Hello everyone,
I have been reading this forum for a while kow, but this is my first post. I obtained an oldish 1992 f250 5.8l 5spd back in august. The truck is in great shape with very little rust, but 10 years ago when the clutch went out the owner just tossed it in a shed and let it sit up until we got it off him. We've put tons of work into it to get it driving, however im starting to feel a little discouraged. About a month ago we got the engine to start, and it sounded good, but with the clutch shot it wouldnt move anywhere so we've dropped the transmission and put in new clutch and flywheel and put it back up. For us this is a multiple week project because we dont have a lot of equipment and we're doing this on a gravel driveway. However when we got it up we realized the slave cylinder which we put in was a return and missing some parts and clips to reattach the clutch line. This is a pretty big blow because we are going to have to redrop the entire transmission to fix it which is at least a week of work. So i began doing that and just as i was starting, i removed the shifter and the little spring component thingy on top of the transmission (i honestly dont know what it is) where the shifter attaches fell into the transmission. So ive got 2 questions.

One. I am getting pretty discouraged with this truck its nice and all but all this work is putting a toll on me, any tips on keeping my moral up for this truck? All my help is bored as well so its mostly just me.

Two. How the heck do i get a spring out of the transmission? I cant see it and i dont want to shift it or anything while the spring is in there.

Edit: work weve done so far includes:
New spark plugs+wires+distributor cap
New brakes (shoes, pads, lines)
New fuel pump/filter/few lines
New starter+battery
Oil changes, coolant
cleaned and painted rusty spots and parts

 

I know how you feel. Everyone around me is building Hondas or Nissans and noone is interested by trucks. Just me and my ol' man.

Not too sure about the spring, but just a guess; do you think it is small enough to go trough the drain hole?

 

Its not so much about it being a truck my family doesnt do a lot of automotive, its more about the amount of work. It was expected to take about 500 to get this thing driving. So far im down 1500, and its still not driving. Its fun to work on and i enjoy it but the prospect of going through the struggle of dropping and reinstalling the transmission again is painful to imagine. Then the spring in there could cause all sorts of problems. From what i remember the spring is about an inch and a half long and as wide as a pen? Maybe. It didnt fall out when i pulled the drain plug. Wont it get caught on a gear?

 

Yeah, very possible. Might have to pull the transmission and open her up. It's not exactly difficult, but pretty time consuming. I don't see any other options if it doesn't come out the drain hole. Maybe someone has a better option, I suggest you wait for second opinions.

 

you need more beer.

its a pain in the Johnson to pull the trans, but since you just did it....it should be twice as easy and just as fast.

take a sanity break and a deep breath, then go back and assault it. you cant break the zf5 down easily, so you either forget that the spring is in there, try and find it through the pto covers, or tear the trans apart to find it. I don't recall what the spring looks like, but if its small, the likelihood of it tearing anything up is small. chunks are not good for synchros, however, so that's what i'd be most worried about.

 

Well i sorta need the spring back to put it back together, dont i? Even if i dont get it out you dont think itll destroy the transmission? I talked to some people i got some push back. It should be easier. Ill get to it next week when ive got time.

 

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt the transmission. I'd just want it back to re-assemble everything and a ZF5 isn't common in my cheap junkyard.

When I bought my 95 F150 w/ a mazda trans.. it had no 1st-2nd, 3rd-4th gears. I changed the top hat of the trans w/ the forks. I didn't even flush the trans. Anyways I flushed the trans months later when I replaced the rear axle and I had multiple 4" long thick shavings of shift fork? syncros? idk. just big *** metal.

I flushed again to do the clutch and got a couple more out. Trans shifted a lot smoother after the 1st flush, though shifted just fine before too.

 

and it sounds like you're on a budget. but I bought a Harbor Freight transmission jack for about $70 (They accidentally gave me $25 credit for a ratchet I was warrantying)

I've balanced on floor jacks before and had people help me.. never again. I pulled the trans myself so easily, I changed clutch in like 15 minutes, skipped the pilot bearing, new slave cylinder.. all that jazz.

Spent about 5 minutes seating the trans back up.. and another hour getting 4 bolts mixed up.

I did this in the street. Pulled driveshafts on Friday night, drained trans and transfer case/pulled transfer case on Saturday night and Sunday noon-tmie (when i woke up) I bought a transmission jack and was done about 5pm.

Breaking it up in sub-systems helps make it be not so bad. I swear it was the most satisfying job ever. It felt like I didn't even work. I barely got dirty.

So just take it easy! You did it once, 2nd time shouldn't be that bad.. and 3rd tries a charm lol

 

You're getting good advice from everyone. "Breaking it up in sub-systems helps make it be not so bad" - I've run several marathons & do the same thing. Get to the tree then the stop sign etc eventually the finish. If it helps, keep in mind Thomas Edison tried 1000 filaments before finding the right one.


No doubt lots of encouragement too: "Quit wasting your time on that thing an' get a real job"!

 

Might try getting the spring with a magnetic pick up tool that's on a flexible cable. Try from up top and from the drain hole as well. It won't be easy.

As far as getting frustrated over too much work and silly mistakes...join the club.

 

This worked. Went in from the access panels on each side and top with megnet tool and nothing. I got pretty discouraged but then i stuck it up the drain plug (last of course) and it came right out! Thanks. Now ive just gotta drop the transmission again.

Edit: Got it dropped and reinstalled all in about 3 hours with the help of two guys. Now the clutch is sticking to the ground, how do i fix that? Tried bleeding it for about 20 minutes

 

Had the same problem on mine. If I recall rightly, its because its not bled out properly. With the pedal in the up position, fill the reservoir and open the bleeder valve on the throw out bearing and let it gravity bleed out. Keep the reservoir full and when you get a steady flow out of the bearing, close it up and it should be bled out.

 

I let gravity do its work overnight, but it turns out I STILL did not have the line correctly in, I removed the little plastic disconnect thingy (I don't know what its called) and jammed the line in for the third time and it stuck. Bled the clutch and now it's working perfectly. Hopefully it lasts a few years before I have to do any clutch work again.

 

Glad to hear it.

I've had so many of those WTF moments over the years that I don't even flinch any more when they happen. I had a loose pin in the computer that drove me batty for a couple of weeks. I was getting ready for an exorcism when I accidentally found it.

 

Well, according to the instructions the little plastic clip is supposed to be there so that i can disconnect the clutch line next time i need to drop trans or change master cylinder, but it wouldn't really click in with it on, so i pulled it off shoved the clutch line in and it gave a very satisfying click, and I couldn't remove it, so the plastic thingy has to stay off and hopefully next time i need to do anything with the clutch line i'll be dropping the transmission as well, otherwise it will be very difficult to remove the clutch line.