ksdaddy

I have a 1990 F-150 with 300 and 5 speed manual that I use exclusively for plowing my yard. It's in good condition, hasn't been on the road since 2005. I've owned it 5 years and I take good care of it. I don't beat on it when plowing. About a month ago I did swamp it in the snowbank pretty bad and put it in low range to try to get out. The clutch just gave out completely and instantly. It wouldn't move at all. I had it towed to the garage and they replaced the clutch. He said I "melted it good". I figured it had to have been pretty worn and I just gave it the final blow. He brought the truck back and I plowed once with it. I got stuck again, put it in low range and got out without much problem, but the clutch has been acting like it's slipping ever since. How could I have blown through another clutch that quickly when I've been using this truck for 5 years with no incidents? Could it have just been a cheap aftermarket clutch, and if so, what would you recommend for me to put in this summer? A factory one? Heavy duty? In addition, this truck has always been difficult to put into reverse. It would grind just a tiny bit but this year it's getting rapidly worse. I have to shift it from 1st to reverse a few times and it will pop in when it darn well feels like it. Quite inconvenient when I'm trying to plow. I read one guy's comments that he shifts from rev-5-rev and it will go in. I assume it to be a Mazda transmission and I've read that difficulty going into reverse is fairly common on these. If that is the case, I'd like to explore my options of putting a different transmission (like a 4 speed) in it but I don't want to run into a bunch of grief hooking up to the transfer case, etc. Any advice?

Steve83

First, you need to take it back to the guy who replaced the clutch, and let HIM tell you if his clutch already went out. If it did, ask him what he's going to do for you.

If not, then you need to diagnose the actual problem before deciding on any repair.

Don't guess which trans it has - either ask the clutch installer, or just find out for yourself. It's not hard - click this & read the caption:


(phone app link)

The Mazdog I had wasn't hard to shift into any gear, and they certainly weren't hard when new. So with proper maintenance, they should never be difficult to shift. But IF yours is a Mazdog, they're known to have several problems which can be fixed. One of them is leaking around the shift rail bore plugs, resulting in low fluid, wear, and difficulty shifting. When the guy had the trans down to change the clutch, did he check the trans for any problems? Did he check/adjust its fluid level?


(phone app link)

All these trucks' t-cases mount to their transmissions the same way. It would be the driveshafts' lengths, the crossmember, & maybe the tunnel cover, that you'd have to worry about when changing sticks.

BLDTruth

Take it back to the shop and tell him the the brand new clutch he installed is slipping and ask him what he is going to do about it.

As far as tranny's go, if its a 5 speed then it is 99% likely to be the M5OD (the mazdog lol). Only other it could be is a ZF5 and that would have required the previous owner to swap it in, because as far as I know, only the F250's with the 300 got the ZF5. F150's all got M5OD. If you do need a new tranny, a ZF5 would be a good robust replacment, especially for a plow truck. It has a granny first gear that would help a lot for a plow. But it otherwise is kind of a clunky transmission that feels like it should be in a dump truck or something like that. My $.02 worth.