ZF four speed

bmw2002

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Hi everybody,

Found this weekend a ZF four speed from an early 2800cs. Anybody has more infromation on them? Were they anyy good? Shifting seems to be more fun as with a Getrag. Any information most welcome...

Thanks,
Tom
 

x_atlas0

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There is rebuild information on the ZF unit in the blue books and in the Hayes E3 manual, if I recall right. It is also in a few other CS manuals I have. The manuals seem to indicate the ZF units were weaker than their Getrag replacements.
 

Ohmess

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And given the lack of parts availability for the 5 speeds, the 4 speeds (which are readily rebuildable) are making something of a comeback.
 

Ohmess

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Sorry Chris. Since the forum upgrade, I have had a hard time spotting the tiny little date field. I commented to the mods that I preferred having a more prominent date field associated with each post.
 

HB Chris

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No need to apologize, just don't know how these get resurrected without someone searching a topic where they need help.
 

steve in reno

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My 2800cs had a zf originally.
Very smooth shifting.
There was a flaw in the internals and was rebuilt. But the rebuild only lasted 20k miles.
The correct part cost more than my 5 sp installed.
 

mulberryworks

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The ZF in my 2800 makes a bit of rumble when sitting at idle with the clutch out, so I've guessed that the input shaft bearings are going bad. The needle bearings are NLA while the large ball bearings are cheap and easily available. My engineering friend tells me that the needle bearings should be more robust than the ball bearing because of the larger area to distribute the load so I was going to change the ball bearings out to see if that fixed my issue. I even bought the correct puller for the ball bearings but then I found a rebuilt Getrag 265/6 on ebay for $1200 so I scooped it up and will be installing it instead.
Rebuilt 4 speed ZF transmissions are still available from BMW. Dealers that sell mail order want about $3k, your local dealer might want more. I've heard that parts to rebuild the Getrag 265 are very scarce now.

Ian
 
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