Back again guys and as you know I completed my E4OD to ZF5 swap in June this summer. Truck is a 1996 F350 4x4 and i ordered a brand new south bend (stock power) clutch to complete my swap.

So I know I posted a thread about my wheel hop but now I’m on to another issue. After I completed my ZF5 swap in June this summer everything was great besides a noisy throwout bearing. Well I ended up having to drop the trans again due to that throwout bearing breaking in half (from south bend). So I got a new throwout bearing from ford swapped in in there and I haven’t been having any noises and from the looks of it, it seems like the bearing is still doing just fine. So noise was gone and everything seems fine but now when I try to push the clutch in and go straight to 1st it almost like slams into gear or grinds into gear. To solve this I was just going down to second first and then into 1st and it would shift into 1st just fine. Then all the sudden out of no where it started doing the exact same thing in reverse, unless I go into 2nd and then over to reverse or 3rd to reverse ect. I thought maybe bad slave cylinder so I ordered a hole new master and slave cylinder kit (pre-bled) from south bend and still having the same issue. Drained all the fluid and put new fluid in and still same thing. It just gets quite annoying when trying to back in the driveway and I’m having to go from 2nd to reverse then 2nd to 1st just so I’m not damaging or grinding gears... Also sometimes it will grind in 4th. If I push the clutch in and go straight to 4th with a fast motion it grinds very bad and sounds awful.

The reason this is all so weird and frustrating to me is because the transmission was shifting and operating flawlessly until just out of no where 1st and reverse are not working properly. So my question is, is there anything else I should look at that has to do with clutch engagement before I just go on assume it’s bad synchros?? I thought synchros were supposed to wear over time and not just show signs out of nowhere. Anyway any help would be great and I will attach a video of what I am experiencing and if you listen closely you can hear how it does not go into gear properly.

-First video is clutch in and straight to 1st
-Second video is clutch in and straight to Reverse.
-Third video is clutch in to 2nd first then into 1st (shifts fine)
-Fourth video is clutch in to 2nd then to Reverse (shifts fine)

I hope this all makes sense as i tried to explain best i can.

Thank You,
Christian

 

When you swapped in the trans, where did the pedal assembly come from? I know you mentioned a new slave cylinder and master cylinder assembly, have you checked the rod on the pedal for where?

 

I bought the pedal assembly brand new online

 

Was the peddle box all assembled or did you have to put it together? How far off the floor does the peddle move before the clutch start to engage ? You might have to reclock the drop arm as it might have slipped on my he cross shaft if the lurch starts to engage pretty close to the floor.

 

Sounds like clutch is not releasing all the way. By using a synchronized gear before going to reverse you are stopping the gear rotation allowing you into reverse.

 

It was already assembled when I bought it, Ans it starts to engage pretty close to the floor. I usually have to have pushed all the way to the floor when I’m at a stop in gear

 

I would try to reclock the drop arm. Remove the nut that holds the drop arm and pry the arm off, marking the position of the arm before removing. The splines on the shaft are pretty fine, but I would try moving the drop arm 2 splines closer to the firewall, meaning the push rod end. When reinstalling the arm. It is a press fit, so get it started on the shaft, then press it on with the nut. That nut has to be TIGHT or the drop arm can work loose and turn on the shaft. Maybe this is what happened to your install.

 

Ok, I almost gave the arm pried off but it seems stuck at the end. Why I get it off a reconnect everything I will report back. Thank you

 

Alright, the dumb question comith.

are you using the stock joint for the pedal to the clutch master, or did you do the Heim Joint mod?

That plastic bushing in there is garbage.

The issue you're describing is a clutch that is hanging on clutch depress, as well as worn *** syncro's. But usually syncro's go in second not first.
So, your either not getting full master cylinder travel due to the crappy setup, or your clutch is hanging on the input shaft because you forgot to put some light grease on the input shaft.
And something something, you bought a south bend, blah blah and not valair. =)

 

Here you can see why this is such a great system with the wear on the engagement pin to the master ring. a cheap plastic reataining ring is supposed to "stop that" wear.... yeah right.
It's a heavy duty clutch. Those rings even fail on the f150's with M5OD.

 

 

I think ya'll forgot about the Heim joint mod didn't ya????

 

One of the best $20.00 fixes you can make!!!

 

Thinking about it, I probably should give mine a little squirty squirt of some slippy slip.

 

actually, no. That is why we asked about the pedal assembly. If it was a used unit then I would have steered towards a worn pin and the need for the hiem joint. Since he bought a new pedal assembly, we were looking at other possibilities. I agree that the hiem joint is a good upgrade but probably not the source of his current issue.

He hasn’t reported back yet to see if reclocking the rod helped with his problem