Reply to "25-1 trans gears"

Tyler, you have a problem. Lloyd has official title for ALL new ZF parts, due to the rights, tooling and spares his late father Roy bought from ZF in the mid '70s. Lloyd gets occasional gears made to very high standards from a few pro gear makers. ALL other 'ZF' gears f/s on the planet are either cannibalized but usable parts from hopelessly broken transaxles, or an occasional NOS part found on a dusty shelf somewhere in the world. I have heard rumors that one or more U.S. shops have made undersized bronze synchro rings to fit our always-worn ZF gear-cones in place of stock steel ones, but I have never seen one. Some bearings are ZF-specific and some gaskets and shims are critical in thickness. The OEM gear steel was spec'ed by Ford. No one has ever duplicated any ZF stuff in any quantity.

Thee are a few shops that build custom ZFs for customers (GT-40s et al) and most get their parts, at retail price, from Lloyd. The rest do as above. Next bad-news: hundreds of potential replacement ZF dash-2s for Panteras were stocked by Ford who never quite trusted them. They were shipped and stored in open crates with no oil inside. So many of these BRAND NEW, never used but still 40-year-old NOS ZFs have rusted bearings, pitted gear teeth, and dried out seals from moisture- depending how & where they were stored. They need careful rebuilding with much hand work before they are usable. So paying extra for NOS may not be the answer for most owners.

Over years and decades, we've all found the ZF transaxle to be THE most durable part of the DeTomaso GTs, with the exception of the synchro assemblies and the "racing" sprag-type LSD used in GT-40s, some Mangustas and a very few pushbutton Panteras. GT-40s were delivered with cast aluminum bearing side-plates that are identical to the early iron ones but 6 lbs lighter. Ford managed to break a ZF during their 24 hr durability tests with a LeMans-spec 7-liter engine, so ZF 'upgraded' to cast iron side and end plates and added two cross-bolts to restrain case growth under high temperature, high horsepower/high torque use. On the street, the early cast aluminum side plates have worked fine on my lightweight dash-2 with a hot-rod Cleveland for 20 years. But OEM dash-1 or dash-1.5 parts are museum pieces. Be patient.