Has anyone done this swap yet? Have a 2000 Ranger 2wd 4.0 and a 2000 5.0 2wd explorer and want to put the ranger on the explorer frame and drive train.
Let's hear your thoughts?
The issue is the body mounts don't line up.
The springs for the Explorer are directly under the frame while the spring for the Ranger are outside the frame*. As a result, there's nothing but air where you want to install the box bolts. The solution is your have to make cross members to provide mounts - the box is too narrow to drill holes further out.
Moving forward, the same wider Explorer frame, results in the Ranger cab mounting locations lining up directly with structure. If I remember correctly, the rear cab mount was still in unboxed portion of the Explorer frame, so you could modify the frame to install the cab mount on the inside (there might have been some spacers requires to get the cab to sit flat and there was a judicious amount of "modification to the cab mount.).
The mid cab (front of driving compartment)mounts, have the same issue of cab hole lining with the frame. At this point the frame is boxed so no easy way to install. I think we made a very precise hole in the frame for the cab bolt. Then strategically trimmed the cab mount so it would fit inside box and threaded it into place. (the wire through frame method used to thread bolt for the trailer hitch in unibody kind of thing). Then we threaded a stud into the cab mount, so we wouldn't lose the mount when we lowered the cab on. It made installing the cab a lot more precise but it reduced the risk of having to remove the cab and start again.
The front cab mounts either lined up fairly close or weren't and much of an issue to get at or the by the time the other 10 mounts were done I didn't care - their solution just doesn't stand out...
*It's that couple inches of extra width between the frame rails that allowed the Explorer to move the gas tank ahead of the rear axle compare to the earlier Bronco II.
The last one I did, I lifted body off Explorer/cab off the Ranger and had access to the engine just like it was on the Ford assembly line. But then I have access to the tools to be able to do that.
Note: one should really lift the cab from underneath, i.e. on the cab mounts, so nothing gets bent.
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