So I've read tons of threads on pulling the E4OD for a ZF5, and I think I'd like to give that a shot.

My truck is a 95 4x4 EC SB with a 351. It's an Eddie Bauer and in great shape besides the E4OD.

I live on a steep hill, and it breathed its last breath last saturday when I hauled off the garbage. It was pulling fine, and then I let off the gas to make a turn, and got back on the throttle and it was like nothing was there. Revving and no power going to the ground. I did rev it a little bit more just to try to make it home, then I smelled a hot or burnt oil smell, maybe like hot or burnt ATF. I had to hook my Santa Fe to it and pull it up the hill with a neighbors help. Boy was that embarrassing!

I can have it in drive and get on the gas and get nothing, unless its revved to about 3k and then it will move just a little. Reverse is a bit better, but it still needs to be revved and it slams into R pretty hard.

I got up under it last night and the E4OD was very wet on the rear end side, like it had dumped a ton of fluid. About 8 months ago, I had a local lube shop (owned by a buddy of mine that I trust) pull the pan and replace the filter, so I would expect the pan gasket to still be good. Anyway I thought it was odd that it had dumped fluid.

So getting to my question. I love my truck, but I hate the auto. I want to switch it to a ZF5, but I'm also on a budget.

Would it be best to buy a refurb ZF5 from one of the reputable tranny shops online? Here's a few that seem decent that I've found:

Smart Parts Auto
Standard Transmission

I've looked locally at the Pull A Part and found a truck that I can get a few of the swap parts from, so I'm planning on using as many used parts as I can, but I want to put a known good tranny in there, so I'm leaning towards a rebuilt unit, but not one that's made of gold, if you know what I mean.

Anyone got advice here? I hope to make a thread of my progress when I get started.

 

I had the same problem with my E40D. $1800 for a rebuild put a bad taste in my mouth. So I went and found a C6 had it built and upgraded for 1/3 the price of the E40D. I wanted to do the ZF5 but couldn't find one one so I settled for the C6. Gonna be a good bit of work to change the pedals out but I will be worth it having the 5 speed in there! Good luck man.

 

No personal experience here, just a relatively uninformed opinion. But I wouldn't think a ~15 year old ZF would be in that bad of shape. So I'd maybe go with a used tranny (if you can find one) rather than spending more for a rebuilt. But I'm sure there are others here who know more about this.

 

Look around on FSB. LOTS of member there have covered it. Here is a good write-up on it including the parts you will need. Just use there search function there and be ready to read.

zf 5 speed conversion - FSB Forums

And if your interested in rebuilding one, here is a write-up for that:

ZF5 (S5-47) Rebuild - FSB Forums

 

Wow, great threads Evan_P, thanks!

 

Mine died yesterday just a lil jerk as I pulled away from a stop light an that was it. Mine dumped some trans fluid about a month ago to. Did not know these trans were a problem,my pan full of metal shavings so went to a trans shop down the street they wanted 3997.00 to rebuild well that did not go over well with me. Think I will just look for a used one.

 

I can see $2-2.5k for a basic rebuild at a local shop. Any more than that and your better off buying from a performance trans shop. $4k for a rebuild? For that money, SeattleFSB over on the FSB got an E4OD custom built to handle his 400 horse, 500 lb-ft 408 stroker as well as a custom built high performance torque converter. Unless the shop can match that, I don't think so.

On another note, I think my transmission is finally starting to show its age. Starting to get some slight slippage between gears as well as occasional hard shifting. 195k on the original one though so I have been on borrowed time for quiet awhile.

 

Evan, add a shift kit, it will help, and you can transfer it to your new/rebuilt transmission anyway, so it's money well spent.

 

Went to a local salvage yard and found 2 ZFs. One was marked as a 94 and the other an 88. Both 4x4s. Shifted through the gears and boy, it sure is a notchy tranny. Both seemed to shift the same. The 88 had the shift handle and boot still attached. I may grab that also.

I did some some research on the part numbers using this document on the ZF website. Turns out the 88 was from a diesel truck so that one is out. The 94 looks like it was from a small block motor also. Score!

'94 (94 1/2 according to the ZF doc)
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'88
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Gonna go pick up the 94 ZF when I get back from vacation next week.