Crossmember ZF5 Help

[mightykp]

Working my way through E340d swap. I know it'a a 95 powerstroke, but the IDI guys know more... here's the link https://www.oilburners.net/threads/zf5-swap.94413/#post-1157938
a 2wd ZF5 crossmember doesn't fit a 1995 F50?
Does Ford not pre-drill mounting holes on frame for all trannys, regardless of what's going in? Lining up a crossmember for the stock zf5 and my frame lacks the single hole for ZF in bottom of frame. Or am I WAY off in where the tranny meets the crossmember?
In this pic what exactly is that weight in the IDI ZF5 tranny mount? okay to run without it attached?
Without a functioning crossmember for the ZF, i purchased one off EBAY for a 95/96 powerstroke... are the crossmembers different even though trannys from different years work?
Any help or input is GREATLY appreciated...

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I can say that the only times I remember seeing one of those weights is with a C6. I call them head bangers because they hang so low and it's easy to hit one with your head while using a creeper under the truck.

 

[miked]

The cross member i used came from a 96 power stroke f250
It was an L shaped cross member.
Not sure what it came from originally as the 96 had been converted from auto 2wd to zf5 4x4 before I acquired it

I had to shorten it a little to get the L side to clamp flat to my frame and had to drill the holes for it in my frame to make it work .

Also had to move the sloted holes sideways a little to to bring the engine tranny centerline back. Probably because of my shortening the one side of the bracket. Which makes me think it may have come from an auto as the auto is longer and the frame is a little wider where the auto frame member would be

I had to modify and measure carefully to get everything correct. So far my drive line seems to run nice and smooth.

I used a digital angle finder that was made to set angles on a table saw blade, they are not very expensive, along with a 12 inch piece of key stock to make it more accurate on the drive shaft tubing.

It could be zeroed on the truck frame and the rest of the angles read directly as per the Ford manual. You will need to check a power stroke manual for the angles as I am not sure it would be the same as for an idi

I used the bottom of the starter to set up the engine angle.
I verified the starter using the face of the yoke on the transmission before I bolted on the drive shafts,
Hopefully this works on a power stroke also
Then I measured the drive shaft angles and shimmed everthing as required.

The thread I attached to your original thread goes through the rest of what I had to do.

Hopefully some one can point you to the right cross member,

But you may have to modify what you can get and I share this to show it can be done and hopefully give you some insight on how to do it .

 

[mightykp]

Thanks, Mike. Looks like it might not be as straight-forward as i hoped.
Surprised the f450 ZF5 2wd didn't look anything like the older IDI I have. Waiting on the 95/96 powerstroke crossmember and will attach pic of it vs the other two.

 

[mightykp]

Also,
the frames of Auto vs Manual tranny are different? Hope not.
Mike, you said the frame where auto crossmember goes is wider? And you drilled that bottom of frame center hole?
Slowly the swap grows in difficulty...

 

[miked]

F250 f350 pickup frames are the same but they do narrow as they go towards the motor, resulting in a slightly wider automatic cross member than a zf cross member. (At least that is what I found with the ones I had)
I only had to shorten it somewhere about 1/4 to 1/2 inch to get it to not contact the inside radius of the truck frame.

Someone with an f450 would know better but I believe they are narrower between the frame rails then our trucks

 

[miked]

The cross member i used was bolted to the side of the frame on one end and sat on the bottom lip of the frame at the other end .
There were no Ford holes that matched up to this cross member in the location where I needed it.
I had to clamp it in place and drill for all the holes.
It looked good, until I bolted the drive shaft up. Then I realized the drive line angles were not right.

 

[KansasIDI]

Here to confirm, F-Superduty crossmembers are different and not compatible with other models, from what I have seen.

 

[mightykp]

Kansas IDI... you are definitely most correct...
here are the crossmembers.
Top Automatic e340
Second is the f450
two lower ones are the zf5 from 1990 and 1995 (lighter brown one)
don't know why but the bottom one with that funky weight had the center tranny mount holes a tad off.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[mightykp]

Miked... its true. The e340 crossmember is very close to the one I used. Your angle info and work required can be done... with effort.
Now for those frame holes.
The auto frame hole is bigger. I thought originally the zf5 wouldn't work with the original bolts. But it all fit. And the auto truck had the holes for zf5 drilled correctly.