13 speed to 18 speed???
 

I've been told that you can pull the shift knob apart on a 13 speed and remove the little nub that keeps you from splitting the low range gears and effectivly make it an 18 speed. Anyone done this? Pros/cons? Thanks in advance.

Im going to go out on a limb here, as I have never tried this , but I dont think its going to be quite that simple :-)

Try it and let us know what happens.

i wouldnt, i thought i read here that some of the gears are not designed for the added stress. i may be wrong on that though.

I am thinking its just not going to work... it should only take a few minutes, pop the top cover off the shifter, take the bolts out , lift the top section off , take the button out, grind/sand/chew/saw the part off that interlocks with the plunger button , and put it all back together.

I guess someone has to try it.

being that there is a conversion kit for this I dont think that I would try it. Eatons website has a flyer with the part numbers to do this.

We had a '79 Jimmy with a 13 speed, had a splitter clamped on the side of the stick and then the top was a round handle with another splitter in it. It would only split the high side, wouldn't put air to the second splitter in the low side.

This may sound crazy but if you decide to do this bleed the air down first.
I do remember being able to start in low Reverse and get moving then bring it to neutral shift the splitter to DIR then slip it back into Reverse continue acceleration then go to OD . Backing a concrete ready mix truck at 35 MPH was fun and educational. I really don’t see why it would not work but I’m not sure how well the gears will mesh.

I think there is more to it than just the shifter or else everyone would have an 18 speed.

don't do a poor mans 18 speed
the difference between and 13 and 18 is a bearing vs a bushing in one of the gear in the back box. (auxiliary box) the bearing is required for handling the low speed high torque when splitting the bottom 4 gears.