No issues that I'm aware of with the transmission itself. I'd imagine it's not bulletproof, but I've never personally seen one break. The real downfall is that they are not common, they've been out of production for a long time, and I doubt there's many places or parts to repair them. Plus the floor shifter conversions weren't too pretty and many people just swapped them for 4 or 5 speeds. If I had one functional, personally I'd keep it functional to keep it original.

 

Well there's no apparent issues. Just wasn't sure what to watch out for. If the tranny were to go out what would be the easiest cheapest replacement besides a 277? That's the other 3 spd I know but it's not synchroed in first.

 

The easiest replacement would be to go automatic. As was said, the main failure point on these setups is the shift collar, which are impossible to find for this era truck. Older ones can be milled down a little to work, but most people just swap everything. Yours being a 1980 will have the mechanical z-bar style clutch setup, which was only used from '80-'83, so it's not always so easy to get this era trans/bellhousing. If you don't feel like cutting the holes for the newer hydraulic style clutch, getting the correct pedal assembly, or cutting the floor out for a floor shifter, the easiest thing to do is swap the flywheel for the proper flexplate for whichever automatic you run, and swapping in an auto column and pedal assembly.

On the contrary, if your trans dies before the column breaks, the 3-speed column linkage can technically be used to shift an auto trans. The clutch pedal can stay just for looks, or you can swap the pedal assemblies.

 

How would the linkage still be able to operate an automatic transmission?

I do have one problem with the shifter. It's very loose and sloppy in gear. It's not hard to get in gear or anything but once it's in the arm still moves 3 inches or so in every gear. Is there a bushing in the column that I can replace?

 

If you look at the 3 speed column vs. the auto column, they're very similar. The automatic column has locking mechanisms built in for locking the shifter in park, or preventing you from going from drive to reverse without pulling the lever toward you. The 3 speed column has two channels to move in and has no such locking devices. One channel is for R-1 and the other 2-3. If you look at where the linkage is just as the column exits the firewall, you'll notice there is one linkage on the auto and two on the 3 speed. Whichever one matches closest to the linkage on the auto trans is the one you use, then you just keep the gear shift in whichever channel operates that particular linkage. It's a little crude, but it will work fine if you don't want the hassle of swapping columns. Only downside is you'd have to count the clicks of the gear shift to tell what gear you're in and keep in mind there are no lock devices to keep it from shifting to another gear if the shifter is moved.

 

Can you rig a locking device for it? I'm not expecting my tranny to go out, I'm just curious.

 

Not easily, it'd have to be rigged for sure.

 

Question for NumberDummy or anybody else that knows these parts numbers well...

Is C8AZ 7335-A the same as C8AZ 7335-B?

And, is D6DZ 7335-A the same as D6DZ 7335-B?

The parts breakdown the dealer gave me lists the "A" suffix parts, and there are a few of the "B" parts on Ebay and they look exactly the same.

Any help would be appreciated. I just took my column apart to find out why it's so loose and it looks like it was just a shift away from falling apart.

 

The -B parts are a different revision of the same thing and will most likely work just fine.

The revisions can be things like location & number of bolt holes, stuff like that, The newer part will almost always work in an earlier design but of course you should make sure.

 

In the late 1980's, FoMoCo changed the package quantity of a gazillion small parts.

When the IDIOTS did this, they changed the part numbers suffixes, rendering ALL the previous part numbers obsolete.

Now, one would assume that the 1980/89 Ford light truck part catalog that had its final printing in March 1994, would have these new part numbers, but...it doesn't.

And btw: A member of this forum said recently that he used a 1978/79 E & F100/250 3 M/T shift collar (D9TZ-7228-C) in place of the unobtanium 1980/87 3 M/T shift color (EOTZ-7228-D).

The fellow said he had to modify it, but I don't recall exactly what he did...but it might have to do with filing it down on the ends.

There are 12 of these collars available NOS and it's possible that some/all of the repro parts sellers also have it.

 

This was exactly my problem!! The diagram and associated parts list that the Ford dealer gave me has the "A" rev part numbers...but I was finding the same parts on Ebay, with later rev numbers, but referencing OLDER vehicles.

So I ordered one of the 78/79 collars...actual NOS Ford part, not aftermarket, and I ordered two sets of the plastic bushings, plus a few other column 3MT associated parts. I'm hoping that the Ford collar is a little better quality than the aftermarket stuff...I did pay almost double the price for it for that reason. (Going by the pictures, it looks better).

I wasn't quite sure what to do with this darn column shift....my plan is to swap a 5spd in later anyway, but I wanted to drive the truck a little bit in the meantime, and the shifter had quite a bit of slop in it. I figured I'd pull it apart and have a look to see what the problem was, and I found my original collar to be cracked down both sides...ready to break off:



I wanted to have the 3 spd manual column working well/properly even if I do remove it later on. If I even do a 5spd swap, that's still a little ways away, and if I decide to leave it as a 3 on the tree, then so be it.

In my case, it looks like the plastic bushings were the culprit. They're both worn out, which was causing the collar to go crooked, which caused it to crack...which spread the slot open which makes it loose on the shift tube.

I'll report back after I get the 78/79 collar fitted.

Thanks again for the help fellas.

 

D6DZ-7335-B = 36 available NOS

C8AZ-7335-B = 211 available NOS

 

Yes, Bill, thank you for correcting me and adding this!

You had done that once before, and I saved that response + some guy's thread where he did that exact same swap-a-roo PLUS HE PROVIDED PICTURES!!!

But I have no idea if anything in the subforums works anymore, haven't had time.

 

I found several threads on here where the guys used the D9TZ-7228-C collar in the repair, and there's a video on Youtube as well.

I'll also post up some info when I get it all finished, just to add a few details to the mix for anybody that runs into this problem later on.

I'm hoping all of the required parts arrive by the end of the month.

 

I finally got the 1978/79 shift collar installed on my '84 150. Pics below in case anybody needs to do this in the future. I trimmed about 3/8" off the top of the collar, and I trimmed about an 1" off the plastic column cover. Since the collar comes in bare aluminum, and my ignition housing was all dull and chipped, I painted both in satin black (Krylon rattle can). I think it turned out OK, and, at a glance, nobody would know that it wasn't original imho.

A tip of the hat to the guys that posted about this swap/mod in the first place. It was a big help for me.






I'm tentatively planning to do a 5spd swap on this truck, so all my hard work rebuilding this column might be collecting dust on the garage shelf sometime in 2018.

Peace & axle grease.