1993 Ranger Swap

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:38 pm

Malcolm,
Sounds like Buddy is going to (or should be) going thru the same time consuming job of fight all the rust-out areas he is going to find. If his lower radiator supports are that shot, he is going to find more. I think Mike NH found the same thing in his truck. May be you two ought to really caution him on all the problem areas he will find. All the extra torque will expose all the weak areas and could really pose a safety problem.
Dave

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:02 pm

Yeah my truck had a lot of rust. Here's what my radiator core mounts looked like.

You can see more pics of how I got my front core fixed up over here

http://www.v8-ranger.com/projects/v8ran ... ress.shtml

Here's what my rear cab mounts looked like. Notice the hole. They were so shot I had to grind off the rivets and replace them.

More pics etc. here.

http://www.v8-ranger.com/projects/v8ran ... ress.shtml

Anyhow like Dave says. Fix up the rust. You don't want anything flying apart. For the most part my frame was pretty solid even though it looked bad. The only thing that would have been bad is the passanger's side shock tower. I guess from the heating and cooling of the 4 cylinder's exhaust manifold it accelerated the rusting. Lots of large rust chunks were dug out of there. Then everything was sandblasted and epoxy coated.

Malcolm

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:10 pm

Oh yeah and more pics of the rear cab mounts over here.

http://www.v8-ranger.com/projects/v8ran ... ress.shtml

MercuRanger · Post by **MercuRanger** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:46 am

MalcolmV8 wrote:
cgrey8 wrote:Another thing you'll find out late in the project (unless you get lucky) is you'll want to find a gas tank with a sending unit that works with your fuel gage. From 89 up, the sending unit worked backwards from the 88s down. Thus if you put an 88 tank in an 89, the gage would read empty at full and vice-versa. I think the resistances were also a bit different as well.

I can't remember the site I read that on, but someone that posts on this site ran into that and last I read were working on a circuit to reverse the signal to make it read right.
That might have been me but I'm not sure. My summit fuel cell has a 0-90 ohm GM style sending unit and I've not been able to locate a Ford sending unit with the same resistance range as my 92 Ranger. My gas gauge reads empty all the time.

Or it could have been me. I used a GM 0-90 ohm gauge with the '88 & earlier Ford sender. I built a circuit to use the GM gauge with the Ford sender. Seems to work perfectly.

Also, regarding rust. I found I only had 2 cab mounts doing anything. They rusted so badly that the rubber was just floating through the rust hole. One of the Rad support mounts was also not doing anything. When I first bought the truck, both rear shackle mounts were rusted off (the rear of the leaf springs weren't connected to anything), and one shock mount was gone. The frame itself is solid, but all the mounts attached to it were garbage.

Mike

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:07 am

MercuRanger wrote:Or it could have been me. I used a GM 0-90 ohm gauge with the '88 & earlier Ford sender. I built a circuit to use the GM gauge with the Ford sender. Seems to work perfectly.

Say you wouldn't want to share that circuit with me would you

MercuRanger · Post by **MercuRanger** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:14 am

Check yer mail.

buddy · Post by **buddy** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:28 pm

Ok Malcolm, see how you had that tiny hole in your cab mounts. Now I don’t have any pictures because I have no batteries what so ever...But anyways, there wasn’t any cab mounts at all, just the rivets were left behind and the cab was just being held up by shear luck.

My rad mounts on the other hand are still in excellent shape and wont need fixing. Any old sheet metal that has to be replaced won’t be that hard (cut out and weld in new ones, easy stuff...)

My leaf spring shackles look pretty rough and probably should be replaced, don’t know if Ford still has those for sale but ill have to get something in there to stop them from tearing my box a new hole...

I am super worried about the wiring...plain and simple Ill most likely blow something up when I go to do the wiring...From what I hear is that the Mustang harnesses are easier and well unless I go straight to Ford for a HO 302 then I am stuck with the 5.0 from the a Crown Vic.

Just from what my friends have been telling my I am wasting my time and I could get more power out of the V6 that I currently have now...don’t want to tell them that’s the biggest load of bullshit I ever heard (what has more potential? A 3.0L V6 or a 5.0L V8? Hmm I’m not rocket scientist but I’m going to say a V8)

@Dave: You do have great points, but I will strength it even though its not going to be pushing out 300+HP just to be safe, I’m not to keen on this whole dying aspect of driving.

What worries me are below:

Easy stuff would be (easy as in not literally trying to kill myself because it’s so hard):
Install the motor and tranny.
Notch the air box

Kill yourself type stuff:
Rad Support
Wiring the motor/tranny/gauges

I know I missed a lot of what I wanted to say but man I’ve got so much stuff floating in my head of what has to be done I cant type it all down fast enough... Thanks for your advice...it’s a life saver...literally.

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:43 pm

Buddy, I can believe that's how your cab mounts must have looked. Even though mine only had that tiny hole they were paper thin. At first I was just going to weld in patch plates to fix them but they were so shot I could put my finger right through them. Literally.

Don't worry to much about the wiring. It's rather daunting at first but really once you get into it with some wiring diagrams it's not that big a deal. I've never wired up an EFI car in my life and I manged. It's very nice how it's a some what self contained system.

Later
Malcolm

buddy · Post by **buddy** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:58 pm

Ill probably have to do an entire body off restore of the truck so i dont have any problems later on.

It must be nice have alot of auto part stores in the US as up here there are very rarely anything automotive realted other then some custom shops...I just read your whole site again and its very crazy how you got some stuff done... Like your I-beam and control arm set up are mint compared to mine where I can go under and pull little 1/8th thick chunks off of them...Hopefully when I get my engine and tranny Ill be more into this, because after my fathers initial conception of this idea I have been wanting to go out and dis-assemble my truck right then an there...man I dont know how you guys stayed sane after a while.

Thanks,
Jason.

Hardhead · Post by **Hardhead** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 3:31 am

Don't worry about the wiring I used an 86 Grand Marquis for my donor car and once I started it was simpler then I had thought.

buddy · Post by **buddy** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 7:47 pm

Thats good to know, just have to get a donor in better condition then this crown vic...i will hold out for a Stang but im hunting for a HO...rare up here in Canada.