adsm08's Ranger build up

[SenorNoob]

Congrats! I knew if I could get it to work you would make it look easy. (And professional)

 

[chrwilkins30]

Does it seem like you got the cluster all figured out.

Out of Curiosity, are you using the donor wiring harness onto your ranger?

 

[adsm08]

More success!!! I had it running for a good 10 minutes today. It even moved by itself. Didn't go far, just out of the garage and right back in because it was starting to storm, and I found this right after I pulled it out.



About 4 feet below that is the top of my garage door. Makes the one I took out of Brinker's white truck the other weekend look dinky.

Congrats! I knew if I could get it to work you would make it look easy. (And professional)

Well at the moment it looks neither. I still have no washer bottle, and the air cleaner box (I have it all screwed together with the filter in it and everything) is clocked so that it is pointing up at about 11:00 if you look at the front of the truck. Wires everywhere that have been ripped out of their bundles, unhooked connectors with single clipped wires all over the place.

It actually looks more like someone with no clue is trying to take it out blind-folded only using a set of bolt cutters.

Does it seem like you got the cluster all figured out.

Out of Curiosity, are you using the donor wiring harness onto your ranger?

I think I have the important parts of the cluster worked out. Some of it I am not sure of yet. The CEL works (I'm sure because it is on), the tach was running at about 500 at idle, so it works but isn't reading quite right since I'm sure it is running higher than 500, the back-lighting was working in the kitchen, but doesn't seem to work right in the truck, probably just an unhooked ground. The oil light is lit up with the engine running, but that is actually a good thing because the 89+ sensors work backwards of the older ones, so a gen-1 cluster hooked to a gen2+ oil pressure sensor lights up the light when it gets pressure (so I have pressure). Turn-signal tell tales work, but I am concerned because they flash at the right speed, but the front bulbs aren't even hooked up I don't know about the 4x4 lights yet because the dash-side plug is still on the couch. I don't think the gas gauge is working right, but I'm not sure because I don't remember how much gas is in it. I also haven't gotten it warmed up enough to see if the temp gauge is working right.

I ended up using a hodge-podge wiring set up. All my dash and engine wiring were taken out of an 88 two years ago after I had some big wiring problems. For the dash I sat down with the 88 and an 89 dash harness next to each other and the two wiring books, and just started moving the connectors. If the pins crimped to the wires were the same I just unpinned them one by one, figured out where they were supposed to go on the opposite side, and plugged them in. If they didn't fit I cut the wires and spliced. Once I was relatively sure I had it all close enough I just plugged it in and started testing things. I had a dash harness, battery, and some cables in the house that I used to power it up. That of course was after about 3 hours spend with a multimeter, and test leads tracing out the printed circuit and figuring out exactly which pins did what.

Then I acquired two 3rd gen Ranger engine harnesses and a 94 Explorer harness, again sat down with the books, and started re-pinning. It is fairly common knowledge that the Explorer harness is pinned differently than the Ranger harness, but at the end of the day they both run the same lights, same accessories, and same engine, so I figured that with the right parts and diagrams it can be made to be the same thing. Most of the wires go in the same spots, but some are a little different, most notably the wires for the rear lights in the Explorer don't pass through the engine bay, or the bulkhead connector. They stay inside the body the whole time, so I had to add those wires out of the one Ranger harness. The biggest thing that made this a little difficult is that I pretty much had to have two Ranger harnesses, one to take the big connector off of, and one to look at, because the plugs are not the same. The unused pins in each one are blocked off. To add to all that I have some plugs from the original 88 harness spliced into the Explorer harness to connect the rear of the vehicle to the powers/controls.

So basically I have an 89 Ranger dash harness, going into a 94 Explorer harness, to run a 92 4.0L, and it is all dressed up as an 87 Ranger.


Did that answer the question?




Also, I have to odd tick with it running, but I'm not sure what it is. I'm not even sure it is something to worry about. If all else was correct I might think it was lifter tick, but it isn't missing at all, so I have to think I am getting full valve lift. Also, I don't have any exhaust hooked up after the Y-pipe, so yeah, it's loud and hard to hear anything really well. For all I can tell it might just be really loud injectors. It might also be in the exhaust, and something that I can only hear because the cats and mufflers aren't hooked up yet. It's just so dang loud from the open exhaust that it is hard to tell.

So basically,

 

[jhammel85]

Congrats on getting it running! And yeah, If you don't know where everything goes, you did a good job of seeming prepared on here! LOL.

Good work man, good work.

 

[doorgunner]

Ti.........errrrrrrrr..........It runs!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[adsm08]

Made a little more progress tonight. I realized that the front turn/marker lights will be much easier than I though since the sockets will latch right into the 87 lenses, but look like they take 3057 bulb instead of the ancient twist-lock ones that are in there now, so yay.

Cleaned in the engine bay a bit and got it looking half decent.





I have the exhaust done up correctly-ish now (a pipe plug a size too small and a lot of orange RTV in the EGR port isn't exactly "professional" but it is functional for the moment), and now I am certain that I have a somewhat disturbing tick in the top end. It might just be the lifters not pumped up yet, but I am a bit worried about it.

Do new rods and rockers have a break in where they will make noise? I really never deal with OHV engines at work.


Now, to dispel some vicious rumors I have heard lately that suggest anything I do looks "professional". My pedals...



That's not a great pic, it's actually worse than it looks there.

I left WAY too much slack on my new dimmer switch wiring.

 

[adsm08]

She looks much nicer now. The engine bay is still a mess because I take the hood off all of a sudden I don't see fenders and core support and cowl, I see a giant tool try, but the cab is almost back together.

I need get the shifter bolted down tight and put the boots back in, the dimmer and it's wiring need secured, and the last belt trim panel at the right side (the big long one) and the headlight knob need replaced because they didn't survive.

I still have to fix the starter wiring, the trigger wire seems to have broken somewhere along the line, but I have an old battery cable to put in there instead of the 16 gauge joke I replaced that battery cable with a few years ago. I also have to tie in the rear side and rear marker lights yet. Need a two-tone horn as well. It sounds like a demented duck at the moment. Then I just need a connector to hook up the wiper motor.

Radio, and surprisingly the dome light, are now fixed. Bad fuse on the 12V constant memory line was the hold up. Apparently the Panasonic radios that I use need that 12V constant to wake up, and if you take it away the radio can't turn on.

Also, I am no longer worried about this ticking noise. I checked oil pressure today, it was good, so I stepped back from my crazy neuroses for a minute, started the engine, and listened to it as if it was a customer's car with an engine that I hadn't just re-built, and realized that it is an exhaust leak, probably near one of the collectors at the Y-pipe.

I didn't snap any pics today because I was in a hurry.

 

[adsm08]

Here she is, right before the first test run:


I went .9 miles, freaked out, and went back, so total 1.8 miles on the new engine.

Not 100% sure why I got myself all psyched out, snapped, and turned back. It runs great, but that tick is NOT and exhaust leak. I think it may actually be a bum lifter. After I got back I left it run, grabbed the stetsy-scope and poked around. The injectors do hammer a bit, but quieted down as they got warmer. The noise cannot be hear well in the valve cover or head, but can be heard in the oil pan and block, seems to be loudest at the top of the block in line with cylinder 2.

Also, the temp gauge does not work correctly. I really doubt it is over-heating at all, but the temp gauge did not come up at all, and it was def at temp. I'll have to test the circuitry and the sensor.


However, aside from the wipers and the reverse lights, which can't be tested yet because I don't have the right connectors to hook them up yet, everything else electrical is working as best I can tell, but I still think the tach is off.

 

[SenorNoob]

Ok, I rescind my "professional" statement (ya happy?).
Just so you know what I consider professional though:
I don't have a single crimp or solder in my connections. Or heat shrink.

I have been wondering why you decided to bring the 4.0 harness into the dash. All the necessary connections (at least for a full manual vehicle) exist under the hood. Right at the spot where the big plug is on the 89+ models.

BTW, are those jeep wheels on your truck? If so have you had problems with them rubbing? I ask cause I had a set like that on my truck and they rubbed the top of the brake calipers. Wasn't all the way around though, so maybe my wheels were just warped.

 

[brinker88]

Those are OEM ford ranger wheels from back in the day. Truck looks good, Eric.

 

[adsm08]

Made it do some real work. Hauled a 900lb load down to scrap this morning and she ended up back in the garage when I got home.

I picked up a huge screw at the scrap yard, it was almost flat when I got home. Gonna have to patch it at work Monday.

 

[doorgunner]

900#

and i was impressed with the 500 I hauled from Biloxi

 

[adsm08]

Ok, so I figured out why the fuel and temp gauges weren't working today. There is a power wire in the gen1 harness that isn't in the gen 2 harness. It supplies key-on power to those two. I went and found a wire that had a pin to fit the connector and hooked it to one of the other power line, popped it in place, and then got a puff of smoke when I turned it on. Not sure what I burnt, but the fuel gauge did go to the top, which so far is a good sign since there are 9.5 miles on the tank. I didn't run it at all to see if the temp gauge works right, or at all, yet. Gonna take it on a nice 80 mile run tomorrow, that should be about half a tank, so I will know by the end of the day if they are working correctly.

 

[adsm08]

If you don't know where everything goes, you did a good job of seeming prepared on here!

The stuff I post on here only shows when I make progress or find out that I screwed something up really bad. These posts rarely reflect the hours of "WTF?", staring at it and scratching my head, and hooking things up with jumper wires and light bulbs to see if the circuit is going to work correctly before I hook up a part that I could fry.

I def didn't show the hour I spent trying to plug a baro sensor into a cam sensor plug before I realized what it was really for.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

The stuff I post on here only shows when I make progress or find out that I screwed something up really bad. These posts rarely reflect the hours of "WTF?", staring at it and scratching my head, and hooking things up with jumper wires and light bulbs to see if the circuit is going to work correctly before I hook up a part that I could fry.

I def didn't show the hour I spent trying to plug a baro sensor into a cam sensor plug before I realized what it was really for.

You should post those experiences so us intellectually changed, learn by ruining the part the first attempt people don't feel so bad lol