I installed a zf5 that turned out to be severely worn and making a horrible LOUD noise. Rather than spend another $1,000 to have it rebuilt, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just spend the money and get a good, modern 5 speed. In other words a Tremec.

Can someone give me the run down on the diff. models and what works best for a daily driver city truck that occasionally works? In front of the trans is a 4.9/300 inline six with about 250 hp. The 300 shares the same bell housing and pilot shaft as a 351w.

Thanks in advance.

 

IMO the T5z is a lil undersized for a heavy truck.

I suggest a TKO-500 or 600. It'll bolt up with an adapter or order a short-shaft version. I got mine from Modern Driveline but American Powertrain also has what ya need.

 

Just out of curiosity, what noise is your trans making? And when is it making it?
Not 100% sure on the 4500, but the 3550 is a real rattler of a transmission if the driveshaft is not perfect.

If your truck has a lift for example, and the pinion angles are off just enough, what might not have made noise in another trans might make all sorts of noises in an NV. As we've found out with the 3550s.
Advance Adapters had replaced several brand new transmissions with other brand new transmissions, and we had to do it once as well. All because they were making noise that sounds like an old SM465 in your grandfather's old ranch truck with 485,392 miles on the odometer and with the original gear lube in it!
In other words, it rattled to beat the devil.
Fixed the pinion misalignment issue and 99% of the noise went away.

Just wanted to throw that out there. I know ZF's can be messed up and they did a lot of warranty work back when they first started appearing in Fords. I forget what it was all about though. Same for NV4500's though, losing overdrive gears.
But if the ZF is half as loosey-goosey as an NV, maybe some of the noise is a cheap fix. At least that's the hope.

Good luck. Sorry to hear if you have to replace it with something in better condition.

Paul

 

The 3rd gear synchro is worn and makes shifting up into that gear slow and I lose acceleration. When I shift up into 3rd and accelerate, it makes a terrible rattle-like noise.

I'm spending time trying to shift smoothly despite the 'bite' I feel on the stick when going into 3rd. I'm also eliminating sources of possible rattle. We'll see.

Attachment 283500

 

Ok, bummer. That does sound like an internal issue and not some harmonic whipping things up into a frenzy.

Have you ever changed the lubricant? I don't know that at this stage in the game it would make any difference, but I've "fixed" two different transmissions over the years by changing to a new, and in both cases different fluid.
Went with 75w/90 full synthetic in a Toyota 4-speed once, and it changed the whole nature of shifting for the better.
I can't remember what I used exactly in the other one, but I had the same good results.

Just a thought. I hate wasting good oil, in case renewing it does not help and you end up having to pull it all apart anyway. But it's also kind of a "cheap insurance" thing where, if it works, it was worth the 20bucks in oil!

Paul

 

Thanks for the tip. I've run two diff. ATF's in the trans now, one normal atf and the other a high-dollar synthetic. The synthetic toned the 'growl' of the trans down a bit.

 

I saved this site for future reference from some one else on this page. It might have some good info for you!

TREMEC TKO-500 and 600