Civilian vs Military np242amg, which do I have?

[DatGuyC]

I got a great deal on what I thought was a nos military np242amg, but now that I have it apart I'm thinking its the civilian version. It has the smaller cooler loop and different differential like the civilian version. On the other hand it has the larger hole for the mechanical speed sensor and the military lock switch. It doesn't seem that the case had ever been taken apart before because the sealer for the case halves was nice and cleanly applied, not like if someone had resealed the case themselves. I'm using this pdf for my tear down instructions and it details the differences between the cases: http://www.hummerknowledgebase.com/rungear/transfer_case.pdf. According to the tag it was assembled in 03 and it does have the cooler loop upgrade, so that's pretty nice since it doesn't have the blue band on the nozzles.

 

[DatGuyC]

Alright from a little research it seems that all 242's have the smaller cooler loop and that only the 218's have the larger loop. I still don't know what transfer case is pictured at the top of the pdf but it doesn't look like any 242 or 218 I've seen.

 

[tigertank]

so which one is better 242 or 218?

 

[DatGuyC]

The 242 seems to be the better case, it's what the h1's have and what the military upgraded too from the 218. There are a couple versions, or revisions, of the 242 so be aware of that. I know there is one version with 3 bolts holding the tail shaft housing on and a later version that has 4 bolts. You also want to make sure the cooling loop has the upgrade, usually has a blue band on one of the nozzles. The upgraded loop is less prone to cracking and overflowing the transfer case with atf.