Preparing for 5.0 swap, what issues am I likely to encounter?

[lil_Blue_Ford]

@lil_Blue_Ford I watched you video, but still unsure of the connectors. I'm sure I'll watch it a few more times before I get my head wrapped around this.

Looking under the hood of both vehicles I see a couple that look very similar if not the same on both.

Explorer I see these:

above the ABS pump

Below the ABS pump:

Ranger I see these:

Above ABS pump

Below master cylinder

I'm pretty certain that it's the one below the ABS pump and the master cylinder that would need to be joined together.

The one above the ABS pump does not get touched, IIRC. I’m not entirely sure I understand the purpose of that connector, but it is the same connector style as my donor Explorer harness, so I cut a couple out of junkyard trucks that had already had the harness cut in the engine bay, so that I had connectors to use. Also harvested some of the other connectors so I have an assortment available.

The plug that you will be working with is under the ABS/brake booster area. The Explorer should have a rectangular plug like the one above the ABS. On the Ranger you should have a black, round 8-pin connector (it doesn’t have 8 wires going to it, but you know what I’m talking about I’m sure, since Ford used a couple different colors of these and they’re pretty common, when you separate the plug, it has spaces for up to 8 pins). That lower plug, one side of the plug goes down into the frame harness or “truck side” harness. It’s pretty simple once you wrap your head around it, just a little confusing since I don’t see why Ford couldn’t have used the same wiring for both.

Also I'm planning to swap over the full underhood AC system from the explorer. If I mixed the systems I'd need to get both of them drained and then the truck recharged after, I'm thinking that would also delete the high pressure switch port. Hoping that I can move it over without having to break loose any lines and loose the charge.

Explorer high pressure switch is up by the core support

For the Ranger it's on the back of the AC compressor

The wiring for the Explorer high pressure switch runs through the engine bay harness up to the core support. That wiring doesn;t exist in the Ranger's harness. I'm thinking that I just need to extend the connector from the back of the compressor up to the core support.

So, I thought about trying to swap the entire AC system without breaking anything apart and draining the system. In the end, I decided it would be easier not to (partly because I can recharge an AC system myself and partly because my donor truck was at a family friends like 20 miles away and I don’t have any indoor work space). The other big problem is space in the engine bay. Pulling the pump and lines off the motor together would be your best chance of success, but I’m not sure you can pull the evaporator core with the 5.0 in the truck. I know I can pull the core and replace it in my Choptop with the 4.0 in the engine bay, but that’s a tight fit and it may have been the 2” body lift that saved me on that. So you may have to see if you can get the pump off and everything out of the way enough to pull the motor, then put it in the Ranger before dropping the motor in. I used the Ranger AC condenser on dad’s swap and just put a large piece of sheet metal in place to protect it from accidental bumps when setting the motor. Not sure if that idea will help or not for your situation.

My 5.0 AC hose went MIA at some point. For some strange reason I’ve found a couple Ranger 4.0 hoses (of course, I couldn’t find any when I fixed the AC in my 92 and now somehow I magically have two for 4.0 and none for 5.0). Since I didn’t know if it would be needed or where exactly it had to go if I did need it and I had some weatherproof electrical connectors plus I knew if the high pressure switch wasn’t part of the Explorer one (I’ve run into this sort of thing before where one vehicle has a high pressure and one doesn’t), plus knowing the switches close when the right pressure is reached, all I did was put a weatherproof plug with a jumper loop. That way everything is clean and neat and I didn’t have to worry about what configuration I would end up with. If I need a high pressure switch, I just unplug my jumper and change it to run to the switch. Since both of yours have the switch, you just have to extend wires

If they are the same, I've got a second start/charge harness for both a '98 5.0 and a '00 Ranger 4.0 thanks to past parts trucks. I might be better off combining the two into a single replacement start/charge harness, instead of trying to make a jumper harness. I might even be able to whip up something before I even tear into the two. I'll have to pull both spare harnesses when I get a chance and look at them side by side.

I actually used a 2000 Explorer engine harness and a 98 Explorer start/charge harness. Well, sort of used the 98 harness. I stretched it all out in the driveway and re-built it as needed. I ran 4 gauge welding cable for my starter and grounds. 12 gauge THHN stranded for the starter solenoid. New loom and wrapped the loom and all that. Welding cable works better than regular battery cable, it’s a flexible fine-stranded wire that can carry higher amperage. I’m also liberal in my use of things like dielectric grease and no-alox on connection points plus things like taking a wire wheel on a drill to clean up grounds. Rust and corrosion is a big problem around here.

Also trying to roundup factory wire diagrams for both the '99 Ranger and '00 Explorer. I scored one for the Explorer on ebay for about $20 bucks shipped. Not having as much luck on the Ranger, the few I've found are well more than I want to spend. I wouldn;t mind spending about another $20 to get the Ranger book, but what I've seen has been $50 to $90.

I don’t have an Explorer one yet, but I do have a 2000 Ranger factory wiring book. Should be pretty similar to the 99, so if you need any information, let me know.