After swapping in a pick-n-pull transmission, it’s even worse then my stock one was. I’m planning on rebuilding my original 5 speed manual transmission out of 98 4.0 4x4. I’m curious what reliable rebuild kit or parts I need and where to get them and what else I should know before doing it. Thank you

 

The very best thing you can do is take the top off the trans and inspect the internals before moving forward. There were a few rolling changes to the M5R1-OD that will determine what kit you get.

Off the top of my head, you should have the "later" R1 trans, This can be denoted by a 30 tooth reverse gear, and a shifter shaft that attaches to the transmission with a pinch bolt that runs "east-west". The older 36 tooth reverse R1's had a shifter shaft that had a "north-south" pinch bolt.

The second major thing to denote is the 1st/2nd gear blocker rings. Look and verify they are the same size as the 3-4 gear blockers. If they are, you need a regular "30 tooth reverse gear" rebuild. Last I checked, the entire kit with blocker rings was about 250.

If they are considerably larger, then take a close look at the 2nd gear blocker, the "newest" version of the R1 had a large 1st gear blocker, and a multi piece 2nd gear blocker. That rebuild kit is hard to find, and the 2nd gear blocker assembly is not at all cheap from Ford (only source I could find) These gears are also larger than the other models, so if any of the gears are broken, you'll have to decide if you're going to bastardize both transmissions into one single useable one, or call around for used parts. The newest version does not have replacement 1-2 gears, and that would also include the unique countershaft of that model transmission.

I bought my rebuild kit from Cobra Transmissions, though I still had to buy the 1-2 blockers, as I was unaware that there were even differences until I had mine in pieces. Their kit has not given me any cause for alarm. The FoMoCo blockers are all carbon lined, if you'd prefer to retain those vs the typical brass only designs of aftermarket blockers, I would do a complete tear down and inspect all the parts to see what does and does not need replaced. I did not have any issue using the brass-only units, though they were not used on 1-2 for the above reasons.