Just replied to a couple posts asking about OD manual trans and i got to thinking....there have to be others who are fighting with their crappy mazda 5 speed biggest peice of....

Mine has been rebuilt three times professionly (by diff shops) and still has problems. Who else out there fights with it as well? I cant be the only one. If i had the money and an extra truck/car id swap it out, but for now i have to deal with it.

 

The Mazda is not my first choice between the 2 but it is not a total peace of junk ether. it wont stand as much abuse as the ZF but with good maintenance and normal driving it will give you lots of good service. I change the oil every year and get the best stuff I can buy in there. I pull loaded trailers everywhere I go In Baja up and down steep rocky grades in some of the worse conditions you can emagen and never have trouble with either the Mazda or the ZF. I like the ZF better becalus it has a compound low for 1st gear and a higher 5th or OD so the spread is grater which is better with the 4.9 high torque low RPM engine.

I also work on a lot of them that are broken and almost always it is due to some kid trying to race a pickup truck that is built to work not spin tires.

 

I had one in a 89 and 95 F150 4x4 . I beat both and both were never touched at 150000 + Miles till I did the clutches. I haul, pull and even drag raced the 89 . Held up fine.I know people with 250000 miles on them and guys with 90 that have been rebuilt. It like any thing they break. All depends on the driver of each.

I rebuilt 6 zfs in the company trucks with less than 100000 miles over a 10 year period so I could say same of them.
Lost

 

Even though I took good care of my M5OD, it still failed me when it mattered most. I replaced it with a ZF and haven't looked back since. Bottom line, the ZF is rated for more power and more torque and can be swapped for the price as a rebuild on the M5OD.

I am very surprised to find support for the Mazda tranny. When mine quit, and I was checking FTE for swap info, there wasn't a single positive thing found about that tranny (not including great boat anchor!)

 

the ZF M5OD is a better more durable unit but the Mazda M5OD dose the job it is built to do. One problam peple have with both is after having them rebuilt the fail er rate is high and this is due to improper reassembly. you must study the rebuild manual and have the special tools to do the job. also a lot of shops dont replace all of the parts that you must when you rebuild one. they see stuff that still looks serviceable and put it back in. some parts must be replaced no mater how they look

 

I love my 94 and think its a great truck, except for the trans. Has left me stranded when it mattered most that it worked. Maybe i got a lemon m50d??? Who knows...all im sure of is that i take excellent care of everything i own, especially my baby. Ive been driving manuals all my life and have beaten many that have worked great for a long time. I have treated it well and all it does is continue to **** up. Doesnt like going into any of the gears, especially 1st, 2nd, and reverse, and it takes a while to figure out how to finess it into gear. It truely sucks. The synchros are gone already (never actually worked) so i have to rev it to the sky to get it in 1st and reverse sometimes, or shut the damn thing off. The only time it shifts into gears freely is when the truck is off. Trans rebuilt 3 times at diff shops, all pros that ive dealt with alot. Slave cylinder and line and clutch....everything. It makes me sick that after all that work and money i can barely use it as a DD, never again will i own one or tell someone that its a "decent truck transmission"

 

If you are having it rebuilt and get it back like that then you are going to the wrong place to have it done and that is the probablem. you would be surprised how many transmission shops are like that they replace the broken gears and put it back together with the same old bearings and syncros and dont know how to lode the bearings. you would be having the same truble with the ZF, it is even touchier to reassemble. if you shop for your rebuild based on price this is what you will get most of the time they do a half a**ed repair and call it rebuilt.

 

Rebuilt means every part is within factory specs in other words it should function as a new one . that is not what you are getting dont blame the transmission for cheep service. that is the job of the shop to take a lemon and make a peach

 

I have had my M5OD rebuilt 4 times in less than 80,000 miles in my 93 F150, 302, twice by Ford dealers. It just failed again today and I am ready to switch to a ZF5 HD tranny. What is required to make the switch?

 

that tranmission soured me on my 90 F150. not enough low-end in 1st to be any good, and not enough of a reduction in 5th to make it OK on the freeway (3.55 gears with the 300 inline).

after replacing the tranny and clutch, i got rid of the truck. i needed something i could trust to get me back and forth to school (300 miles one way. long term GF back home), so i got rid of it for a Focus.

2nd time around i went with the F250 just to get the ZF. i don't beat on this truck (nor did i beat on the F150), but this truck has yet to give me any issues whatsoever and it has double the miles the F150 had when i bought it.

after researching that tranny on my F150, i found charts of top 10 worst trannies online as rated by tranny shopd. guess which one was near the top? you betcha, 2nd only to some French Peuguot POS put in Jeeps back in the 80s/90s.

if you ever have to junk the tranny, ditch the Mazda and swap in the ZF. aside form having to swap the driveshaft, it's basically a bolt-in replacement. i'd HIGHLY recommend it.

Mike

 

I've owned two trucks with the M5OD and driven two others for work in college and never had trouble from any of them. My personal truck did get the trans rebuilt at about 190k miles when the fluid leaked out the plugs on top of the trans, but that is at least partially my fault for not checking it often enough. Even if it had just failed, I couldn't fault the trans at that mileage. None of the others ever needed touched. They were used to haul firewood out of the back 40 2-3 ricks at a time. They were beaten on hard. My truck also gets hammered because I drive it like I stole it about 90% of the time and it's had more 1/4 mile passes on it than I can count. I personally feel like most failures of the M5OD are due to neglect and repeat failure are due to poor assembly.

If you don't have enough low end with a 300 and 3.55 gears you are in need of a 3/4 ton or larger truck anyway. I agree that it could use more OD, but it certainly doesn't lack low end. With 3.08's mine will easily pull anything a 1/2 truck has any business hooking to.

 

Mine's just fine with 212,000 miles on it. The rubber plugs aren't even seeping yet. I change the fluid every 5-10K miles and treat it pretty nicely. Like others, it's not my first choice for a tranny, but it's fine for what I use it for.

A friend of mine had one in a 96 F-150 that had shift forks eaten down to nothing twice before he got rid of it. It had around 120,000 on it. This truck was beat hard but I could still tell something wasn't quite right in the trans, probably causing the failure.

 

Well, since I've replied to most of the threads Sn0wMan has replied to I guess I'll add my .02cents. I have two trucks with the M5OD tranny, neither are 4wd though, so I can't really say anything about mudding or rock crawling or anything like that, but I have pulled a pretty good bit with my DD and the M5OD hasn't gave me any problems whatsoever...especially taking off. I can't get over 15MPH in first with mine (3.55 gears and 235's), and it's great for a heavy load. It has been rebuilt, though...I will say that, but it was rebuilt at 200K miles. I don't really see that as a huge failure, and It was before I got it. My dad's made 4 trips to Iowa and back (where he was working) and it never gave him any trouble except for at the pump, lol.

The other truck is the exact same, except for with 2.73 gears and about 10 more MPG. My dad bought this one brand new and has put some huge loads on it also, much more than my truck that has the towing package. I remember when he first bought it and we went on vacation. We were loading up firewood with it, and some of the logs we were putting in the back of that truck stuck out 5 feet past the bed. By the time we were done loading it the frame was almost touching the bump stops, but everything held up great.

I can't say that I haven't heard of problems out of the M5OD's, but I'll be the first to tell you that their not that weak of a trany... or junk. I'd take one of these "boat anchors" over an SROD anyday.

Matt

 

lots to read there.

M5OD is great tranny.
Lubrication is the most important part of it though.
I run 20w50 in mine.
ATF is to thin for it.

One mechanic told me to part it on a hill so you can get more fluid in it then its suppose to have. I overfill and throw the plug in quick.
Havn't lost a drop.

5th is .71 or .74 ratio. The ZF isn't that tall I do not think, from the one I drove.
Mazda 1st gear is touchy, and a bit tough if your clutch bushing for the pedal is wore out. I"m haveing trouble with mine. Going to have to buy aftermarket kit for it.

 

Oh yes, forgot about that one... I drive one occasionally at work and it has to be the worst transmission, as far as the way it's geared, ever. Never had a single problem with it though.