The top two bolts line up. Take the adapter off the back of a pickup engine, bolt it to the front of the zf. Now use that as a guide to drill the holes
will a 460 zf bolt to a 7.3??
- Thread starter G.W BUFFALO
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junk
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This is a pic showing the adapter from a Pickup/van 7.3 laid on top of the ZF-5. The top two bolt holes need to be drilled to 1/2". They match up with the adapter and can be bolted during drilling. Then use the remaining holes as a drill guide. It's really simple. I used a mag drill, but a hand drill would work fine. My build thread in my signature has more details. It's towards the end.
Copy from my build.
Drilled the 5-speed I bought so it will bolt to a Diesel.
Used a magnetic based drill that attached to the metal adapter plate to do most of the holes. Lots of ways to do this, but when you work for a machine shop you have access to some pretty nice tools.
1. Drilled out the two top holes in transmission with a hand drill using a 1/2" bit.
2. Bolted adapter plate to the transmission through the two top holes that were enlarged. I made a couple 1/2-13 nuts with a chamfer on them similar to a lug nut to center the bolts in the holes on the adapter plate.
3. I drilled dowel pin holes using a V code drill bit. It's a .377" drill bit. So just slightly larger than a 3/8" dowel.
4. I put a couple 3/8" bolts through the dowel holes to help hold the plate down while I drill the remaining holes.
5. I used the mag drill with a 17/32 bit (.531") to drill the remaining 4 holes in the transmission. I did have to remove the 3/8" bolts at times to give room for the mag drill base.
Jeremy
jwalterus
Made in America
you should do a new thread with just that post so it can be added to the tech section and we can avoid this in the future 
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Heath
1984International
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Thankyou so much! Awesome
Laine D
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I’m not trying to hijack this thread even though it’s an oldie. Are the wide ratio gears bad on a diesel?
Randy Bush
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No they are not , It is what I have in my 93 IDIT dually. Both wide and close where used in diesels, believe though the close was more common.
Depends how you use the truck.
Ultimately you can get a heavier load rolling with the wide, but has the penalty of big rpm gaps between shifts.
The close lets you stay in the powerband better, with smaller rpm gaps. Tends to be nicer to drive. More like gears 2-6 in a newer 6 speed diesel truck.
The puzzler is why Ford decided on unique close-ratios for a diesel that revved to 4k, when Dodge stuck with wide ratios with the cummins revving to only 3k rpm.
carsonlhammond
Full Access Member
Depends how you use the truck.
Ultimately you can get a heavier load rolling with the wide, but has the penalty of big rpm gaps between shifts.
The close lets you stay in the powerband better, with smaller rpm gaps. Tends to be nicer to drive. More like gears 2-6 in a newer 6 speed diesel truck.
The puzzler is why Ford decided on unique close-ratios for a diesel that revved to 4k, when Dodge stuck with wide ratios with the cummins revving to only 3k rpm.
I think its cause the cummins can pull the low end lugs, the idi cannot.
I haven't tried it. The reading I did years ago led me to believe you swapped all the guts, or changed the front half of the case. You may have to stay all S42 or all S47 (i.e. not mix and match) not 100% sure though.
I think this is one of guys who actually did it.
https://expeditionportal.com/forum/members/charlieaarons.760/
Laine D
Full Access Member
Are you running a 460 zf5 on your 7.3?
No I ran a 460 on my diesel zf for a couple years
