Fiat Dino Forum (FDF)

Hi all,

I am thinking about rebuilding my 2.4 l gearbox and I have noticed that
there are 2 kinds of synchromesh rings available on the market for the
ZF S5 18/3.

The first version is made of brass, a later version is made of steel.
Both are original ZF parts and our gearbox originally uses
the brass rings. I would expect the steel rings to last longer.

I thought that it could also be advantageous to use the steel rings
as I then wouldn't have to use Mild-EP oils. The variety of
usable oils increases and I could also use a more modern
75W90 GL3 which should massively improve the shiftability
when the oil is still cold.

My questions would therefore be:
Does anyone know if the brass synchromesh rings are
interchangeable with the steel rings? They look exactly the same...

If anyone has done this: what is your experience?

Thanks

Cheers
Bijan

When I opened my last gearbox some time ago, the steel syncro rings were only applied to 1st and 2nd gear whereas the brass rings were only applied for the 3rd, 4th and 5th gear.

However, in the original ZF repair handbook all syncro rings have the same number. This means that those should be interchangeable.

Do you have a source for steel rings? How much does one cost?

Georg

Thanks for the info. Looks like in your case the gearbox has been
overhauled already and the defective brass synchromesh rings have
been replaced by steel rings.

Yes I have 3 sources for the steelrings:

- 3 are available on ebay Germany
- Then an Opel Tuner named KV world has an unknown quantity on stock.
- Bearingkits.co.uk also has a lot of spares for the ZF gearbox on stock.

Cheapest Price for the steel rings is 130 EUR/ pc. The brass rings can be acquired cheaper...

The ZF S5 18/3 gearbox is quite popular with some other vintage Opels so it's worth asking Opel dealers.

Edit:
I just bought a complete overhaul set for the gearbox for 1250 EUR.

- It contains 5 steel synchromesh rings (original ZF)
- all 12 bearings
- 10 slide stones for the selector fork
- gear stick spring and bushes

Christian Kramer
Tel. 02 71/ 3 13 56 15
Fax 02 71/ 3 13 56 16
www.kv-carworld.de

They seem to do a lot of ZF S5 18 / 3 overhauls so I guess they are quite competent.
Their prices are really OK. I saved about 300 EUR compared to SP or DP...