Well, I'm getting sick of looking at my Cummins sitting in the back yard, and I've been coming up empty on an affordable replacement 5 speed, but, I have found a couple viable auto donors for cheap.
What kind of a headache would converting to an auto be? I'm not scared to build a trans; done a few autos, probably would go with a 46RE, but, what about the truck side of things?
I've relegated myself to driving a first gen PSD and my company D-Max for the time being... Need to fix that, I miss my torque... LOL

 

46RH is what you may want, thats a stock 1st gen auto (aka the A-518)

I'd swap right to a built 47RH out of a 94-95 because that's a lockup trans, build it up and just drop the money on a GOOD converter because the money you'll already be saving building it yourself...you'll have an awesome setup.

Is your getrag bad in either one of your trucks or just not there? I could have sworn your 92 had a getrag in it in your plowing videos....I'm sure this ins't case or you'd be rebuilding the getrag !

 

ha! someone from my neck of the woods! I don't see that too often!

As for the tranny, if you do go to auto you pay as well go straight to the 47rh like Brandon said. I guess you could go to a well built 46rh like what came in our trucks but it's not as good as the 47rh with the lockup capabilities.

 

Both getrags are blown up at the moment... LOL
I actually should change my sig, the 89 has moved on to a new home where it's going to get re-built... Body was completely toast, and it went with the old blown up getrag out of my truck...
Traded it straight up for a good running 96 F250 PSD...

That's what I meant, 47RH... brain fade... Been driving my work truck(08 Chevy 2500...) too much, starting to get chevy brain...
What am I looking at needing to add on the truck side to put an auto in there, I know I'll need to go to a 23 spline 205 and probably play with driveshafts, but, what if anything do I need to do for electronics and that sort of thing? I may have a line on a 96 donor truck as of this evening.

Rick: There's not too many of the locals who actually post, but, there are a good handful of Cummins enthusiasts in town... Just had to rescue my buddy's 03 tonight... Had an injector solenoid fall apart...
My 89 and 92 actually came from Savant Lake... LOL

 

The easiest route to take for the electrical from the tranny is to just rig up the OD function on a switch. Same with the lockup. But the trans has to be a 47rh.

I wonder if you could use the wiring from the 96 in your truck or something.

A 96 would have the 47re though, not the 47rh so maybe you'd have to figure out a way to use the wiring from the 96, I'm not really sure. I don't know how complicated the electrical is in the 47re either.

 

Why not rebuild the getrag? You're gonna miss it even over the 47RH......and it's cheaper to rebuild the rag than build an auto/buy a converter.

 

...If the case is still good. Mine was junk.

 

The first one that died on me needs the input shaft, bearing kit, and lead syncro... The one in there now is probably less damaged, but, it should really have the mainshaft replaced too, the output splines were showing a fair bit of wear when I put it in.
I really need to pull it and rip it apart, see what damage is hiding in there, the top cover rattled loose and it puked enough oil to seize the bearings between the input and mainshaft, so I'm expecting it to be similar to the first one.

 

I would suspect you could make one out of the two for not much money. I assume you have been looking for a 4500 to replace it? Not knowing what you really need to make one Getrag good, I would think it would still be cheaper in the long run to fix it, rather than making an auto switch.

 

Basically, they have the same thing wrong with both, and I only have one, as I no longer have the 89....
I've been looking for another getrag or 4500, and been coming up empty. Have a line on a 92 with 103K miles and a pretty fresh trans that hit a moose and has been parked about a year as of this morning... going to take a look at it this afternoon