Howmuch is too much?

[TreeClimber]

Yup... And steal the gears out of 18 and do the old school 2.46:1 thing, and you won't lose any low range.

Don't think this is correct. You need a Bronco case with the 2.46 gears from a Dana 20. (That's how I did my model 20 in my 79 CJ). Bronco 20 cases are the same as CJ cases, only with the reverse drop and lower gears.

And putting in a 20 case creates another set of issues, due to the higher location of the rear output shaft location. You gain straightness of the drive shaft, but it really really really increases the angularity due to the springover.
(Look at his pic, earlier in thread, from the diff looking at the tcase)

Edit - Yes you can put the 18 gears into a 20 case, but there are some issues due to the idler shaft is larger (wish I remembered better).... However I don't think the outputs are interchangable, and you'll just have a stronger case, but still a side drop.
T

 

[03 CON]

Gib man, take this with a grain, but from the looks I am guessing an 18...
The angle does not look that bad, I see worse in some of he race rigs out there, but they are not running down the road, and run small tires so....

 

[Gibby1]

No huge tires on this either. Those 34s are probably the largest it'll see.

I think I this point I'm going to weld up the perches and see if I can stick a new u-joint and flange on that drive shaft I've got. It's BARELY long enough but's it's good enough for a road test. If I can get that to fly with a a u-joint on each end... I got several toyota flanges that I might be able to redrill and make fit. A cheap test run.