Gettin' pissed over a ZF-5 install

[BlindAmbition]

Used ones available on ebay for $200ish

Midwest Trans has a short throw kit available, gotta call for pricing

ZF Manual Transmissions Short Throw Shifter — Midwest Transmission Center

Having issues or shifting problems with your ZF gas or diesel transmission ? To improve shifting for either the ZF 5 speed and ZF 6 speed we have developed a ZF manual transmissions short throw shifter kit. The Midwest Transmission kit is basically changing the shift lever pivot point. Whi

www.midwesttrans.com

 

[Nero]

I would try to source a used one.
When I was in Arizona, mine snapped between the two bolt holes. No idea why, only had 75k on it at the time.
Had a friend there weld it back together for me. Was the strangest failure.

Tell you what, it's not fun trying to shift with vice grips on the snout of the pivot.

 

[John_piv]

Gave mine the old toaster treatment with an oxyacetylene and reshaped it a little bit. It's in the right spot for now, but will likely look into a correct one in the future. Not 100% sure why it would be bent like that at all, unless maybe it was in a swamp buggy at some point.

 

[John_piv]

All right, so the shifter ordeal is solved. But the sh*t soup keeps getting thicker. Fired her up to get it moving, and that thing rattles like it's trying to disassemble itself. My guess is the flywheel that I used in the conversion has 7.3 weights on it (Flywheel is for a 90 so all the clutch parts match). I did notice the flywheel had a weight of some type on it that my original one did not. Can I put a 7.3 harmonic balancer / counterbalance on the front to balance it out? Or have I got to start all over again?

 

[BlindAmbition]

Is it a dual mass flywheel?

 

[John_piv]

Is it a dual mass flywheel?

No, solid

 

[BlindAmbition]

I have a LUK 07225 kit on mine. Had a bit of rollover noise so I took off the shift stub and overfilled it by a quart or so as many posts advised to do. No noticeable noise now.

This is in an 86 6.9

 

[Jesus Freak]

All right, so the shifter ordeal is solved. But the sh*t soup keeps getting thicker. Fired her up to get it moving, and that thing rattles like it's trying to disassemble itself. My guess is the flywheel that I used in the conversion has 7.3 weights on it (Flywheel is for a 90 so all the clutch parts match). I did notice the flywheel had a weight of some type on it that my original one did not. Can I put a 7.3 harmonic balancer / counterbalance on the front to balance it out? Or have I got to start all over again?

They literally make that much noise. There's a recent thread about this. It's called "zf5 gear roll over noise" the dude's got a video of how loud it is. DON'T PUT 90W IN IT TO MAKE IT QUIET. It has to have ATF for lubrication.

 

[Nero]

Say if it ain't a dual mass, they can be quite noisy. They get quieter if you push the clutch in. Just do that

 

[John_piv]

My original transmission that was in here was also solid flywheel, I know they make noise. This isn't noise. This is shaking. It feels like it's going to throw the trim off of the radio bezel.

 

[Jesus Freak]

You might have an issue then.........it could have something to do with why the shifter is bent.

 

[Nero]

So just to be clear, it vibrates like nobody's business just sitting still, idle in neutral?

 

[John_piv]

So just to be clear, it vibrates like nobody's business just sitting still, idle in neutral?

Yeah, gets worse with speed; but it's still pretty rank at idle

 

[Nero]

Sounds like clutch or flywheel is out of balance then. Yikes.

 

[Rdnck84_03]

That will be an interesting project.

I hope so. I just wish it was a bricknose truck, that's my favorite interior. I'm not a big fan of the aero interior, but gotta work with what I can find. Other that the gauge cluster and driver door panel, the interior is almost perfect.

Bullnose is my favorite body style, and the clip and bed are pretty rough on this thing so it only makes sense to build what I like.

Now I just need to find time between kids, work and daily farm operations to work on it, if I'm lucky it may get done before I get planted.

James