Ford ZF Trans Mounted Parking Brake Rebuild and Clutch Linkage Repair
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- This 1997 Ford F Superduty has a ZF5 transmission with a parking brake. We need to rebuild and reseal the parking brake unit. It's not for the faint of heart!
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We are getting to the point where you can't fire the parts cannon, because there is no ammo.
Parts cannon ammo? I don’t think we’ve got enough parts available for a 410 gauge parts shotgun!
Happy Father's Day Wes. Coffee and watching someone work hard, I feel like I got a promotion.
That's exactly what I'm doing right now!
Same!🤣
Not an easy fix. But you worked through it. Nice to have a lathe to turn down the drum. Good show.
You can't even give an up front price on a job like that. So what was the final bill? If you dont mind my asking. The reason I ask is that I just bought an almost identical dump truck. It had to be dragged up onto the rollback it would not roll free. The engine only had 62,000 miles on it. Started right up idle beautifully that's basically what I bought the truck for was the engine. Got the truck for $1,200 don't know if I want to fix it and keep it a dump truck. Or just pull the engine and trans like I intended. The truck had been sitting in the weeds for quite some time. It was part of an estate deal.
Hi Wes,
Greetings from the land down under! In my book, you are by far the best content on TH-cam and deserve many more subscribers (they're coming). The lengths you go to troubleshoot problems that most of us would scrap a car over is mind-blowing. Add to that the dry sense of humour. Just perfect!
Don't change a thing. You got the recipe right. Keep up the hard work, and thanks for teaching this old dog some new tricks. 👍
Love his delivery
He has a style of his own, so much unsaid, but implied. A pleasure to watch.
read my comment, ausie..s.a.
I Love Australia! You are an awesome man of integrity, MrSuzook82. I hope you won't hate me for owning a ZX-14. :-0 Dave Jones is awesome! (EEVBlog).
I try. Not best though.
Hi Wes. I took care of several tow trucks with this set up back when. Ford serviced this as an assembly, with no individual parts store available. They killed them about every 18 months! I visited a buddy at the UPS shop and they had a pile of them in the corner, too. Props for doing the rebuild. That's why your The King. Roll On!
Yes I remember that I had Fsuperduty trucks the brake assembly came in one piece. I don't remember the exact cost I think it was close to 5 bills. That was back in the early 2000s.
@@logicthought24 Back in the late 90s early 2000 Ford said the emergency brake unit was non serviceable they sold you a new one. Many tow truck operators ran Mico locks in Fsuperduty trucks.
@@logicthought24 Not when other said human has conspired to make sure it can't be put back together.
The fact that there is no warning light for the parking brake will probably have caused the issue with driving with the brake on.
Don't know if you've bought a new microphone, but the sound of the distant birds in the first half of the video was super clear and wonderful!!
(I did watch the wrenching content as well...)
Nice work Wes.
IF it comes back leaking again, you'll want to replace that pressure vent assembly. That's a military vent used on all the military vehicles. They have a soft spring and a rubber flap inside. They love to either swell the rubber or just stick closed and cause pressure and leaking issues. They are super cheap and available but I normally just replace them with a real vent line.
When my dad was a teenager he took either the input or output shaft out of a transmission while overhauling it. It was tight, so he beat it out with a sledge. Then he realized it had been held in with a c-clip
Outch.
Is your dad Andrew Camarata?
Andrew does have his own way of doing things....lol
Ouch, I've done a similar thing and pushed a bearing off a shaft the wrong way and snapped the lip off the shaft.
I like you you took the time to remove that bolt and tap the hole instead of just leaving it. Really showd your hight quality of work
That clutch linkage repair kit is pretty handy. Every Ford F series of this vintage I've had had some sort of play in the clutch pedal.
hello Wes , Carl from Texas here. I've been watching your channel a couple years now. I REALLY appreciate the family friendly content since I now have a grand daughter who I'm hyping up to help me builds her a go-kart , I was a Auto tech for many years & also a farm tractor& implement mechanic before that. I can totally relate to the ( uuuhhhh ) sigh you give at times, I laugh with you every TIME ! 😁👍 GOOD JOB !
This is my type of entertainment!
For those without a lathe. If it was my truck, I would have ground out the brake shoe bracket. Just to get the diameter smaller. Sometimes just the paint or powder coat is enough. I’m not a mechanic, just like to work on my own stuff.
Bravo Wes another excellent video - no gimmicks, no showboating, no ego-boosting, no nonsense, no b-s….just a great example of a real mechanic who uses his experience and intelligence……and a selection of meaty hammers.
You are an exceptional mechanical engineer Wes and *Thank You* for your videos. They are greatly appreciated. Stay sane Wes, stay sane. 👍
I really can't get over how clever the channel logo is; I really dig it, along with the effort you're putting into editing.
Great stuff, thankful as always Wes!
Never seen someone rebuild one of those, always replaced the entire unit. Local dealerships and truck shops will not sell the individual repair parts, only the entire unit. Typical local failure was internal bearing explosions or broken case.
For any other wrench throwers looking at doing this job, getting an entire ZF with a newer P-brake on the back costs 1/3 the price from a pull yard than just the Pbrake assembly. And now you have a spare ZF for when one of your customers inevitably explodes theirs.
Outsmarting the engineers usually comes with a time penalty. Exemplary work as always Wes.
Keep up the good work wes! Love the videos and you always find a way to solve a unique problem that pops up in the process of working on the old, crusty, worn out vehicles that seem to pop up. I learn new things all the time watching your content, i appreciate it and strive to be half the mechanic you are one day
You're giving me flashbacks to my time working at a Ford dealership. Our techs were lazy and just replaced the whole thing. I think the whole assembly was like a thousand bucks twenty-five years ago. Sold so many. I worked in parts.
Flat rate prob paid like 1.2 to replace and 1.6 to rebuild/replace😉
Lot cheaper for customers to replace it with reman units. The bill would be way higher with all the additional labor to rebuild it, even if everything does go without other problems. By the time you have to add labor and parts to it that get damaged during removal and disassembly, it would make the customer cost way higher.
@@elmerfudpucker3204 if it's unobtainable I rebuild whatever it is, if it's available it's almost always cheaper an faster to R&R.
@@mph5896 That was my thought exactly. Flat rate was probably stupid low on rebuilding one.
Wes, I was just watching Steve Magnante’s “Junkyard Crawl” and he was talking about a DeSoto that had a Powerflight automatic trans from 1954 with the same setup for a parking brake, what a coincidence, go figure! BTW, Nice work and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
Wes, you are nothing short of amazing. That emergency brake is about the WORST thing this 80-year-old has ever seen.
Kudos on conquering it!
Oh, you know it, Mike. They can get Frozen like a Lake in Switzerland! :-)
What engineer thought it was a good idea to take a simple parking brake assembly and make it NASA complicated? They could have mounted a disc rotor on the output housing with a mechanical caliper. Service it all in a matter of minutes and at a fraction of the cost. Thanks for making another interesting video and for including your dog in it. Pets are wonderful!
German engineering reputation is supposed to be better than this.
Wes, you have far more patience than any man should have. Having worked as a mechanic for a living, I know how frustrating these things are. Hat's off to you sir, you're top of the line in my opinion.
Thanks for sharing your video.
You have studs straddling your vice. Haha
How you're not cussing working on that german garbage is beyond me.
Great video Wes. Ford and ZF…what could possibly go wrong?
I have a parking break like that (but very different) on my 1962 imperial it's not very good and since the car doesn't have "park". After parking it and coming back to it being in a different place I carry wheel chuck with me.
One-third of the way through 90% of Wes's videos, I always have the same thought - Better him than me.
I would be cursing up a storm trying to find where the engineer that designed that lives.
You should be grateful for that German engineer, because you can now charge a client for a 6 hours of labor, and put your kids through the college ;)
Other than that his clients are all in corn country and would rather pay in pigs & chickens (and want exact change back).
There's an old jaw in that neck of the woods that "Farmers are so cheap, they have to go to the bank for a Note just to pay attention."
What a colossally awful design. Hand it to the Germans, they know how to conjure up a shitshow.
ZF is Zero Fuchs.
Also known as disposable transmissions among my circle of friends.
You want parts to fix it. Buy a whole transmission.
I think one of my favorite things about Sunday is looking foreward to seeing a video from u wes!! And u never disappoint, great stuff my friend
Ahhh,so that’s why the super duty had been sitting there for some time. Glad you were able to pull through yet again. Thanks for what you do!
I've seen that clutch linkage repair using a heim joint once before. Beats the crap out
of Ford's BS design. Great job!
Awesome video Wes! Looking Forward to the "Revenge of the Unicorn""!
Thank you, Wes! You have made an old man feel much better after watching you struggle with that stupid thing. My son has a '96 F-Super Duty with the same parking brake. I have it apart, found replacement parts but had the same issue with the drum being way too tight to put back on. I wasn't sure how to address it, but seeing you turn it down some, I have my answer. Thanks again!
ZF ... Zero Fuchs? 🤩😜 OMG I rebuilt / rewired a two speed 3 phase German motor with internal brake at the back of the rotor. It slid when engaged to lift off the rear cover. The rear cover threads onto the case. Dumbest smartest thing ever. Italians have an insult for this: "clever"
Great job getting through this! It helps me when I'm slogging through my 1986 CF7000's problems. 🥺
Thanks for showing the difficulty of working underneath the dash. Personally I’d rather rebuild that emergency break than work under the dash to be honest. At least you don’t have to turn yourself into a pretzel to get the job done. Keep up the great video content. Looking forward to the next one!
I finally surrendered and just remove the seats from vehicles. Throw a couple movers blankets on the floor to cover the studs sticking up.
Wow I would have just did a delete on that, im surprised there isnt a retrofit to a more modern parking brake. I always felt like just cause you put a brake on the drive shaft doesnt really mean it locks both tires to the ground what was the real point in this back in the day? Wouldnt it have been easier to have a emerg break and leave it in gear. Is this what they called over engineered back in the day lol,
We interrupt all other regular scheduled Sunday videos for new watch wes work , (sorry mustie)
Exactly
I was just watching mustie1 with that fullman wagon.😁
I thought it was just me….
Keep mustie out of this channel. We live for Sunday’s to admire wes armpits
I should have a split screen watching Wes and mustie1 at same time 😄🤙👍
We live for Sunday’s to admire Wes armpits.
👍👍
Leave it to Ford to design things the absolute worst way possible..
👍👌👏 Well done. What an effort to get to the gear box seal! A really weird configuration. I've never seen anything like that in Germany. So it seems, that the American car manufacturer ordered something problematic like that in Germany. I don't think that it is German engineering at all.
Best regards luck and health to all of you.
We had a super duty like that. I ground the first half of the notches off the parking brake pedal so it would not apply until it was almost to the floor. This allowed adjusting the parking brake so if it was on at all it was going to kill the engine when they tried to take off. Lots of brake or no brake no in between 😈
I learned to just get a replacement brake unit on the first one I ever tried to work on. I had double the hours that it paid to replace it completely, just removing and disassembling the original one. I never made that mistake again lol. I have brazed and rebored those clutch rods many times, I wish I had known about that repair kit you used. That's a nice set up.
Having rebuilt a ZF Auto Trans from my long gone 88' Saab 9000, I agree that ZF does not think it through....
I have a hunch that what you encountered happened after the R.T.R. lawyers took the engineers out to a surf and turf 9 course dinner. What you accomplished should have never been possible! You are the Leonardo DaVinci of D.I.Y. repair engineering and I thank you profusely for sharing your every day experiences running your shop with us all!
FORD. Forget Obviously Rational Design.
EDIT: The ending, no good recommendation goes unpunished.
ZF transmissions are over engineered junk .
Washers on the master cylinder/firewall are undoubtedly original equipment. 😏
Happy Father's Day Wes..... this looks like one of those times, it would be easier to jack up the radiator cap, and drive a new truck underneath LOL
My Volvo L50 wheel loader uses the exact same parking brake assembly
really appreciating the zen hammer intros wes
Can't be done by ZF in Friedrichshafen... they simply don't have the machinery to stamp something, especially not big things like drums... it's gearbox manufacturer not a body shop...
Nice job Wes. That device should last the life of the truck but stuff happens. The reason we need excellent technicians like yourself who will accept the challenge and do the correct repairs.
Happy Father’s Day.
"Should last the lifetime" huh. Do you work for Ford?
What’s wrong with the old universal design for parking brakes? Happy Father’s Day and greetings from Brasil.
Your videos and the quality keep getting better and better. This video did not disappoint. Thanks buddy and hope you're enjoying the breath of cool weather we're being blessed with again. Talk about a strange spring/summer. Not complaining at all, pretty sure you aren't either.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Translation...your trans is fried, we got rich, and you get the shaft.
I was looking at the dash thinking that there should be a red brake light. If I were the owner, I would get that fixed ASAP because it's almost 100% certain that the parking brake will be left on again without that reminder.
Is it really all that different than the various vehicles that have captive rotors, requiring you to disassemble an entire wheel hub ? Also the firewalls on these trucks were infamous for cracking around the clutch master. Might explain the washers.
I had a 1992 Mustang GT which was a cable actuated clutch, and it cracked the firewall!
I used an old VHS video playback head as a spacer between the cable insulation bulkhead and the firewall...
Well, I hope it's not coming back for parking brake service any time soon since the warning light problem was not corrected. The guy driving is probably gonna forget again and trash it. That was a real pain to have to do all over again. Great content thanks for sharing. Have a happy father's day Wes and everyone else.
My nephew works for Porsche....
He has nothing good to say about them...
Nothing !
Have a good one , you magnificent mechanical bastard. 👍🍺
This episode: "HAMMER TIME"! Watch Wesworld fix an unimaginable piece of engineering that
no one could ever dream of. Naturally, PUP approved!!! 👍👍🐶🔧💯
You cannot believe how poorly thought out that thing is? Reminder, ZF, German engineers
Thanks for rebuilding this instead of discarding the unit with a bunch of good parts and getting a full assembly. It's great to reduce material waste to be more sustainable and I think I see that in your choices and values.
Hopefully those who sell the assembly, hopefully they have a core charge and rebuild the units for similar reasons.
Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned
from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the
Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by
reducing petrol stations to only one state operated central gas station
per city. From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned
too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and
gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on....
So no investments should be done in oil burning vehicles any more....:-(( (BABVVO laws)!
The dust shield!! It’s stuck on the end of the tool while hammering in the seal
Can’t believe I noticed that.
I have exact same yr super duty ford dump body and trans. But it has the big 460 gas motor. I was under there checking out the no emergency break situation. Checked out vids. Googled that $1,200 ZF replacement part. Made the call and handed it off to my small garage. They have a lot of tools. Did me a solid. Think it was under a grand maybe. That was the last body style for that ford period. Supposedly they skipped a production yr and came out with new body style and the new v-10 gas motors. V-10 has a square-er stroke and quicker revs with more horse power on top of curve. Drove both dump trucks but the v-10 had automatic trans. That was good match with automatic transmission. But cable and electric hoist lasted maybe 2 yrs on v-10 model. Real junk. That new v-10 body style and lower profile tires rode so much better. But it didn't look right.. The old 460 body style rides really stiff. Good for a dump truck though. Your snow plowing truck go v-10 automatic.
I had wondered about those, and also the electronically-controlled parking brakes found on some newer cars. It occurs to me that the design precludes its effective use as an emergency brake as well. One more reason to buy an older gently-used car instead of a new one.
I was pretty against electronic parking brakes. But after purchasing a car with one I am sold. No cables to gum up or adjust. You just have an actuator on the wheel brake assembly. In the past i've had a few brakes lines go and never used it as an emergency brake even then. I don't think your average consumer would even think to use it. Most people don't ever use it anyway and the cable systems won't work anyway.
@@OnusofStrife I use it anytime I'm not parked on an utterly level surface, and I nag the mechanic to check it's function and slack etc at every oil change in the past and now they just do it.
Depends on how the manufacturer designed them, irc some of the early Landrover ones where just a motor pulling on a cable.
Not sure why the US (it seems) calls them an emergency brake, it's a parking brake and even an effective properly adjusted one doesn't do much at speed.
@@hannahranga Interesting.
My 2022 Ford has actuators on the wheels. The combination of cable and motor sounds very reliable 😜.
Not sure why we call them a emergency brake either. Probably because most people don't use them for parking, and automatics have been popular for decades at this point. Automatics have parking pawls which work just as well as far as the public is concerned.
@@hannahranga Parking brake is their primary intended use, but they can be used in an emergency (loss of service brakes) by downshifting to slow the vehicle and applying the parking brake. Some of us old farts were taught to do this, because mid-20th century hydraulic brake systems were not considered very reliable. They have changed a lot over the years.
Hey Wes. The cause of all the problems are on the frond hood emblem. FORD. Just sayin
Way to go, Wes!
I thought 'replacing the whole sub-assembly' as a norm came a little after this vintage of vehicle.
One that gets me is wheel bearings. Instead of $30 bearings, they just want to offer $300 hub assemblies these days.
From the ZF / German design perspective, it might be intended for the brake to last the life of the other parts (bearings etc.) because...'you can't wear it out unless you drive around with it set...and no one does that?'
probably.
Your into music of late reminds me of music from the beginning of The Rockford Files episodes ( after the main theme) . I like the slightly new edit/arrangement.
Theoretically would you ever have to replace the shoes since it's a parking brake? The only reason they would wear out is if you drove with it on right?
My thoughts too
In the case of the LT230 ones they tend to fail when the rear output seal fails and covers the shoes with oil. But way easier a job.
Or dash switch for parking break gets dirt in it and doesn't light up. What is that? Clutch, break? Must be that truck right in front of me. Oh man!! Oh!! So that was it!!
The engineers of that assembly were only thinking of assembly in a factory and zero about repairs and servicing.
Drive-line parking brakes have been around for a long time but I don't remember seeing one that complex before. I remain convinced that if one of today's college educated engineers were to redesign the wheel, it would be incredibly expensive and next to impossible to service. Good job Wes!
Indeed, driveline parking brakes seem like a solved problem at this point.
No one's stopping you from engineering one
Ford used such a thin firewall that it would give and eventually break from clutch pressure. At least it doesn't use the crappy hydraulic slave, both master and slave made of nylon witch swell and fluid bypasses piston. Good job👍🏽.
A lot of work went into this repair and a lot of editing to show it. Excellent stuff.
Is this the same parking brake as the Land Rovers?
Same concept but it's way simper and easier to work on (at least the ones on LT230 vehicles). It's pretty much just bolted to rear of the T/C and has a big enough hole in the centre you can remove it completely without removing the output flange from the T/C.
Iirc factory manual even says to remove it completely instead of disconnecting the cable if you've got to remove the transfer case.
Ex Defender owner here. Watched in rising horror: "Heck it's only like the handbrake on the Landy... what's all that complex stuff inside for?" I still don't know the answer!
Incidentally there are aftermarket kits to convert landies to disk handbrakes, as they are less affected by water when offroading. Mine was a simple cast and machined drum, like a normal brake but smaller - roughly half the surface area of those Ford shoes.
We tend to use handbrakesa lot more than in the USA (your proficiency in using it for maneuvering (hill starts, reversing and 3-point turns in the road) is part of the driving test), and obviously the handbrake is next your left knee*, so you should notice if you leave it on by mistake. That said, I did overheat mine once, and my wife did it also (she hated the Landy!).
*right knee in North America, presumably!
This was common on old grain trucks but they are so much simpler.
@@simon-d-m my current van has an electric handbrake and I cannot get used to it 😤
Hey I like the new intro for the videos it just makes me think what’s coming up next awesome job as always hope you have a great Father’s Day
That parking brake is just another example of how "Ford has a better idea".
Happy Father's day.
Thanks for sharing.
I don't know Wes, Walmart's website stock is always wrong just about. Plus for the past year and a half nobody's stock is really good.
That was the “Tiger Tank” version of a parking brake assembly. I’m gonna bet that when they designed this monstrosity that they never intended that it be worked on. Like ever. And realistically, as long as you don’t leave the parking brake on and drive to Texas and back...
Of course, one burned out warning light on the dashboard is all it would take.
This is one of your videos where I wished you disclosed the billable hours for the job. 😅
@Wes, i liked how you went the extra mile by tapping the hole. Most others would have done the bolt up and moved on. Hats off to yah bud!
Looking forward to 🦄 p2
exactly. I thought the same thing seeing him chase the treads. most "mechanics" I know would have rammed that bolt home. I think wes is right though, I would have either tried to get a complete kit at the junkyard or a whole new unit.
Yeah that bolt🤕. I prob would have been lazy and cut a groove in the bolt. 😆, then ran it home.
ZF tends to go the Ultra Complicated Route. Not a big fan of their engineering. Good informative video Wes.
you'll have to forgive me Wes.
I saw the thumbnail and I thought this was another TH-cam channel I was watching where the repairing a Stugg III from World War II.
that drum look like the final drive they were working on.
Another no "fancy-schmancy scan tool" episode. Just old-fashioned heat and beat goodness, featuring a nice assortment of hammers. Next stop, a coal-burning forge. That would be fantastic.
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands,
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
gee...too bad ya can't just remove and just put in a longer drive shaft... I bet the guy who came up with that is laughing in hell...
ZF engineers are just sadistic, that's all.
Hehe. Yea, put that drum on the lather and you get a miles long tailing out of it. Don't they sell those things as assemblies? Totally passive thing that lasts forever if you never use it or use it right. Just checked. prices are ridiculous even for parts. There must be millions of those things in junk yards. Guess how many letters there are in the full ZF name. A bunch.
Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen
Back in the days when I used to fix cars if the damage was the result of customer stupidity, I used to charge extra. This was because I knew that in the future, that customer would probably be a total pain to deal with. If they were dumb enough to break it once, then they were dumb enough to break it again after I worked on it. Then they'd bring it back trying to say it was my fault it broke, because I hadn't fixed it properly.
Get it great video buddy 💯💯💯 Happy father's day 💯💯😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
ZF kinda has a reputation for being the second type of German engineering: The stuff that is more complicated than good.
Don't you love how these college nerds design this stuff and haven't even worked on a vehicle probably Don't know what a wrench looks like
Wes whatever you charge, it's not enough. I would bet the bank that you couldn't find another mechanic to do this job to this level or at least I know for a fact I couldn't find one.
How to fix a ZF parkin brake, carry two bricks with you or roll up against another vehicle.
After years of grinding gears in my old 1990 IDI, I replaced the clutch pushrod with that same heim joint kit. But that was only part of the problem... These trucks used plastic bushings at the 2 pivot points that transfer movement around the brake pedal to the clutch master cyl. When the plastic wears out, the magnesium pedal hanger bracket is next to wear. That part was no longer available (different dash in '90 - you can still get the '92-'97) and my pivot holes were egg shaped. I took it to a machine shop and had them install Oilite bushings into the pedal bracket with what the machinist called "pro JB-Weld". It was probably just JB-Weld but it worked really well! Downside was, I had to tear the entire dash apart to get to that dang bracket. Bad, bad Ford engineers.
This seemed like such a stupid design to service and it is. You gotta remember, Ford loves to make special tools that will only do one specific job, on one part, on maybe 2 models, just so the mechanics have to spend way more money on the tools, than they would ever make doing the service.
There's a memo from Guyland HQ, Wes, that recommends shaving the beard in summer for cooling.
Grow beard in fall/winter.
Have a nice day...
Home Depot is the worst about saying they have something in stock when they don't. I've learned that if they don't show at least three in stock there's no reason to drive there.
Nope, 10 minimum, make sure it shows an aisle and bin #, and double check the next closest store as you'll likely wind up there, anyway . . .
And, never, ever, not one, ever buy anything off an End Cap. Those are Clearance Items that will be never be restocked ever again.
Drives me mad when a company website says they have stock and you pay for the parts and the day they ship they so oh sorry we don't have some of these parts were refunding you it's Annoying couldn't you of told me before everything shipped if you had stock you should have it @Watch Wes Work