Hold my Coffee ! another manual transmission swap thread

[cynicwanderer]

I have wanted to convert my E4OD to a 5 or six speed. My thought was to buy a doner F250/F350, I would presume 7.3 IDI or PSD engines would have the same transmission to bolt up to my 1995 PSD. That would basically give me everything I would need to perform the swap. I know there would be modification to perform on the take off parts, the biggest question is how to mock up the sifter as it would sit behind the drivers seat.
Was a doner vehicle ever an idea that you had? Have you set up the shifter by chance? What other parts work from a truck that you can install? Example would be flywheel, clutch etc.
I skimmed over the post, if I missed any of these questions I apologize in advance.

as far as I know, the things that do not fit from the truck for this gen van, is the clutch/brake pedal quadrant, the cross members and probably the driveline. the driveline would need to be shortened or lengthened, depending on the wheelbase of the truck it came from. I have not mocked up the shifter location, but I already know that I will need to bend the shift shaft based on measurements or make a custom shaft. I have a combination of driveshafts that will be close, but I expect might still have to shortened/lengthen once I have it installed. if you have a PSD, the manual PCM might swap over with minimal wire harness changes, but I don't know for certain.

cost was an issue for me and I would have preferred the ZF6, but I was able to find ZF5s for pretty cheap around here so that is what I went with. I don't plan to go PSD and chip/tune it on this van, so I'm not too concerned about the torque challenged IDI I currently have. I might some day turbo it, but it will be a mild tune, mostly for fuel economy. as far as I know the bolt pattern is the same for the IDI/PSD.

the biggest question at the start was whether I wanted to 4x4 the built while I was at it, but now I'm not too interested in actually doing a front axle swap. I will use a ZF5 4x4 transmission, but with the E-brake instead of transfer case.

 

[limatangobravo]

Always good to have your van prepped for a solid axle swap just in case. I already have 4 wheel drive, but when the E40D goes out the manual swap will be the same if not less than what I would pay for a built slush box.
A friend of mine had a straight six in his E150 with a manual trans from the factory. I have yet to see another like his on the road or at salvage yards to pull the pedal assembly out.
I appreciate the information, looking forward to watching your project completed and on the road peeling out!

 

[cynicwanderer]

Always good to have your van prepped for a solid axle swap just in case. I already have 4 wheel drive, but when the E40D goes out the manual swap will be the same if not less than what I would pay for a built slush box.
A friend of mine had a straight six in his E150 with a manual trans from the factory. I have yet to see another like his on the road or at salvage yards to pull the pedal assembly out.
I appreciate the information, looking forward to watching your project completed and on the road peeling out!

some of the pre '92 came with optional manual and the pedal quadrants from the trucks fit those as well. but the '92 and later are different in that respect, so a little harder swap... I have been looking for time to finish my swap, since the Van will be off the road for potentially a few weeks. Over Christmas some drunk hit our parked Accord in front of the house, which was going to be my daily driver while I worked on the van and we're still waiting for the insurance to figure out if they will fix/buy/??? I'm so done with my E4OD... when I came back from Baja it was acting strange and the codes it was throwing didn't make sense, so I swapped the PCM for a $40 Ebay buy and it has been behaving better for the time being... I did just bought a beater Civic for my daily, so hopefully nothing else will come up and I can actually finish the swap. I need the van the first weekend of April for a race.

 

[cynicwanderer]

I have wanted to convert my E4OD to a 5 or six speed. My thought was to buy a doner F250/F350, I would presume 7.3 IDI or PSD engines would have the same transmission to bolt up to my 1995 PSD. That would basically give me everything I would need to perform the swap. I know there would be modification to perform on the take off parts, the biggest question is how to mock up the sifter as it would sit behind the drivers seat.
Was a doner vehicle ever an idea that you had? Have you set up the shifter by chance? What other parts work from a truck that you can install? Example would be flywheel, clutch etc.
I skimmed over the post, if I missed any of these questions I apologize in advance.

sorry I haven't been on here for a while... I was able to locate the hole for the shifter at the base of the tunnel on my van (see photo). I measure where the shifter was relate to the front edge of the bell housing and then just measure it in the van from the back of the motor adapter plate and then drilled a hole as a reference. then I measure how much room I might need for the shifter mounting plate and enlarged it with a cutt off wheel. one could use a jig saw. I will probably look for a aftermarket shifter boot on Summitracing or Jegs when I get to that point. it might be farther back on earlier vans.

I used a SMF flywheel conversion kit from Lucas, but the dual mass flywheel and clutch from a F-250 should work just as well. basically, the ZF5 (S5-42) and 7.3l IDI is plug and play. The PSD usually had the beefier S5-47 version of the ZF5 or even the ZF6. I didn't use a donor truck, but collected parts from the junk yard from various trucks. especially, various driveshaft components.

at this point, the heavy work is done and all that is left, is fab'ing/mod'ing a cross member and getting the driveshaft place to shorten and balance the upper driveshaft piece... I also need a crossmember for the center bearing support, but I think I can use the old E4OD crossmember there.

 

[cynicwanderer]

I made some progress in the last month or so on my build. the van started developing a noise over the winter and as I was trying to diagnose the source, decided that if I was going to pull the E4OD to check the flexplate, it might as well stay out and start the swap.


turns out the flex plate was cracked anyway.


this the lucas clutch assembly for the SMF, and the flywheel already installed.

since I had the E4OD and driveline out of the van, I marked up the lengths and mocked up the new driveline, to see where they fall.



next, cut the hole for the shifter assembly, which also makes a nice way to winch the transmission on top of the jack I used to install the transmission. I guess in a pinch it could be used on a roadside clutch replacement, as well.



at this point, the transmission is installed. still need to fab the crossmember(s), shorten the driveshaft and attack the punchlist of a bunch of little details...

 

[cynicwanderer]

I ran into a snag with my plan to use the 4x4 transmission and Ebrake assembly. there is no clearance between the Ebrake and the body crossmember, so the transmission will sit way too low.



Plan B, swap out the 4x4 transmission with the 2WD transmission, since it's shorter and doesn't interfere with anything. the driveshaft now has to be longer, rather than shortened, which meansa new tube.



off to the driveshaft guy with measurements and my 2 piece drive shaft from a donor F-250.

 

[cynicwanderer]

Well, it's in. I installed the 2WD ZF5, measured the driveshafts so that the center bearing will line up with the crossmember that also holds the gas tank. Sent my junk yard driveshafts off to the driveline place and got them back in three days, refurbished, adjusted and even painted.


Install the clutch pedal, slave cylinder and bleed the chydraulics...

 

[Ozarksdiver]

Wanderer, im curious if you were/are happy with the clutch pedal placement? Can you elaborate on the clutch pedal and its mods specifically? I have read your thread a few times and would really like this swap on my van. My van is a 99 7.3 12 passenger short box van. I appreciate all the details in this thread, thanks for your efforts here. There are very few posts/ threads on this and specifically going wo 4x4.