Hey guys, new to the F-150 post, but been around for a little while. I have a 97F150 4.2, 5 speed manual. About 2 months ago it started going into second gear a little bit "stiff". Now unless I match up the RPMs to the shift and be really careful it grinds like crazy. Is that a synchronizer problem? Thanks for the help.

 

I also have a v-6 5-speed and if you ask me, i think the transmissions were made cheaply. ever since mine was new, I thought it shifted stiff and the gears felt real choppy. i love my truck but i have always feared something wasn't put together right or something. so far so good, i'm at 80,000 without a hitch.

 

Is it hard to get into gear when stopped? My clutch master cylinder failed at 40k miles. I just replaced it about a week ago and now it's running like new. Third gear in these mazda trannys is notchy and that is normal. But yeah if it's only second gear than you have synchro trouble.

 

It goes into gear pretty nice while stopped. The only real problem is that second gear. I have a feeling its synchros. Do you have any experience on price for that repair? I would be taking the Tranny out and putting it back in.

 

I had a 96 F150, with the 4.9L, 5 Speed transmission. At 75,000 miles, it developed the hard shifting problem that you described. I believe mine started hard shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear. At that time, I did a search on the forum here and found a lot of references to this transmission as the Mazda POS. It took me a while to figure out what the acronym POS stood for, but when I did, it made sense. Anyway, I took it to the Ford dealer here who in my opinion has some excellent technicians. They first suspected the synchronizers and replaced both the 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd synchros and it did not fix the problem. It made it a little better, but the problem was still there. Took it back and they dug deeper and discovered that the "fork" that slides the synchros and gears was worn. They changed that and the problem was fixed. I kept the fork and examined it myself and you could see where the metal was eroded and deformed. They speculated that it wore out because we have a tendency when driving to rest our shifting hand on the shift lever which exerts a pulling force on the lever causing premature wear of this fork. I think the fork is just made out of poor quality metal. If you have the transmission repaired, make sure they check this "fork" before putting it back together. Of course this assumes that your 5 speed tranny in the 97 is the same one that was in my 96. Just my $.02. Good luck. Bob

 

My truck with a manual 5 speed and 238000 miles recently started not shifting into reverse. It was just like reverse wasn't there, it was jammed up, hard as a rock, just not going to go into reverse.

Here's what I did, change the transmisssion fluid. Took out the automatic trans fluid (it looked OK) put in Exxon Torque fluid #10 weight. Its shifted perfectly ever since. Torque fluid is a synthethetic fluid made for big trucks and will noty damage Ford seals. Anyways that was 10k ago and its still working perfectly. Its worth a try.

P.S. I never understood auto fluid in a manual trans. A mechanic friend of mine told me how great auto fluid is when my trans was messing up -- I never believed him. Auto fluid is more for the hydraulic properties of a trans than for lubricating.

 

I just bought a 98 150 with manual transmission to replace a 91 with manual. I think they are the same transmission. I must have been lucky because it worked fine in the 91. I used it as a chore pickup. Both trucks are 6s.

 

RDavis, thanks for the reply. That sounds like it may be the same thing. Do you remember an approx. price for the repair of the tranny? One other thing, a guy at work told me that a bad clutch may do this too I have never put a clutch in it and we bought it 30000 miles (it has 120000 on it now). I would think that a bad clutch would be most evident going from neutral to first, or reverse.

 

Are you sitting down? I think it was close to $1200. For a manual transmission. But it is still working, my son in law still drives the truck. I think you would know if your clutch was slipping. You would see the same hard shifting in the other gears as well. Good Luck,, Bob

 

Hi Guys! I have a 2001 F150 Sport 4x4 w/4.2 liter eng. 5 speed MT. 3rd & 4th gear are like shifting into neutral! no grinding/seems to engage but nothing happens! Any ideas plz post & copy/send 2 my email plz timsemail@ymail.com.
I can't find a used tranny anywhere or anyone who knows how 2fix.
Still shifting from 2nd to 5th!,,,,dont like it
Thanks!
Tim

 

I have exactly the same symptoms described by 01F150sport4x4. It is as if 3rd and 4th gear don't exist.

I had a couple of weeks where things would grind loudly going from 2nd to 3rd. Forget down shifting from 4th to 3rd. Things actually seemed to be getting a bit better going up into 3rd, but over the weekend it's as if 3rd and 4th gear just disappeared. When shifting into either gear, there is no feeling of engagement at all.

My guess is that I'll be talking to a shop or two tomorrow about a full tranny replacement. Any thoughts about what other bits should be replaced while doing this job? I'm assuming I'll swap the clutch, but I don't know of anything else. I'm truly pretty ignorant on what needs to be done.

Thanks for any insight.

 

Well....I hate to be the chirping bluebird here but I have close to 300K on my 5spd and it's perfect. One of the reasons is because I have kept on top of flushing and changing the oil in it.

Here's my question, has the oil been changed at regular intervals? Have you flushed the case at some point to clean the inside of the case and the de-sludge the bushings, bearings and such?

If not and you are having trouble you may want to jack the rear tires off the ground then drain the oil about 2/3rds and refill with diesel. Run each gear for a few seconds several times then drain and refill with fresh fluid.
I do this once every other year and it really does a heck of a job cleaning out the case. I alwas seem to get allot of goo out of it and it runs like new money afterwards. I pull a 25 foot fith wheel gooseneck loaded with hay with this truck every year quite regularly during season and the tranny nor the 4.2V6 give me any trouble. I think keeping it clean and free of sludge goes really far with this little 5 speed. If it's sticky or not wanting to shift you may need to flush it really good?????