I have a 99 superduty 4x4 5.4L with a zf5 tranny. I recently broke the rear housing in half. I was wondering if anyone had done anything to reinforce this to prevent it happening again as this seems to be a common issue.

 

There's a ZF5 group on Facebook with good discussion, and one of the guys makes these brackets and sells them on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/30515208339...Bk9SR6qn17CoYw

 

need some pics, I'm sure that I'm not the only one here that could help literally fix it, but, they're gonna want pics too.

I have coddled many zf5 tail housings back together, with a myriad of initial damage, and I can tell you that purpose is what drives the repair.

 

I'm replacing the tranny. I'm just looking for preventative measures to ensure this doesn't happen again. The current one completely broke off and left the tcase hanging by the driveline alongside the highway.

I like that brace in the link above but not for $150. I may mimic the design and fab my own.

Any others?

 

still need pics for preventative measures.

 

Pics of what? A broken housing or the tcase sitting in the back of the truck?

 

Broken housing please

 

tcase side

 

that's a shame. The bracket referenced above is a good idea, I can understand not wanting to spend 150 on the parts. You could mimic it relatively easy with some plate steel.

That, or gusset the trans a bunch with aluminum. I've done that on many a zf, mainly due to torn engine mount ears.