I have a 95 f250 4x4 w/ a 351 and e4od tranny. The truck is on its second transmission and has less than 140 000km (87,500mi). The tranny in it now is significantly weaker than when installed, but all the shops I've taken it to say its fine(Thats what they kept saying about the first one right up until I had to use low range to get moving from a level stoplight). I think it will last to spring but is there a but tranny I can swap in. I seen a few posting for auto to man and am not against having a manual tranny. I use my truck for plowing and hauling a gooseneck trailer(don't know the wieght but is significant). I bought an auto because it is a work truck and other people drive it and I didn't want the burning the clutches out of a manual tranny (stupid me didn't there were people dumb enough out there to be hard on an auto, the trailer brake are on a switch that must be shut off before they will release, so in overdive and with a fully loaded trailer with parking brakes on he proceeded to completely floor the accelerator for a solid minute without the truck budging, then released the gas and floors it again{until I opened the door and drug him out}). I do all I can to make sure that I'm the only one that drives it.

 

I have been looking into an auto to manual tranny swap with no real luck. There are a few tranny choices there is a mazda 5-speed I think the part number is a m50d or something like that but I hear that they are really weak and they have an overdrive but no granny low. There is also the zf s542 which a which is a 5spd and has a 4.14 first gear and a .73 overdrive and is supposed to be a pretty good manual, they used them in hd f-250's and f-350(I think) but it will bolt right up to the 351W. Lastly there is a manual four speed which I do not know much about cause I do not want to give up my overdrive or not have a granny low. So I looked into the zf s542 and found that it will bolt up but then you have to move and modify the crossmember support for the transmission, then get the transfer case for the zf s542 because the e40d t-case has a different output/input(?) shaft. Also since the E40d is electronic you mostly likely have to buy the manual computer from ford which I was quoted $250 for but I have been told that the automatic computer will run without the auto plugged in also. Then you would have to lengthen your rear driveshaft and your front if you have fourwheel drive obviously because the manula is not the same size as the automatic. Oh yeah and don't forget the clutch and pedal assembly, even though there is a hole in the firewall for the clutch it is another expense for the swap. Overall I gave up on the manual and am planning on having my E40D rebuilt with steel gears and instead of aluminum as well as bigger clutch packs and a shift kit(less slippage). Most of the info above is from word of mouth and miscellaneous tranny shops so I'm no expert but that's what I know, good luck. Alex