Ok so today i get a call frm a friend that broke down in Clearwater,FL . He goes on to tell me that the transmission in his long wheel base f series flatbed truck with the 7.3 idi puked out all the oil (trans oil) n would no longer engage and well that he needed someone to tow his 30ft gooseneck back home. lol n well i couldnt really resist....cause i have just recently put in my ram air setup kinda like daves and installed my 3" downpipe frm banks and the 4"straight through exhaust, and my hydroboost...lol and my dually adapter kit on my truck and wait im not done my after market overload springs so i wanted to see how it performed. Well i gotta say i was impressed i still have to turn up the ip a bit n drop in the K&N but it did pretty good for pulling the truck on the trailer.
Heres a pix.... my friend on the left hand side is in the pinestraw bussiness so i had to help him deliver his load then toss his truck on the trailer sorry i didnt take a pix of that

truck and trailer


but the question i have is about his transmission ... i found a tranny from a 97 powerstroke jus wondering if it is one in the same or totally different?

 

<a href="http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i94/jcortez863/truck%20stuff/?action=view&current=truckntrailer.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i94/jcortez863/truck%20stuff/th_truckntrailer.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>

 

Nice truck you have there, how did you do the dually conversion - just bolt adapters to the axle, then bolt the dually wheels to the adapters? What are your plans for fenders?

On the trans question - the PSD trans has a different bellhousing bolt pattern from the IDI trans, IIRC the lower 4 bolts match but the upper two are a bit higher on the PSD than they are on the IDI - you will need a stepped adapter piece that first bolts to the IDI engine, then the trans bolts to it. Which is actually how you make a ZF-6 fit an IDI.

 

I thought the 7.3 PSDs had an identical bellhousing as the IDI's?

 

So did I but that's what I get for doing my own thinking.

 

Thanks! the adapters are i guess some what difficult to explain but lets see if i can paint a picture .... it comes with 8 extended wheel studs a set for each side of course ,that u bolt on directly to ur factory studs then u have what i would say is a 3-3.5" aluminum spacer type deal that slides over the extended studs then u slide the first dually wheel over wich lets u clear the tire from rubbing or hitting on leaf springs ....But the dually wheels are not ur factory ford dually wheels they are an after market type deal that has the center section just a bit smaller then ford factory wheels sot that when u do put them on they sit on the axle n not just ride on the studs... i got these from my dads old f250 gasser ...n when he did use the truck to haul it never gave um a problem and if im not mistaken he got them back in 2000-2001....and as for the fenders well they sell an aftermarket bolt on set for 500 dollar a pair but ive been trying to see if i can find some fenders around here for a bit cheaper ...i dont really wanna get rid of the whole bed n jus replace it because when i got the truck it came with the hide away gooseneck hitch ...
And thanks for clearing that up about the transmission...i wasnt positive i seen a decent priced one on craigslist so i figured id ask before i told him to jump on that deal.

 

I bet you are using Chevy dual wheels, as those have a center hole that is just slightly smaller than the Ford and Dodge wheels - they wouldn't clear the wheel flange on the hub where the factory wheel bolts up, but they do clear the hub itself, so I'm pretty sure that's what you got. Tis all good tho, as long as it works who cares where it came from, I heck I'm running a hydroboost that came from a Suburban SUV

On the fenders, have you thought about getting some pieces of diamond plated sheets and then just bending them in a half-circle and bolting them to the lip of your current fenders? Just add some marker lights to those, and there ya go, decent looking fenders on the cheap

 

Lol yeah ive actually seen that done... but i dunno im still really holding out on orginal looking fenders... And actually i took some adapter hubs of a chevy truck in the junkyard that ima have lathed down in the center to clear the 4wheel drive hubs up front so that i can have dually steelies in the front ... maybe in the future ill add the 19.5's that american eagle wheel sells that bolt right on ... but i dunno thats still a while away lol...

 

Here's a suggestion - trace down an old P30 panel/step van made by GM, they have 19.5" steel wheels and have the correct bolt pattern to bolt to our Fords. Their center hole may or may not clear the hubs on a factory Ford dually axle, but with your setup they should bolt right up.

 

Thanks for the tip....i will diff try n see what i can find...

 

When I put the ZF5 in my 85,it came from a 92 donor that my son saved from the crushers. Writen on it was '95 powerstroke' like you see if you get parts from a salvage yard, so evidently it had been replaced in the 92. What I'm getting at is the transmission from the 7.3 strokes WILL fit the IDIs. I have heard the 6.0 bolt pattern is different, but I have no hard evidence.

 

actually my friend called me back and was wondering how much that adapter piece if one could be bought would actually run... so the question is does it fit with out an adapter or does it require it again tranny is an automatic e40d i guess from a 97 powerstroke and his is an 93 idi... i thought with they were the same trans?

 

The 97 tranny should bolt right in his 93.

 

Right, I stand corrected - the early PSD trans will bolt up to the IDI, in case of the E4OD however the torque converter will need some work because the IDIs use 4 bolts for connecting it to the flexplate, and the PSDs use 6 bolts. I don't know if you can just take the converter from the IDI trans and install it in the PSD trans, but I know some people have modified their IDI flex plate to accept the 6-bolt PSD converter.

 

hmmm...im wondering if they can jus use the idi's converter with the newer transmission i would think so but would it have any problems or issues...hmmm