Zf5 transmission problems
Cargo Master
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,297
Likes: 26
From: NJ
Do yourself a favor and pick up a firewall brace kit. The firewalls in 80-97 trucks crack and flex as they were not designed for a hydraulic clutch master (originally a z-bar through early-mid 80s). Ford made small and large kits to fix this issue but they are NLA, maybe a few NOS kits floating around but no more. I bought a kit from Ford years ago for another truck but found a forum member is making them since Ford stopped and I used his bracket on my latest truck when converting it to a ZF5, worth every penny as it's only a matter of time before the thin firewalls breaks and created a bigger problem to mop up. firewall fix
More Turbo
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 618
Likes: 7
Do yourself a favor and pick up a firewall brace kit. The firewalls in 80-97 trucks crack and flex as they were not designed for a hydraulic clutch master (originally a z-bar through early-mid 80s). Ford made small and large kits to fix this issue but they are NLA, maybe a few NOS kits floating around but no more. I bought a kit from Ford years ago for another truck but found a forum member is making them since Ford stopped and I used his bracket on my latest truck when converting it to a ZF5, worth every penny as it's only a matter of time before the thin firewalls breaks and created a bigger problem to mop up. firewall fix
Posting Guru
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 2,036
Likes: 5
Do yourself a favor and pick up a firewall brace kit. The firewalls in 80-97 trucks crack and flex as they were not designed for a hydraulic clutch master (originally a z-bar through early-mid 80s). Ford made small and large kits to fix this issue but they are NLA, maybe a few NOS kits floating around but no more. I bought a kit from Ford years ago for another truck but found a forum member is making them since Ford stopped and I used his bracket on my latest truck when converting it to a ZF5, worth every penny as it's only a matter of time before the thin firewalls breaks and created a bigger problem to mop up. firewall fix
Cargo Master
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,297
Likes: 26
From: NJ
As far as I am aware the cabs, specifically firewall thickness, are essentially the same 1980-1997. I've had two 86 trucks with cracked firewalls around the clutch master, one has a pretty heavy pressure plate.
Posting Guru
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 2,036
Likes: 5
I assumed they were thicker because I remember altereing the firewall on an 84 for a turbo downpipe was a lot tougher than the one I did on a 91, maybe I should do the fix before it does break haha
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