I have a 1990 f-250 with the 7.3 IDI and a ZF-5, I have broken the tail housing once and replaced it, recently I was checking for breaks under the truck and realized that the bolt tabs were yet again busted. The truck is two wheel drive as i have not yet converted it to 4-wheel due to being on a college student budget, but the truck is used as a truck and driven by a 22 year old with a heavy foot. I have access to a welding machine and torch etc., I was wondering if i should modify the cross member or build some sort of bracket. Seems that this isn't probably the only time one has broken and i would like to strengthen it rather than simply replace the part.

Back in high school i replaced the clutch with a SMF flywheel and clutch assembly from LUK. The clutch works fine typically, but it seems that once it is heated up it slips and causes the truck to shake when taking off, this is very aggravating when trying to back a trailer. Also when idling in gear there is a lot of grinding noise and that I have heard to bee refereed to as "gear mesh" BajaBomber mentioned that I need the right mix of fluids to solve this...

My last problem is sometimes when I actually take off in first gear and try to shift to second quickly I will grind gears, could this be the synchronizer going out? it occasionally grinds when going into reverse as well.

any help on these problems will be greatly appreciated.

Obviously its your synchros. But go onto oilburners.net and you'll find a plethora of info on your problems.