Cab swap help

[danger88ranger]

Well i started on a cab swap. I'm swapping out an 87 reg cab 4wd with a 2.9 with a cab from an 88 2.0 2wd ranger. Do i need to yank out all the dash wiring on the 87 and put it in the 88? I know its EFI and all, but what about the B.S stuff like the instrument cluster and everything on the steering column? Can i get away with taking the computer stuff for the 2.9 out of the 87 cab and swapping it into the 88 or do i need everything in order for it to run? I'm trying to save time in this swap so I can go wheelin soon

 

[alaskan155]

just swap the engine harness, should be plug and play for those 2 years i believe. is the 2.0 fuel injected? if not then maybe wanna swap tanks and dash harness to

 

[danger88ranger]

just swap the engine harness, should be plug and play for those 2 years i believe. is the 2.0 fuel injected? if not then maybe wanna swap tanks and dash harness to

No it's not fuel injected. Why would i need to swap tanks? I'm just swapping cabs, nothing else. Does that make sense?

 

[alaskan155]

Sorry, had a brain fart, yeah it make sense, basically there are 2 harness in the engine compartment, 1 with the headlights, power windows, etc, and the 2nd is the engine harness.

Im not sure how ford did it,but you should be able to pull the 2.9 engine harness(from the PCM ot the engine completely out of the old cab, and if the plugs dont match on the DS finder, then you may have to swap the Dash harness(or atleast the other harness under the hood) or Spice the 2.9 harness in,.

i wish i could look at my 89, to be more specific, maybe be a good idea to look at a wiring diagram, AUtozone.com has free 1 to look at

basically it all comes down to the DS fender, if the 2.9 harness plugs in there, you are good to go, if not you have some work

 

[Mark_88]

I did sortof a reverse of this...put a 2.3 (using a 2.0 harness) into a king cab ranger that had a 2.9 fi...the harnesses are different and you'll need to change them out from the 2.9 into the 2.0 cab.

NOTE: you might want to ignore this post if the 2.9 is carbed...mine was fi so the harnesses are different...carbed 2.9 might be very similar to the 2.0 from the inside of the cab...

The inside harness is much easier to do if you lift off the dash...and that is much easier than it looks...you might want to use a digital camera to take pictures of everything in case you get confused by the connections...because i did...mainly because there was considerable time between the actual swap in from the remove...

make sure you label the images though...or otherwise shoot them in order of one truck tear-down then the other...good advice I could have used...

 

[holyford86]

I can tell you from experience that the 2.9 does not use the same dash harness as the 2.0. The dashes are relatively easy to swap out though, or you can just pull the bezel around the guages and the dash pad and some of the heater ductwork and you can access everything you need to swap the harness from there. The 2.9 never came carbed, the 2.8,2.3, and 2.0 did though. It is not possible to covert a 2.9 to a carburated setup

 

[dude772]

The 2.9 never came carbed, the 2.8,2.3, and 2.0 did though. It is not possible to covert a 2.9 to a carburated setup

That sounds like a challenge! lol.


Your already going threw all the trouble of finding a way to swap the cab... its not alot of work to swap dashes while your at it. Just swap the dash and you wont have any headaches.

 

[AllanD]

You WILL need to swap over the "Frame harness", fuel lines and fuel pickup units.

The 2.0 used a MECHANICAL fuel pump, while the 2.9 uses electric pumps
one in the tank one on the frame rail.

AD

 

[danger88ranger]

You WILL need to swap over the "Frame harness", fuel lines and fuel pickup units.

The 2.0 used a MECHANICAL fuel pump, while the 2.9 uses electric pumps
one in the tank one on the frame rail.

AD

Why do i need to do that when I'm putting an 88 cab onto an 87 that already has the 2.9 and everything?