Hi y'all,

I'm making a thread to document my experience on doing a manual swap for my truck

A little bit of background: My truck is a 1995 F-150 5.8 2wd E4OD Extended Cab Short Bed. I've been having major problems with the transmission which has stemmed back to a combination of mechanical and electrical problems. I'm sick and tired of dealing with the auto and I've dreamed of this truck being a manual for a while. I'm somewhat of a novice mechanic, but I've done a lot of smaller things to my truck (and I've dropped the tranny before). This will be my first major project and I wanted to document it as well as provide a do-not guide to anyone attempting to do this. I work full time so there's only 2 days where I can work on it all day, but I'm hoping this doesn't take more than 1-2 weeks. This is also a budget swap and i'm not swapping the wiring harness or the computer (unless I can find one for decent price).

Day 0

What I've bought: (all shopping should be done under f-250 and f-350 as the f150 never came with a manual for the 5.8)

• Transmission (ZF 5S-42 from a 1993 f-250 with a 5.8) $400
• 2WD ZF5 crossmember, manual steering wheel cover, shifter, new pedals. from marketplace $75 bucks
• 1995 f250 extended cab long bed driveshaft from marketplace. $80 bucks
• Clutch kit, flywheel, transmission mount, master and slave cylinder, clutch lines, manual tranny starter, pilot bearing, clutch position switch. All from rock auto $613
• U-Joint and center support bearing from O'Reillys $72

Ive done some cleaning for the old transmission and driveshaft as well as some measurements. Point of note, some aftermarket slave cylinders have their hydralic connection point too long to be able to slide out of the transmission. If thats the case, just cut it off.

I found conflicting information on driveshafts as most people who do this swap do it for a 4wd, which ford made a extended cab SB for, however they didnt make one with the ZF5 for 2wd. They did however make one for 2wd Extended cab LB. I couldnt find info on if it is the front section of the rear driveshaft thats the same across cab styles or if its the rear. Turns out it is the rear. Still works out as sending it in to be shortened and balanced is still $300 bucks cheaper than lengthened.

Tomorrow ill start getting into the meat and potatoes of the swap

 

I had to lengthen the rear section of the driveshaft because the larger 10.25 axle in the F250 puts the pinion a few inches farther forward than the 8.8. It might be worth mocking up once you get the transmission in place before having the driveshaft shop do their thing.

 

swap the pedal assemble into the cab first.
this way you can still drive the truck until you get time to put the trans in.

 

Day 1

Today was less productive than I wanted, mainly because it was too hot to actually be able to do any work during the day. God bless Texas

I started off by removing the old pedals, fairly quick and easy, as well as removing the block off plate for the master cylinder. I then pulled back the carpet and removed the sound deadening I put on the floor a year ago to remove the floor pan. I was surprised when I saw that the floor pan was not removeable, contrary to what most people have said. I believe it may be that if your truck was available with manual as an option (4.9, 5.0, 7.3, 460, and f250/350 5.8) then it will have the removeable section. the 5.8 F150 does not have it removable. I does have grooves and mock up holes to cut into it, which I will do tomorrow.

Next I went to work on getting the carrier bearing off of the old driveshaft, which is a pain in the ***. I was able to chisel the outside bearing off, but the bit that is actually press fitted is damn near impossible. I tried to cut it, but i chickened out and called up a guy I know who will let me use his press tomorrow to take it off and put the new one on. Also point of note, F150 and F250 5.8 carrier bearings are the same size, 35mm, NOT 40mm. In addition, f150s and f250s slip yokes do not fit on each other. You have to put an f250 yoke on a f150 rear. Im pretty sure they are the same size u-joint, 1330.

By then, it was far too hot to be able to do anything and I took a siesta, afterwards I jacked the truck up and dropped the driveshaft. I disconnected everything to do with the transmission and will be dropping that tomorrow early.

 

Don't think there was ever an F150 5.8 manual factory, so why would they have a removable floor for the automatic trrans? guess I'm not most people.