I have an 87 Bronco 2 and switching from a 4 LD to Tk 5 transmission my truck has the Ford Explorer springs under it love it. hard to find a good auto tranny too expensive to rebuild mine truck is pretty beat up was rolled and rear ended do all the work myself always do my research before starting so I get everything lined up from what I understand the transmission will bolt up to my 2.9 I already have the manual flywheel just need clutch master and slave cylinder assembly clutch pedals what am I going to encounter with wiring will the manual neutral safety switch be the same as an auto neutral safety switch and my only concern is drive shaft I have both a u-joint drive shaft and the CV boot drive shaft I think that only matters if I switch transfer cases my tk5 came out of an 84 Bronco 2 and I still have the manual shift transfer case from that tooI know that u joint drive shaft is better how hard is it to changing the yolk on the rear diff.also read about swapping a 4 liter flywheel and starter and running a 10 inch clutch is that something to consider or will regular clutch be just fine don't do much off roading mostly highway driving. also are TK fives a dependable transmissions. going to replace front & rear seal on transmission because it's out and of course new clutchany other suggestions on replacing stuff while transmission is out it worked and shifted fine in my 84 has about a hundred and thirty thousand on but to my understanding bellhousing should bolt up to my 2.9 liter from a 2.8 anxious to get started not driving truck now

 

The 4.0, 2.9, and 2.8 all have the same bell housing bolt pattern. I am running a tk4 in my 94 explorer behind the 4.0. So it will bolt up. If you have the 84 I would switch everything from the 2.8 over. Drive shafts should be different lengths as the tk5 is a bit shorter IIRC. The access under the carpet above the trans is different but you can bolt the smaller 84 over the 87. Some sites report a check engine light with the auto trans wiring disconnected and advise swapping in a std. pcm for the auto. I did not have that problem with my 88 bronco II. It started out as an a4ld auto 2wd and now has a c-5/4 and is 4wd.


The early double cardian drive shaft is stronger and consider better if the truck is not lifted too much. As you wrote you do not do much 4 wheeling and just have the explorer springs it should be fine. If you decide to go with a 4-6 inch lift in the future you will need to upgrade from the 1210 series double cardian to a 1310 series.


The only other thing I can think of is that I remember reading about the early tk5 that will not take the 4.0 clutch. The 2.8/2.9 should be fine unless you are an abusive driver and do a lot of high rpm clutch drops. I'm running that smaller stock clutch behind my 4.0 in my 94 explorer and have for years now. It is my daily driver. My tk4 has an external slave and the clutch line had to be fabed. If your trans has the internal slave you should be good but I would check on parts availability to make sure.

 

thanks for the input I will check on lengths carefully to make sure it will allset nice and work properly the clutch should be asimple bolt on external slave cylinder everything can be gotten from a ranger or Bronco 2 with manual tranny all the spots are there on my firewall to bolt everything up

 

I just acquired a really nice used FM 145 manual transmission.I'm not real crazy about internal slave cylinders. I'm wondering abode taking the bellhousing off of my tk5 bolting it to the FM 145 and running an external slave cylinder. I have all the parts the bell housing the fork. I would assume I would need to run a clutch for an 84. bell housing appear to be the same length. also I still need to acquire clutch pedals and I did some research I don't think it matters if I get petals from a 2 or 4 wheel drive same with the master cylinder. and probably the slave cylinder to. on the pedals are the brackets the same just trying to save some time at the junkyard can I remove my automatic brake pedal and put clutch and brake pedal in existing bracket I haven't looked yet going to start project this week. another reason for external slave cylinder can save almost $100 versus internal slave cylinder.will be going to junk yard this week for pedals and miscellaneous.any input would be greatly appreciated. really wanting to get my truck back on the road. Thanks Bronco man 87