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Just sitting at work reading some forums, but according to a tech article over at ranger station, if you have a 95-2000 Explorer motor and a 98+ it is a drop a go swap, they don't have much explanation as far as wiring leading you to believe that the harness mates. Would it be that simple in a 2002 ranger with a 2000 explorer? I know the pats has to be addressed, and what about transfer cases, will the ranger one bolt up to the explorer 4r70w. I might try to gather the data and send them another doc.

and yes I'm guilty of bench racing.. as of right now that is all I get to do at work until rest of paper stuff goes through.

I don't know much about what can and can't be done in the newer stuff. But that sounds about right. The only catch would be things like return style vs returnless fuel systems. Around 98 or 99, the Explorers got a returnless setup. It's a simple matter of converting the rail to whatever the Ranger wants/expects, but that can be an annoying snag to deal with if it isn't expected.

The good news is it's ALMOST drop-in as far back as 95 Rangers. What keeps it from being a perfect drop-in is the oil pan and the oil filter. Up to 97, Rangers have gearboxes that interfere with the 302 oil filter and must be worked around with a filter relocation setup. In 98, the Rangers converted to a rack-n-pinion like the Explorers.

As for the Xfer case, no joy here. I would not expect a Ranger Xfer to bolt to a 4R70w. In fact, the Xfer case even in the Explorers changed. They look similar, but I think the flange that the front driveshaft bolts to the Xfer case with changed somewhere between 96-01. So you'll also want to get the front driveshaft from the donor at the same time you get the engine, tranny, and Xfer case.

As for fuel rails both are returnless, they mention you have to get the pump and regulator out of the explorer tank. Not sure what kind of regulator it has in tank.

For the transfer case the swaps I found use a 2wd 4r70w with an adapter from advanced adapters to bolt it to the ranger transfer case. One guy hinted that with a little creative engine placement he used factory drive shafts. Main difference was the new trans set 4 inch back and minus tail shaft he used 5 inch adapter from advance. They did mention in 2001, I think, that the speedometer sensor was different and you may or may not be able to run the old sensor in parralel .

Normal returnless systems use a variable speed pump and the EEC monitors the rail pressure to control the pump. Explorers and MAYBE one other Ford vehicle had a transition year where they used a passive regulator, no different than rail-mounted FPRs on normal return-style fuel systems. So from the EEC's standpoint, no pressure monitoring required since it works just like a return-style.

My guess is that if they are telling you to rip the fuel pump and FPR out of the Explorer gas tank, then Rangers do NOT use this style system and instead have the EEC pressure-controlled returnless system.

Didn't know that type of fuel pump existed, so I'm guessing there is no regulator on the fuel rail?

Yeah returnless fuel pumps are special pumps designed to be speed controlled. Return-style pumps are 1 speed so you can't take normal return-style fuel pumps and run them in returnless system. They'll either not work or will burn out. I don't know which, but I do know people talk about that from time to time on the EECTuning forum.

In the case of the Explorer returnless fuel pumps, those are nothing but traditional 1 speed return-style pumps since they use an in-tank fuel pressure regulator to maintain pressure.

cgrey8 wrote:As for the Xfer case, no joy here. I would not expect a Ranger Xfer to bolt to a 4R70w. In fact, the Xfer case even in the Explorers changed. They look similar, but I think the flange that the front driveshaft bolts to the Xfer case with changed somewhere between 96-01. So you'll also want to get the front driveshaft from the donor at the same time you get the engine, tranny, and Xfer case.

I can confirm a Ranger transfer case will not bolt up to a 4r70w. When I did my AWD swap the Explorer transfer cases did have two different front flanges based on the model year. There's a huge gotcha there too. The one style is a straight up u-joint. Easy to work with, any drive shaft shop can build you a shaft. The other style looked like half a tennis ball for lack of better explanation. It had a custom driveshaft that has the joint on the end all in one with the shaft. The driveshaft shop couldn't do anything with it. They said tearing that shaft up destroyed it and shafts with that weird custom end were not available.
Another major different between the two different transfer cases was the speedo sending unit. The older style had the traditional hookup where you slide in a speedo cable with speed sensor on the end and it spun on the gear. The newer style just had an electronic speed hook up from the transmission and there was no provision on the transfer case at all. You could see an indention on the molding of the case where it would normally have been drilled out.

I needed the real speedo cable hook up for my 94 Ranger and I needed the front u-joint that was normal. Two opposite transfer cases. So I bought one of each and opened them up and swapped parts around. All direct fit. I ended up with a hybrid AWD transfer case that had the decent correct front u-joint and a hookup for a speedo cable.

If you want more info search the forum. It was around October 05 when I did that swap and I'm sure I posted a lot of pics and info at that time.

Thank you for the info. Think I'm going to just swap it to 2 wd and sell it then.