If it's a DMF you will see it being two pieces. You can take the center piece and try to move it with the outer piece stationary. If it moves easily it's probably wore out and it may have some springs and plastic pieces missing. Some people have run them too long and have had the springs jump out between the flywheel and the block and tear the block up some.

If you have a aftermarket setup, and want to replace some of the pieces, make sure you look at the maker of the clutch and order the correct pieces. The factory stuff won't work with the aftermarket setup.

 

Alrighty, I figure I would give an update.

I have rebuilt the ZF5 with new bearings and syncros. The DMF was very worn, so I got an LUK setup to replace the whole thing with. I would like to note here that pedal assemblies from 1987 and newer don't fit without modification, but I found one on ebay and it should get here soon, though I will probably freshen it up a bit before I use it. (So, my parts truck is an '86, but someone put this manual in it before I got it and used the pedals from the '91 they got the transmission from. They just hacked a big chunk out of the dash support to make it fit.)

At this point I have everything old out of the truck and I am ready to start putting new things in, but I noticed that one of the dowel pins on the back of the engine is broken off about 1/8" into the adapter plate. How concerned should I be about this? How replaceable is this? It looks like the hole on the block side is a blind hole, so I would have to pull it out I guess, which could get interesting. I have an engine with dowels in it that I could grab one from, but how are these supposed to come out?

Brock

 

You need those dowels, they locate the transmission to the engine. Bolts need to have play so you can thread them in and tighten them. So they do not accurately locate the two assemblies. I would try to take the adapter plate off. See if the dowel comes with it. If it doesn't, maybe some of it will be sticking out and you could take some large side cutters and try to pry it out.

 

I was concerned that might be the case. But better now than later I guess.

I took the adapter off and the pin was barely in the block and stayed with the adapter, so it wasn't too hard to get out.

I have another engine in the garage that is just sitting there, so I can borrow a dowel from it. I took the adapter off of it, but how do I get the dowel out of the block? It appears to be hardened steel and I haven't got it to budge yet. Alternatively, where do you buy these from? I was hoping to make a lot of progress on this in the next few days.

I did find a 3/8 bolt that is just a few thousands under the diameter of the pin. I thought about cutting the head and the threads off and using it.

Brock

 

If the smooth part of the bolt drives into the engine block, but slips into the hole in the transmission, it should work. Make sure you take a grinder and grind a little lead-in on the corner of the homemade dowel so the transmission finds it's way easier onto the dowel, and when you are driving it into the engine a burr is not created on the edge of the dowel. If you get a small burr, with the lead-in it won't affect the fit into the transmission.

 

I found some scrap stainless steel rod from work that measured right at the diameter of the dowel holes so I cut a piece about 2.25" long and beveled the ends and used it. It fits snug enough in the block that I had to lightly tap it in with a hammer so I think I should be good.

Side note: you can get the automatic pedal assembly out by just lowering the steering wheel, but you cannot get the manual assembly in without completely removing the whole column in a 1986. Between the pedal assembly, steering column, and clutch master cylinder it gets pretty tight under the dash.

Brock

 

I did the pedal swap on a 89. I took the seat out so I had room. I also needed room to swap the floor pan panel. Wouldn't you know it, everything was going along good till I went to take the old pedal assembly out, and there was this heavy wire going right through a large hole in the pedal assembly. Turns out it was the speedo cable, and I had to then pull the cluster and take the speedo cable out to get the pedal assembly out. What a pain.

 

@Franklin2 That sounds about right for Ford. At least I did not have to deal with that particular issue.

I got it all back together and was able to take it for a drive yesterday. It is a different truck now, I'm going to have to learn it.

When I had them both out I measured the transmissions, and the zf5 is half an inch longer than the c6. I had to modify the transmission mount, but I got it all to fit. The rear driveshaft still has at least an inch of compression, so I think it will be okay. I'm not really worried about the front.

There are really only two areas of concern that I have noticed: the syncro for fourth gear appears to be doing just about nothing. I knew it was a little looser than spec when I put it together, but it was the last syncro in the kit. I'm debating if I should pull it back out and try another one or just drive it and learn to rev match. I do think it can be changed without pulling any gears if I remember correctly. All the other gears go right in with no issue. The other thing is that the shifter is just kinda sloppy. The zf5 in my other truck has short movements and everything just clicks where it should be, but this one I have to move a lot more to shift, it feels less precise, and you can move it more than I would expect when its in gear. I did rebuild the shifter, but I'm also not entirely sure where all the movement is actually coming from.

Anyway, that's where I am at. I'm probably going to drive it for a bit before I decide if I am going to tear back into it or not.

Brock