83-85 Center Console

85_Ranger4x4 · Mar 9, 2017

Anyone been around one? How are they? In the parts book it looks there is some kind of display at the front, what is it?

Like this one, tall with the big garage door thing.

http://findclassicscars.com/ford/129780-1983-ford-ranger-xlt-with-82000-miles.html

adsm08 · Mar 9, 2017

I have seen one of those before, in a truck that was just in terrible shape. I couldn't get in it because of where it was, and how blocked off it was, but I do know something about the displays.

The display has a low fuel light, lamp out warning, and low washer fluid warning. I looked into installing that in my BII a few years ago, got a console, the jumper harness, and then found out you pretty much have to have the correct dash harness to make it work correctly.

For the lamp out warning instead of just making that leg of the circuit be higher resistance than the bulb the put a low-ohm resistor in the line and hooked two wires to the display's computer that monitors voltage drop across the resistor. The wiring diagrams for the system show the resistance of that section needs to be correct within .0012 ohms, so really tight tolerance. There are also notes on the pages saying to not attempt wiring repair, but to replace the whole harness if there are wiring issues, so I would think this is not the kind of thing most of us could build in the garage.

85_Ranger4x4 · Mar 10, 2017

Makes sense, I have seen that in BII's (seems a lot of them got it)

Sounds like a good place to put something else, I don't think I really need much of that stuff anyway. I had hopes it was something cool like a compass or something.

adsm08 · Mar 10, 2017

Yeah, I have one. I'll take a pic the next time I think about it.

wildbill23c · Mar 11, 2017

I just put a console into my 88 Bronco 2 out of an explorer. No need for those nonsense idiot lights in the console and wasn't about to figure out how to hookup all that crap LOL. I more or less did it for the arm rest and the cup holders anyway.

adsm08 · Mar 11, 2017

wildbill23c said:
I just put a console into my 88 Bronco 2 out of an explorer. No need for those nonsense idiot lights in the console and wasn't about to figure out how to hookup all that crap LOL. I more or less did it for the arm rest and the cup holders anyway.

Pretty much. I got the console cheap and thought I'd be able to wire it up myself. No such luck. If I keep the BII I am going to be looking for an Explorer console, but I am looking for a FSB right now.

wildbill23c · Mar 11, 2017

adsm08 said:
Pretty much. I got the console cheap and thought I'd be able to wire it up myself. No such luck. If I keep the BII I am going to be looking for an Explorer console, but I am looking for a FSB right now.

I found a console like this one in a 94 explorer that was pretty clean and put it in my bronco 2. Works just fine for me and looks like it was supposed to be there in the first place. Only wish I would have pulled the front seats out of it as now I have an extra set of working tracks I could swap over.

The explorer I pulled my console out of just so happened to have the same tan interior as my bronco 2. The one in the picture is one I found on the internet that someone was asking $225 for...yeah umm no thanks...got mine at pick a part for $5 plus all the mounting brackets.

85_Ranger4x4 · Mar 11, 2017

wildbill23c said:
I just put a console into my 88 Bronco 2 out of an explorer. No need for those nonsense idiot lights in the console and wasn't about to figure out how to hookup all that crap LOL. I more or less did it for the arm rest and the cup holders anyway.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Wasn't happy with how it fit, currently I have a bench seat back in it. The display could probably be swapped for a switch panel or something similar.

adsm08 · Mar 11, 2017

That is the console I have in my Ranger right now, except its red. My only issue with it is that I use a lot of tall cups when I drive, and anything taller than a soda can gets in the way in 4th gear. That looks like it is much farther forward in your truck than it is in mine.

85_Ranger4x4 · Mar 11, 2017

adsm08 said:
That is the console I have in my Ranger right now, except its red. My only issue with it is that I use a lot of tall cups when I drive, and anything taller than a soda can gets in the way in 4th gear. That looks like it is much farther forward in your truck than it is in mine.

As far back as it will go... standard cab. It sat higher than it did in an Explorer too.

With the two cup cupholder I couldn't get it into second. With the single (as pictured) I still couldn't get to first.

With either cupholder the shifter in drive the shifter would rest against a large cup in drive... which was kind of nice in a way.

Either way I foresaw major issues with it if I ever happened to sneak up on a 5 speed...

wildbill23c · Mar 11, 2017

Mine works great in the bronco 2, but I could see a major issue in a regular cab ranger...shown in picture LOL.

The ranger ones don't sit as high, at least in the 93 my grandfather had it didn't sit quite as high.

Justion337 · Mar 13, 2017

wildbill23c said:
I found a console like this one in a 94 explorer that was pretty clean and put it in my bronco 2. Works just fine for me and looks like it was supposed to be there in the first place. Only wish I would have pulled the front seats out of it as now I have an extra set of working tracks I could swap over.

The explorer I pulled my console out of just so happened to have the same tan interior as my bronco 2. The one in the picture is one I found on the internet that someone was asking $225 for...yeah umm no thanks...got mine at pick a part for $5 plus all the mounting brackets.

Manual trans? I'm going to be looking for a set of these VW Mk2 GTI Recaro seats(soooo comfy and supportive) for my Ranger and that looks like it would be perfect if it doesn't interfere with the shifter.

wildbill23c · Mar 13, 2017

No my 88 Bronco 2 is an automatic and with the console in position I can still drop into 1st gear. What I did when I installed mine is dropped the transmission to 1st gear, then set the console in place to allow room for the shifter in 1st gear...not that manually shifting to 1st gear is needed often, I wanted to make sure I could if needed. Then once I got the console positioned where I wanted it I marked the locations for the screws to fasten the mounts down then installed the console.

However, with a regular cab truck that may be a bit tricky due to the size of the consoles from an Explorer for example where there is a rear seating area so a bit more room for the console to stick out the back, where with a regular cab truck there isn't any of that extra space.

Those seats look nice but wouldn't work in my Bronco 2 due to the seatbelt setup.

83-85 Center Console

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