[trooper Tdiesel]

related to the manual trans swap idea....
if this has been covered im sorry i missed it....


ford used two different 5speeds 1987 to about 1996 in the trucks.
1980 to about 1986 theres like 5 or 6 different manual tranys used, including a good ol three on the tree.

87 to 96
one was from Mazda the other one is called a ZF

most 1/2 tons are found with the Mazda do to being a light duty trans, but there are a few 1/2 tons with ZFs


in short, if you changed to 2.73s the Mazda trans will do 35-/+ MPH in 1st gear if not faster.
not fun if you have stop and go all day long.
pull a boat up a dock ramp a few times a year.
or need to back a trailer up.
ECT ECT



my 0.01C if it was my ride.....
leave the 5.0 V-8 in it..i love the I-6 4.9s but its just to much time and effert to swap all the wiring ECT

go to a 2.73 rear gear, and use a direct drive 4sp with a granny 1st and reverse.
using a 2.73 and a drect drive trans will net about the same rpms as a 3.08 gear and a 25% O\D. but will get more power closer to the ground with out having the efficiency loss of a big gear spinning a little gear in top gear.

even with a granny geared 4sp with a 2.73 rear,1st will still get you to around 20mph.
the ZFs have a granny 1st about 5.75 to 1 reverse is still rather tall, not as bad as a Mazda but still rather tall.

and u-just tire size as needed to get RPMS right.