I have been reading and learning on this site for years, thanks to everyone here! I don't get a oportunity or reason to post much, but I thought some folks may be interestd in my latest undertaking.

I have a 1996 F350 Crewcab Long Bed 4X4 Auto with the Powerstroke Diesel, I can not say enough good things about this truck and how it has treated me over the last 215,000 miles. EXCEPT for that currsed auto tranny!!

I have been through 4 of them the last one being heavly modified (Long list of mods I can go into later if anyone cares) and they just don't seem to last.

So I told myself if this one ever goes out I am going to put in a freakin manual tranny and be done with it. So here I go!

I went and got the following:
A 1995 Powerstroke Crewcab Long bed Dully 2WD 5spd parts truck (I will have a LOT of left over parts if anyone is looking for stuff)

A Southbend Con O clutch and flywheel kit

A rebuild kit for the ZF including bearings syncros and seals

A new 4X4 main shaft

A new 4X4 tail housing

Anyway I will keep this post updated as I go, and if anyone can leand any advice or pit falls I sure would like the feed back.
P.S. My spelling sucks.. I know that already

 

I got advice but its too late now. By an E4OD from BTS! Bulletproof with a 2 years unlimited warrantee and an unwritten warrantee (atleast from feedback from his customers) there after. Good luck with your swap. I hope it goes well for you! keep us posted!

 

good luck, and keep us posted. when my e40d goes out, this is what i want to do. i will be watching closely. i'll also have to see what if anything is compatible from that truck to mine that i might need. i'm interested to see how much modification is needed to do this swap

 

BTS- does these swaps in house. I remember lookin into doin this when I lost my auto the first time but it was to much hassle to do it to me. And price wise it was cheaper to just buy a stought rebuild. Besides i think autos help put power to the ground fast then the 5speeds, IMO

Cowboy Steve

 

Thank you for all the replies, I don't have that much $ into this swap:
A 1995 Powerstroke Crewcab Long bed Dully 2WD 5spd parts truck $450
A Southbend Con O clutch and flywheel kit $650
A rebuild kit for the ZF including bearings syncros and seals $250
A new 4X4 main shaft $120
A new 4X4 tail housing $130
Total = $1600

I don't think you can touch a BTS tranny and converter for lass than $5000

I tow a 12500lb trailer almost every weekend though the Texas summer heat and hill country. Most folks who tow big wieght on a regular basis seem to agree that a manual is the ticket.

Now had I got a BTS tranny and converter back when my first tranny went out I would probubly be even by now but the was almsot 9 years ago now.

 

BTW this truck is also my daily driver, I can not afford to have it down for tranny repairs so to me a great warrantee to have the auto taken out and shipped some place does not give me a lot of comfort.

Nothing against BTS, but I dont drag race or sled pull or mud bog this truck. I don't see why I would be concerned about how fast the power gets to the ground, so long as it ges there.

 

For those folks interested in doing this them selfs, it appears to be easy enough for now. Although I am not too far into it, I have removed the pedal rack, clutch master, steering collum parts, instrument panel and shifter from the parts truck.

As far as the in cab wiring harness they appear to be the same and I don't see too many problems yet. There are wiring provision in the harness to go auto or manual form the factory. This makes sense to me but I was not too sure until I got them apart.

Now this weekend I will go after the heavy/dirty work under the truck. I will keep the updates coming.

 

How did this go I am interested and I think you are not the only one here that wants a manual.

 

Sorry for the delay, the wife wanted to go boating so half of last weekend and this weekend are a going to be lost on this project. I did get a chance to strip all usable parts off of my parts truck before the wife had it hauled off to the junk yard due to the floks next door makeing comments.

I have taken appart the 2wd manual ZF all the way and removed the main shaft and reassembled with all new berrings and syncros and seals and the 4wd main shaft and tail housing. I was really impressed with the condition of the gears, they look new in side. So the tranny is all done and ready to go in, and rebuilding it was not that hard. The worst part was getting all the old berrings off the shafts (highspeed is your friend).

So with a blessing form the wife I may get to start the install next weekend I hope.

 

Got to love the neighbors. Keep us up to date on this I'm getting tired of my auto too. I'm thinking about doing the swap.

 

OK its all done! It took me 3 days to do it. Needless to say I am very happy with the results so far. I changed everthing over so you can't tell its a conversion:
Stearing collum, floor plate and ever took the dash appart a put in the blankinf plate where the auto gear indicator was.

The swap was pretty easy except for two things:
1. The E4OD 4X4 mount does not directaly work for this combination and niether does the 5 speed 2WD one. I had to use parts from both to make up my 5 speed 4X4 mount. Plus 2 new holes in the frame on each side, but that was the worst part of the job.

2. The tranny/transfer case wiring harness does not plug and play between a 1995 and 1996. The connector do mate up but the pinnout is different so I had to depin the harness and move the 4X4 indicator light wires and the clutch interlock jummper wires arounf to mach my truck.

All else was plug and play. The pedal rack and clutch cylider went right in and the cab wire harness has a jumper plug you remove and then plug right into the clutch interlock switch. The steering collum was easy no probllems there, just a connector to tie back to the cab harness that was used to operate the auto gear shift lever soliniod. The floor pans swaped easy just rolled back the carpet and swaped them out and the used to hole in the 5 speed pan to cut the hole in the carpet for the shifter. Had to get the front drive shaft shortened and the rear legthened ( acctualy I got me parts truck 2WD rear shorted instead cause shorting is way cheaper then extending). Oh and I did have shorten the sifter rod for the 4X4 transfer case because the one for the auto was too long. The new solid flywheel and clutch from southbend went in no problem and the tranny and transfer case bolted right up and went right in.

The truck is acctualy getting better fuel milage aroung town and on the highyway which is wierd sisnce the RPMs are a little higher ant the same speed and my old auto. I went from 15-16mpg at 70mph to 17-18 at 70mph. who knows why???

Other notes are the 1st gear is totaly not needed while empty I just start in 2nd. But when I am pulling by boat (12000lb) I sure do like it. It tows a lot better than before, really not even close, its like a diferent truck. I will admit on the drive to and from work the is a lot of shifting going on.

I have about 800miles on the swap and so far all is well. Sorry for the long post but if there are questions on somthing I forgot please fire away.

Whodathought

 

I send you a message(i think lol) let me know if you get it.

 

61 uni,
I did not get you message, please try again. I updated my profile to my current address.
Whodathought