Sorry if I took you wrong or you took me wrong. I was referring to the chain drive of the 203 as one reason I never liked them. I have owned the unit, one came laying in the back of a '71 3spd Blazer I bought years ago. I guess the P.O. had plans to do a swap of some sort. I've installed I don't know how many part-time conversions back in the day as well. Back when trucks were coming out with this set-up a friend had a '79 K20 I loved. It was two-tone grey, lifted a few inches at spring shop, 9.00-16s on stock wheels/hubcaps (in '79 it was all about flash in the magazines), and a 4 x 6 tube rear bumper (laid flat & black w/angled red safety stripes) with angled drop down diamond plate to the Reese hitch. I wasn't hot on new trucks back then, especially because of the full-time deal. But his was the one that taught me you could still get a TH400/205 with lockout hubs. I loved that truck wicked bad! He had the 350 a bit warmed up, too. I always had trucks/Blazers with NP205 and am a big fan of them.
I ended up putting a TH350/NP205 in the Blazer. I learned about brownie gear set-ups when in Oregon and it had me thinking about coupled transfer cases. I had a friend who's dad machined parts for NASA and other such outfits in his little old mountain machine shop. That is where I was first dazzled at the capabilities such a shop had. His dad made parts for his MX bike that put him over his competition. This was late-70s. The fact that his dad would make tools to make tools and such madness as that led up to the end result of coupling a Dana300 to the divorced NP205 in the '69 W200 Power Wagon I had put a Dana60 front axle under. Dougs dad made the coupler parts for the Dana300. The truck was a billy goat back in the day of chrome roll bars, graphics paint jobs with crushed velvet interiors. It was when 4wds were catching on with the van crowd converts and all the arguments were about Ford vs Chevy and Jeep had their "We wrote the book on 4wd" motto. I was all about that Dodge being the underdog. My reply to the Jeep guys who liked to quote that motto was "And Power Wagon taught Jeep how to write"
. I'm just reminiscing now, back to the day when mfgrs were marketing 4wds for comfort & convenience and the trends were about cosmetics. I'm glad to see things go to maximum capabilities these days, but I can't even go on Pirate because I'm not 100% up on everything these days and I don't need the punkass attitude that site spews.
Sorry for being testy. I was just stating my feelings on the NP203 to all and didn't see the need for a direct response from you, as if I was only talking to you. If I saw it all wrong I apologize.