How to Remove the Manual Transmission in a 1993 Ford F150

Depending on who you ask, Ford's ninth-generation F-150 might have been the last "real" pickup truck ever produced by the company. America has always had a love affair with the pickup, and showed it when nearly 800,000 F-150s were sold in 1996 alone. Of course, this did create something of a backlash -- to wit, the emergence of the more "civilized" and oxymoronic luxury pickup. But even as tough as this iconic pickup was, using it like it was designed to be used meant plenty of wear on the transmission -- so, at some point, you may find yourself installing a new one.

Instructions

1

Disconnect the negative battery cable with a wrench to prevent damage to the electrical system. Remove the floor mat or carpet and remove the screws securing the shift bezel and boot assembly to the transmission opening cover, using a screwdriver. On trucks equipped with a ZF five-speed transmission, remove the upper portion of the shift lever, and then the four cap screws from the shift control housing. Separate the shifter assembly from the transmission.

2

Crawl under the truck and get to work draining the transmission. Most F-150s of this vintage had at least eight inches of ground clearance, so you may find that you have enough room to work on the transmission without raising the truck. If you have the room, you can do most of what you need to do with the truck on the ground, and then lift the chassis off of the transmission when it's on the ground. If not, then go ahead and lift the truck enough that you have at least 18 inches of clearance between the frame and the ground, using a hydraulic jack. Lower the truck's chassis onto jack stands to hold it in a secure position.

3

Remove the nuts that secure the exhaust extension pipe to the muffler assembly, using a socket and a ratchet, then remove the exhaust extension pipe from the truck. Unscrew the speedometer cable from the transmission tailshaft, and unplug all of the electrical connectors. Disconnect the clutch hydraulic line from the transmission, and then slide your floor jack under the front portion of the transmission oilpan. Raise the jack enough so that it just takes a bit of weight, but don't put excess pressure on the transmission.

4

Remove the transmission mount bolt, using a ratchet. Don't remove the crossmember bolts yet; you'll be jostling around a lot while removing the bellhousing bolts, so you don't want to eliminate the rear support yet. Remove the bolts that attach the bellhousing to the engine. You shouldn't have too much trouble removing the lower bolts, but the upper two will give you trouble. You have two options at this point: use two feet worth of extensions and a U-joint to access the upper bolts, or simply cut access holes in the transmission tunnel with a one-inch hole saw. Racers will often do this to ease transmission changes; you can close the holes with store-bought rubber plugs afterward.

5

Remove the crossmember bolts, and slide the transmission backward until the input shaft clears the clutch assembly. Lower the transmission to the ground, and pull it forward to disengage it from the driveshaft.

Installation

6

Slide the transmission backward to rengage it to the driveshaft. Then, lift the transmission up into the truck, and slide it forward until the input shaft slides through the clutch and engages in the crankshaft. Reinstall the transmission mount, torquing the mount and crossmember-to-frame bolts to 80 foot-pounds.

7

Reconnect the clutch line and reinstall the speedometer cable. Reinstall the transmission bellhousing bolts and torque them all to 50 foot-pounds. Reinstall the exhaust and torque all bolts to 40 foot-pounds. You might consider using a bit of antisieze compound to ease future removal. Reconnect the negative battery cable.

8

Bleed the hydraulic clutch to remove any air trapped in the line, and get the level up to where it should be. Once you get everything up and running, you can expect the truck to run a little strangely for the first 10 miles or more. It takes the computer a little while to relearn all the engine settings that it lost when you disconnected the battery cable.