One of those days. I bought a manual transmission ford because of there notoriously bad automatics. But now Ive had my truck 4 months and the 6 spd manual tranny is pretty much down to a 4 spd... This morning was accelerating accross an intersection quickly, shifted from 2nd to 3rd in a hurry and something just felt very wrong. It wasn't a bad shift, I wasn't trying to power shift it or something stuppid. I admit sometimes I shift a little to fast for it, and I hear little grinds here and there, but this was just the kind of shift you do when you are in a hurry.
So then i go to take it out of 3rd and it doesn't really want to come out. I should say it does come out of gear, but it doens't slide out like it should. I could tell something was clearly wrong. But it went into 4th ok. I ended up stopping in a parking lot to check it out. Bad news.
reverse, 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th are just like normal. No problems. But 2nd and 3rd are hard to get into and out of. Its hard to explain how it feels. But Its defenently not right. It would have to guess that the synchros are gone. I then went to oil can henry's to have the tranny fluid changed. I had it changed like 2 months ago, but I wanted to see if the fluid had metal or debrie in it. The oil tech guy said the fluid didn't look to bad.
So guys.
Whats going on? Am I going to be stranded tomorrow or is it going to last me a few months? There are no transmission shops within 2 hours of here. Should I order a rebuilt one? Should I have mine rebuilt?
Opinions?
THANKS A LOT FOR THE INFO.

 

The factory pilot bearing is a POS. When it fails, the input shaft can wobble and get the gears out of alignment in the trans. That's usually what goes wrong in the ZF6, but it could be the trans. The fix for the pilot bearing is to replace it with a Kevlar* pilot bushing that will pretty much last forever. You have to pull the clutch to replace it, so the best course of action in that case is to put in a LUK or South Bend clutch at the same time.

Somebody else might chime in. KWIKORDEAD had a pilot bearing failure that screwed up his trans pretty good so hopefully he can add something.

 

Well the 2-3 problem sounds like a synchro to me. If your not pulling any weight you could try just starting off in 2nd to get you by until you can get it rebuilt/replaced.

That's one of the problems with a used truck. You never know what your getting. My tranny has never given me any problems, but it's always been mine.

 

anyone recomend any good companies to order rebuilt manual trannies from?

 

Sounds like a broken shift fork. One ear fell off and you now have half a fork doing the work and it makes the syncro slider bind. Nothing to do but get it rebuilt, little bits of metal are already through everything and you need to tear it down.
I bought my transmission from a place called Fleet Pride a little over a year ago. They are a ZF outlet, which is the supplier of our trannies to Ford. Not Fleet Pride but ZF. At the time they were asking $2400.00 plus core charge. I forget how much the core was, but it was substantial. They wanted the old one back!
The tranny arrived in a big box, filled with ATF, ready to bolt in.
I recommend using a tranny jack, or four football players for helpers, they are HEAVY.
Enter your state to find a local outlet on this web page.
http://www.fleetpride.com/fp_p/branch.html

.
And I second the pilot bushing upgrade. If you can afford it, get a new clutch at the same time, but at the VERY least, get rid of that roller bearing cheap excuse of a pilot bearing and put the Kevlar bushing in there. It's what killed a perfectly good transmission on my truck.
VERY expensive lesson!

 

FleetPride is good advice from Kwik.

Get to know your local guys. Someday you may really need them, and they have a habit of coming through.

Your truck may be the smallest thing in their parking lot, however...

They don't "have a thing" for pickup drivers, and overall, they're pretty good guys.

Pop

 

Yes.
When I was talking to the counter man about some questions I had he took the time to call ZF, get the straight scoop, and then get back to me.
The issue that I had was I was wondering if I killed the tranny by towing the trailer with the Tow/Haul tune. I told him before I bought the tranny that the engine was stronger than stock and would that be an issue. He asked ZF the same question and ZF told him that it shouldn't have been a problem, the trannies are strong enough to take the added power.
Since then I found out it was the pilot bearing, and the new tranny has been flawless.
If I ever have a need that they can fill, I will be calling them.

 

Ok. Thanks for the answers. There is a fleetpride about 2 hours from here, in Aracata CA. Im gonna call them today. I was hopping I could find a rebuilt one for cheaper, but you get what you pay for. And the truck only has about 170,000 so the engine will be good for a long while.

 

Let us know how it all turns out.

 

Well I called the nearest fleetpride dealership and they were less than helpfull... It must just be this one. The guy kept saying, "we just do "big trucks." I probably got the wrong person on the phone. Anyway I did extensive searching for rebuilt transmissions, and I found some very professional companies that will sell them for about 2300. But I found a transmission shop about two hours away that has a great reputation and is willing to just fix what is broken, not rebuild the whole thing. AAMCO transmissions. And one of the employees has the same truck! Good news in my book. So I'm hoping I can be in and out of there in less than a grand. On an unrelated note, I just ordered a hydrogen injection from ebay. I just don't have time to make my own. And this one has some good features. Its called the HYDRO SUPER 2. Look it up.

 

I Used Aamco On My Rx7 When I Was Younger And They Were A Bunch Of Lying Thieving ****'s (riverside).......i Personally Would Not Use Them (my .02 Anyway)

 

if you're near smell-a there is a place out in the valley calley "just sticks" down by the San Fernando airport

used to be a reliable place when I lived there 5 years ago, not the cheapest, but the best (inexpensive).