I have a 2wd 89 F250 with 460 gas engine and ZF 5 speed trans. I need a new trans. What other ZF 5 speeds will fit, such as one out of a 351, or diesel, or 302, or does it have to out of a 460?

 

Do you want a used trans or rebuilt? I bought 6 speed recently for a 2002 PSD at blumenthalmfg.com. Click on contacts and go down to light duty (they sell trans for every kind of equipment) and e-mail Larry Church. Shipping will generally be to/fro nearest Fedex Trucking dock. My shipping was ~$85 overnight from OKC, return on core included. They are a ZF distributor and keep all of them in stock. There will be one closer if you visit ZF NA website but no sales tax if you order from another state which will more than cover the shipping. My trans even came full of fluid. The diesel trans won't fit because it has a different clutch/external slave cylinder. I'm not sure if 5.8L has same bellhousing bolt pattern but Ford should have changed 460 when they went EFI. Newer trucks will have bolt on yokes for drive shaft instead of U bolt clamps and newer trans are shorter. Don't know year change, probably somewhere around '92-'94. 4.9L, 5.0L, 5.8L were the same. I believe 7.5L were different.
http://www.blumenthalmfg.com/contactus.html
http://www.zf-group.com/
Prices for your model can run $1300-1700 without any clutch or slave cylinder components. I'd definitely look at clutch/pressure plate assembly and replace clutch release and pilot bearings. If the slave cylinder is in doubt, I'd replace it also to save the labor/downtime later. You can find used trans about half cost but take a certain risk. Even with a guarantee, you still have to pull it back out if it's no good.

 

Thanks for reply. I am looking for used 5 speed. Dont want to spend money for a rebuilt. Thr truck is not worth that much. Dan

 

Yes it has to be out of a 460 because the 351/302/300 have the small block bolt pattern. It can't be a diesel becasue the diesel has different gear ratios.

 

The diesel will bolt up though. If you can live with slightly different gear ratio's the diesel transmission will work.

 

On my diesel and 460 5-speed ZF trannies the bellhousing bolt pattern is slightly different. If I remember correctly, the middle bellhousing bolts on each side do not line up. The top two and bottom two do, so unless you want to do some modifying to the bellhousing, I don`t think the diesel and gas will interchange. I haven`t physically tried to interchange them though and it has been several years since I looked into this, so I could be wrong. Something to look into before trying to stuff the diesel trans in there. Gear ratios if I remember correctly are; Diesel - 4.14 low and Gas - 5.72 low. Overdrive ratios are also slightly different, but without digging it up, I can`t remember the exact overdrive ratios.

 

Diesels don't rev as high so with lower rpms they need a closer set of gears. That's why they have 6 sp MT and 5 sp AT now. Remember 60's and 70's muscle cars? Big blocks normally had close ratio 4 speeds but small blocks had wide ratio trans. The small block could redline higher and faster. The big block had more low end torque and did not need to rev so high.

Diesel trans also had external slave cylinder. I've never paid attention to 460. I would look for the 460 model. I'm sure there were several. I can find dozens of F350 flatbeds with 460, MT, 4x2 for under $6000 and there are also many older high mileage trucks that should start going to salvage yards. The F350 model will also fit your truck. The F150 did not have 460 so they won't fit. Wheelbase should not matter either. Look for '87-'91 possibly a little later. Newer will bolt up to engine but have other differences like shorter tail shaft and different yoke for driveshaft. They might be adapted though.