92 5.0 exp swap gauges

[Kurt.king870s]

I've been planning on swapping an explorer 5.0 into my 92 ranger sometime, but haven't found a clear answer concerning gauges. Can the 92 gauges be spliced into the exp. harness? I don't want to clutter my dash with gauges, so I'd really like to wire the originals to work.

I also don't like the look of the exp. gauges, so I don't want to do a cluster swap.

 

[RonD]

There are only 2 "engine" gauges, coolant temp and Oil Pressure, and they would be same or just a sender change.
Oil Level is an idiot light and you would need an oil pan with that sensor

Tachometer is a different story, and that would require either an interface or V8 tach swap.
Interface is seen here: http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=127/category_id=311/mode=prod/prd127.htm

What year V8 computer and harness?

You will also need Speedometer cable compatible transmission, since the 1992 speedometer uses a cable
Rangers and explorers lost speedometer cables in 1995, when they got electronic dash
But the speedo cable hook up was still on transmissions and transfer cases until 1997, Ford just put a VSS(vehicle speed sensor) in place of a cable.
And 1990 and up transmissions had speedo cable with VSS units installed
VSS was used for Cruise Control and computer from 1990-1994

 

[Kurt.king870s]

Thanks! I was mostly wondering about those and I didn't know if the volt meter was that simple or if it received a different signal from a sensor elsewhere. Sometimes things are overcomplicated. I have seen people using the f150 tach, but I didn't know if that was the only good option.

As far as what year donor, I don't know yet, whatever I find cheap, although I'll us an m5-r2 and I know where I can get a 70s np205 for cheap, so I'll have the cable speedometer.

I check my oil every week or two at least, and watch for drips, so i'm not too worried there.
Thanks for the info

 

[deathbypsi]

Why use the factory gauges? This pic is before I finished it but my cluster only has "3" gauges in it but I have everything monitored.

Speedhut custom gauges.
Oil,water,volts and fuel level in one.
GPS speedo in another.
And a tach.
I have a shift light and programmable warning lights.

 

[Kurt.king870s]

Is that the original panel? It looks like it would fit the 80s trucks, but I have the 90s style cluster.
But if I could swap in something like that, I might just do that.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

If you poke around baddad went into how to adjust a second gen tach to read right with a v8.

Nothing else will care aside from the t-case lights because the 205 doesn’t have a switch.

 

[deathbypsi]

Is that the original panel? It looks like it would fit the 80s trucks, but I have the 90s style cluster.
But if I could swap in something like that, I might just do that.

I cut out most of the original bezel and bolted that textured plastic over it and laid out my own gauges.


On my last 90 B2 i used the factory cluster with my v8 swap and I put a full size Bronco tach in my cluster. Worked perfect and looked stock. Still have it under a bench.