89 F150 manual transmission noise

Hi,

The truck is an '89 F150 4WD with 302 and a 5-speed manual
transmission. I'm assuming it is the Mazda tranny (Mazda M-50D, would
this be R1 or R2?), since I did find a picture of the ZF-5 unit and
that does not look right. Mine doesn't sound like the typical Mazda
problem though, in that it has not been low on fluid. The symptoms
are a terrible sound (like a washing machine full of ball bearings) in
3rd gear. Fourth and fifth are fine, but third sounds ugly. Is this
a common problem with these? All I find on usenet is the draining
issue and references to it being a bad/weak transmission with no other
specifics.

I'm also seeing references to the ZF-5 as being "bullet proof" but was
told that they cannot be (easily?) swapped. Is this true? I'm
guessing that major transmission work would exceed blue-book on the
truck, but do like the truck other than that. Anybody know any other
options? I'm in the midwest so manual transmissions are in short
supply (so a junkyard tranny probably can't be found even if I would
trust it) and I don't know of a major rebuilder (such as Jasper)
within a few hundred miles.

"Hank" <HenryReardon DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1183669978.348540.226490@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> The truck is an '89 F150 4WD with 302 and a 5-speed manual
> transmission. I'm assuming it is the Mazda tranny (Mazda M-50D, would
> this be R1 or R2?), since I did find a picture of the ZF-5 unit and
> that does not look right. Mine doesn't sound like the typical Mazda
> problem though, in that it has not been low on fluid. The symptoms
> are a terrible sound (like a washing machine full of ball bearings) in
> 3rd gear. Fourth and fifth are fine, but third sounds ugly. Is this
> a common problem with these? All I find on usenet is the draining
> issue and references to it being a bad/weak transmission with no other
> specifics.
>
> I'm also seeing references to the ZF-5 as being "bullet proof" but was
> told that they cannot be (easily?) swapped. Is this true? I'm
> guessing that major transmission work would exceed blue-book on the
> truck, but do like the truck other than that. Anybody know any other
> options? I'm in the midwest so manual transmissions are in short
> supply (so a junkyard tranny probably can't be found even if I would
> trust it) and I don't know of a major rebuilder (such as Jasper)
> within a few hundred miles.
>

I do not know what transmission you have, but I doubt it is the Mazda unit.

I think the F150 is far too demanding for the Mazda unit, especially in the
4WD truck. The 4-spd transmission in the F150 and F250 was for a very long
time the NP-435, this is a very stout 4-spd unit with a granny low 1st Gear.
I _think_ the 5-spd transmission was the T-5, and I might be mistaken, but I
was thinking Borg-Warner instead of Mazda.