LO, another push fowards and the inner levers moves to LOCK. etc.  just a guess.

I also found the 203 is half empty and it has something that smells like gear oil insido, my plans is to fill it with Mobil1 syntetic motor oil. is this ok?

Thanks!

[73K20]

The 203 takes 30 weight motor oil for lube.

1973 K20 - 350/465/205

[wild03]

Well, more surprices, I got the shifter box out and clean it up, found the neutral holes in the process, chilton mentions stiking a drill bit on these holes to keep the levers in neutral while one adjusts the rods.

Go everything adjusted and it shifts like a champ.
I found out that the 203 doesn't have the part-time mod so I might get one online. the truck has front locking hubs, with the hubs unlocked the truck doesn't move without the case locked, power follows the path of least resistance and spins the front shaft in place.
Who ever had the truck before was running it locked all the time. chilton warns against this.

Anyways. I'll try to find a part-time kit only. any suggestions?