Brand new 5-speed ZF S5-20 Transmission anyone?

[merc67osl]

Big discussion going on in our sister forum Pagodentreff.de in Germany about an article in aspKlassik that ZF Friederichshafen may restart production of the 5-speed ZF S5-20 Transmission for our W113 (and others).  ZF require a minimum of 250 confirmed orders.  If production restart, they will also make a number of rep-kits available.  ZF will be present at the Retromobil car show in Paris January 22. - 31.  Great opportunity for brushing up your language skills.  The price for a new transmission? About EUR 8000.- (USD 11500.-)  Oh well...                   

aspKlassik article - http://www.autoservicepraxis.de/getriebenachfertigung-fuer-pagoden-sl-w113-909248.html
Retromobil car show - http://www.retromobile.fr/

[Naj ✝︎]

We are ZF distributors in the UK and I have made enquiries about the S5-20 gearbox.

As stated, the are looking for confirmed orders for 250 gearboxes.
At present they have orders for 97.

Anybody here interested in buying one?

A deposit will be required with order.

Should this be in the commercial section?
naj

[George Des]

Naj,

Any word on what the availability is of the spare parts they show in their advertisement? I understand some of these components may be available right now but not sure. I'm interested in the reverse light cable and assembly. The one on my ZF was replaced at some point with the same assembly used on the std 4 speed MB box. It fits and can be made to work, but the actuator pin is a bit shorter and does not allow the use of the metal seal or it won't activate. So, I have to seal around the screw in plug with some sealant to prevent leakage of transmission fluid.

George Desiderio

[Naj ✝︎]

Hi, George,

I will ask for a parts list.
My understaning is that extra parts wiil be made together with the production of gearboxes.

naj

[jaymanek]

Thats crazy money... whats wrong with using a Getrag... much better box.

[George Des]

As long as there are some purists out there i guess there will be some sort of niche market for the ZF boxes. Apparently there are some cars that came with these boxes that were then subsequently removed either due to lack of repair parts or sale of the box separate from the car. Mine came orginally with the ZF and I would welcome a source of repair parts only. I agree that the price is a real turn off for a box that is somewhat noisy, sluggish when cold and prone to small leaks here and there--this does not mean I'm contemplating selling mine, mind you!

George Desiderio

[Wes Bender]

At that price, they're going to need 250 purists!

[Garry]

Naj,

Interesting that the price is now EUR 8000.  I made these enquiries to ZF about 2 1/2 years ago and whilst they indicated that they were contemplating re-manufacture and that they would need 250 orders, the price at that point was EUR 10,000 and they were not at that time into the spares.  Seems that they have got the message that EUR10,000 is too much for the purists, certainly was for me hence going to the Getrag route.

At EUR 8000 they might get there but if they have only got 97 takers at that price and over that time, another 150 is a tall order to complete and appears to be unlikely given that it is only Merc and Maserati purists and I read that as people that fit into the data carded but missing group and maybe a few others that would be the pool.

[Naj ✝︎]

Maybe they can be fitted to W 198s as well??

naj

[Garry]

I would have thought that there would have been a better market for the spares than the whole box given some pricing I have seen for the individual gears to be made and the performance of the ZF from new anyway.

[George Des]

Garry,

I agree. I think there would be a large market for the spares--primarily the synchronizers, some castings and the gears. Many of the other smaller parts like studs, bearings, seals, etc are standard DIN items and can be readily sourced. I know that some of the parts require specialty machining, particularly the ones on the main shaft, but I've got to believe that manufacturing and machining technologies have come a very, very long way since these boxes were first manufactured and the costs to make these "intricate" parts have got to be less than what they were 45 years ago. I still can't figure out from their website what spares are currently available. An inquiry I made some time ago went unanswered. I'm not in any dire need of parts now, but I can see the day when I might need something and would like to know it is available. I'm really glad I had my box rebuilt back in 1983 when I was stationed in Germany. I was having some leakage back then along with some synchronizer issues. The ZF factory was set up to rebuild these back then and I'm confident the job was done right, but that was almost 30 years ago now!

George Desiderio