A note to the anti-auto crowd

aw, c'mon cat sdp..... you might have been converted,lol

 

Hey 98989, who uses a ZF transmission? I think they had a freedom line of auto's here, but no more.
I'm not familular with ZF.

 

No harm in trying it out, something tells me he's afraid he would like it lol

 

DAF uses it here, I had two DAFs, the gearboxes in both gave trouble, I hadn't much time for them, also they would 'stick' in neutral, you would have to pull over switch the truck off then back on again and they were manuals, then again everything else broke in them too, engines wore out in both, 1st one 230,000kms and the second 540,000kms and of course pacaars warranty covered none of it eventhough they were under contract maintenence to DAF, Front brakes used lock on while driving, valves and airdryers would just give up on a weekly basis,

 

Try it out and tell us how it is. I'm stuck in a 98 Mack with a 350hp 9 speed. Gimme somethin juicy to bribe the bossman with. Tell him to bring you a 13sp manual too and give us some real numbers.

 

MAN
IVECO
DAF

And you are correct,the Freedom Line Auto is the AS Tronic here.

 

The Astrronic is not the best of the automated boxes.
I have however found a few tricks that make them way way better on the DAF.
(1) On the air tank that leads to the gearbox put a drain valve on the bottom the drain every day.
(2) Replace gearbox wiring harness if you start getting warnings or erratic changes.
At least clean connections with electrical cleaner and apply electrolyte grease.
(3) When replacing a clutch always remove the 2 covers on the gearbox side bell housing and also replace the counter shaft brake discs.
If you get even a little water in the gearbox the friction material wears off quickly and then the gearbox gets erratic and jerky.

 

that is good that you did not try it , otherwise you would fall in love with ishift and end in leasing

you forget renault manual

and of course smaller trucks like volvo fl fe....

it is quite possible that man will soon use scania manual gearboxes since vw want its brands to use as much as possible house components , scania will soon start to use man transfer gears on all wheel drive vehicles instead of zf and one small differential for weights of up to 40t

zf is no longer good gearbox like it used to be we have one truck 25year old gearbox was never opened , we torture it every day sometimes make 350km per day in city driving many start and stop, in last 14 months it had only 65 non working days , also we do heavy excavations with very steep ramps which make you to use full throttle in low range and rev it to 2500rpm while getting out.....new ones are worst than mercedes gearboxes(which improved over time when they first come in SK they were worst gearbox non of them could do more than 8years most brake at about 5year) .....we had problems with range sections


but there is one thing about zf , since man use it it is most spread gearbox on market and having zf is not problem here because you can find parts and somebody who can repair it everywhere

my friend pay for one part on volvo fh440 gearbox 11000kn which is very close to 1500€ i cant explain that part because of my bad english but it is some kind of triangle , you can do cheaper overhaul of zf gearbox for that money( with some aftermarket parts and with some used) of complete gearbox for 3000€ ....for overhaul mb gearbox you need at least 2000€ so it is usually best to drive what is most spread and cheapest on your market not what is best

you was talking before about how expensive are astronic parts comparing to ecosplit

is that for as tronic 16? or you was talking generally

 

Yes , parts from ZF for the Astronic are very expensive compared to a the manual ZF units.
We can get parts for the manuals from non OE or OE on the manuals cheaply.
Astronic parts are only available from ZF.

 

Which parts are you referring to?
The clutch on a ZF AS Tronic or a ZF manual is the same.

And here all parts you can get from ZF or DAF or aftermarket.
Manual or auto.