keithpapa:
i know you know alot SNO, thats fine and dandy if you know whats on every rig but alot of people dont know and thats why its hard to see and say what it is...i dont know everything and find it hard sometimes to  tell, i havent seen an ax5 and couldnt tell what it looks like.jeeps yes stuck w/pretty much 1 tcase 1 axle 1 tranny for many yrs but other outfits stuff multiple tcases,axles,trannies and is hard to differentiate them from another unless youve seen them and know for sure what they are. and yes its easy to jack pup up and find ratio this way but what happens if someone dosnt have a jack or any tools? you cant fault them for that, you want to try and make it easy for someone in that boat to see and learn properly so they can give correct info.

Name one 4x4 make model and vehicle that you CANNOT figure out what hardware is in it??? There are really none if it is stock. And if you are referring to vehicles with auto trac and push button 4x4, there was only one Tcase that was used for each feature in each model year. Jeeps are easy, GM too because neither used a lot of different parts. Fords some years could have sterling's or D60's in SD models but that is not hard to find out. Dodges are easy to predict because they do not use a lot of different axles either. You are making this into something it is not. Sure VIN decoding is nice if you can find it but it is not a show stopper as it has been suggested here.  

ok...99 f250 SD w/auto.ford may run D60s but i couldnt tell ya what tranny it is or t case used, doesnt make me stupid, just means i wasnt taught what ford uses,thats why a vin is good, for people who dont know...and i dont understand how im making it into somthin its not.if someone can read then they can read a vin #, and the vin is located in the drivers side lower windshield and on drivers door jam, and in some cases ive seen vin#s  tagged on the side of frame rails and axles on new trucks.to the trained eye its pretty easy to determine whats what but if youve never seen something then what?  

This whole thing started about a Jeep. If the poster had simply said what make, model and year he had, there would have been no more dead ends. BTW, if it is a automatic (your Ford) it should be a 4R55E with a gas motor or a 4R100 with a PS. On tcase, you did not say if it was push and pray electric shift or manual shift.  

sno, i reread the post and nowhere does it say on here hes looking this up for a jeep, (unless it shows on your computer and not mine).and i agree w/you if it was posted correctly then no dead ends like you said....and thats good to know about the tranny models,i didnt know that ford also has 3 tcases either,im not trying to be a smart asss,ok, but what are they for schits and giggles?
thats why if you get a vin# itll tell you what the pup was built with if nobody can tell you for sure.  

It was posted in a Jeep sub forum. On Tcase, it should be a NV271 manual shift, 273, electric shift or HD BorgWarner 1356 electric shift with a PS.  

thanx sno, thats good for me to know...and i guess i shouldve paid attention to the sub forum,sorry,have a good one!