jed, pre 87's didnt have that big nasty skid plate. 87+ most likely had the bw.
muddin, did you lift your bronco or buy it like that? reason i ask is because alot of people who lift/larger tires are going to regear so the only way is to look or to lift the rear off the ground.. chances are your rear gears is a 3.55. i think door code 18 is 3.08, 19 is 3.55. and H9 is 3.55 LS. if you had the axle tag it would have the number on it on the lower portion of the tag. like 355. would be a 355 open diff. l55 would be 3.55 limited slip. I think. most of that is just from me looking at my trucks.
to answer your questions about the tcase. i would take the np208 over the BW 13-45 case. the bw 13-56 is a bit stronger, and the np 205 is gear driven instead of chain driven so its usually viewed as stronger.
if your truck has an open diff you can lift one rear wheel off the ground, kick your tcase in N and spin one wheel one turn and count how many times your drive shaft turns.
