Yes, your on track, i just preffer a stick to auto and was having no luck finiding it online, 89Ranger.
5liter, i am still a noob to this, though i have owned 2 Rangers before(01 2w & 04 4x4) and want to buy another. I loved both of those trucks! and found out you could do a 5.0 swap and regret that i sold both for a civic.
What little research i have done, will a M5OD-R1HD transmission work and i have never messed with the harness, trying to find pics and parts to make a list and when i get back to the States buy the Ranger and Explorer and take my time to learn and swap over all parts to the Ranger. If memory serves me right i want to swap the 01 explorer into an 01 Ranger, i think it said they where compatable?!(sorry for misspells)
Again i'm in the research phase(making a list of all parts).