ZF6 Help!

stylepointzz · Apr 20, 2012

Hey guys,

I have a 99' 7.3l with the ZF6spd man transmission with the following mods:

-Beans Diesel Performance 6 position tune
-Intake/5in exhaust
-35 in tires

The tranny has been acting up the past week or so, being hard to get into gear at stop lights and making a weird, "tension snap, or clunk" noise when you let the clutch out it first gear, which was making it hard to not stall in first. Of course it also had the normal 4th gear sycro issue, but started to get worse throughout all of the gears the last week or so.

Last night, I was driving in 4th normally and I'm thinking the tranny went. When I try to drive forward in any gear other than the granny it will creep forward with NO NOISE until the clutch is almost out (where it was making that tension snap sound a couple weeks ago) at that point I get a grinding noise badly, a higher speed grinding noise actually.

What are my options?? Rebuild kit? Stock reman? Or built after market?
I have only found one company that makes a built one, (ATS) and from what I have been hearing these are supposed to be bullet-proof in stock form?

I am planning on going with a good southbend clutch as well.

Future plans are:
-20x10/12 (ish) wheels
-more power 500-600hp MAX, MAX (prob a bigger single turbo set up with complimenting mods)

Also should I be running different rear end gears?

Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED guys!!!

JHILL · Apr 20, 2012

These guys were highly recomended. No personal experiance, was told Dan is the man on ZF6's

http://www.midwesttrans.com/prodlk.html

Fly By Night · Apr 20, 2012

Sounds like it might be a clutch issue to me, did it slip at all previously under high loads?

stylepointzz · Apr 20, 2012

Fly By Night said:
Sounds like it might be a clutch issue to me, did it slip at all previously under high loads?

Not at all. The clutch still allows perfect engagement in every gear.

Thanks for the tip on Midwest! ^

stroker2 · Apr 20, 2012

Fly By Night said:
Sounds like it might be a clutch issue to me, did it slip at all previously under high loads?

:whs: My buddy had the same problem with the tranny being hard to put into gear at stoplights. His problem was his slave cylinder was going out, in turn not releasing the clutch fully. You would d@mn well know if the tranny went out rather than misc. syptoms that slowly arise

sniper_101 · Apr 20, 2012

Sounds like a clutch disc about to scatter itself, bent pressure plate or a failing release bearing. Just my guess.

Time to drop it and check things out. From someone who has pulled theirs a few times, it's a bit of a PITA the first time, but a breeze after that. I had a brief write up on clutch replacement on PSN in case you've never done it before.

Best of luck!