B2 4.0 Swap

[lowsinthe20s]

Question on the wiring.

I have taken everything out of the engine bay. Do I need any wiring passed the bulk head on the drivers side? I'm not using the Explorer Dash.

I also read somewhere that the headlight wiring will not work for the B2. I'm not sure if that was for the pre 89 models or not. Wiring appears to be the same on the B2. Can anyone confirm that? Thank you

Does anyone know the answer to the above? Thank you!

 

[gaz]

@lowsinthe20s ,

Hello,
If you have wires from the donner auto's cab, it will be remarkably simpler to use them with your swap. I love the Gen 1 dash but to make my swap simpler, I decided to swap to the donor dash also.

If I had not, it would be far, far more complicated than the simple plug and play. There are several good write ups in the Ranger Tech pages that discuss what you are asking, though not necessarily in the clearest sense.

Regardless of which dash you decide to use, if you have access to complete engine bay and cab wiring harness, that is a VERY good way to start, regardless of how YOU DECIDE to finish.

I am very good with wiring and may rebuild my entire wire harness but not until I've made the donor harness work.

In regards to your light wiring question, he is what I recommend,

Build a stand alone wire harness just for the head lights. I would power it directly from the battery through relay networks grounded to the chasis and controlled from the stock light control switch in the cab.

If you decide to go this route, there are several write ups in the forums and a basic guideline in the Ranger Tech pages. My write up is titled something like "Being Seeing".

 

[lowsinthe20s]

@lowsinthe20s ,

Hello,
If you have wires from the donner auto's cab, it will be remarkably simpler to use them with your swap. I love the Gen 1 dash but to make my swap simpler, I decided to swap to the donor dash also.

If I had not, it would be far, far more complicated than the simple plug and play. There are several good write ups in the Ranger Tech pages that discuss what you are asking, though not necessarily in the clearest sense.

Regardless of which dash you decide to use, if you have access to complete engine bay and cab wiring harness, that is a VERY good way to start, regardless of how YOU DECIDE to finish.

I am very good with wiring and may rebuild my entire wire harness but not until I've made the donor harness work.

In regards to your light wiring question, he is what I recommend,

Build a stand alone wire harness just for the head lights. I would power it directly from the battery through relay networks grounded to the chasis and controlled from the stock light control switch in the cab.

If you decide to go this route, there are several write ups in the forums and a basic guideline in the Ranger Tech pages. My write up is titled something like "Being Seeing".

Thank you for your reply. I'll take a look at those pages. By dash do you mean the gauge cluster not the actual dash correct? My B2 is an 89 and looks almost exactly the same as the Explorer.

I have already taken out all the wiring in the Explorer engine bay to swap over to the B2.

 

[Shran]

Thank you for your reply. I'll take a look at those pages. By dash do you mean the gauge cluster not the actual dash correct? My B2 is an 89 and looks almost exactly the same as the Explorer.

I have already taken out all the wiring in the Explorer engine bay to swap over to the B2.

There may be some minor differences but in general your dash harness (not the dash itself) should work for your 4.0 swap. 89-94 RBVs are really easy to swap parts around on, I think gaz was referring to swapping 2nd gen (89-92/93/94) parts into a 1st gen (83-88.) 1st gen has a vastly different dash, wiring, etc.

As far as your headlight question - I believe you can use the headlight harness that you have already. But you'll have to double check all of the plugs on that and your dash harness to make sure that they match up to the correct locations on your engine harness. Redoing the headlight harness is only necessary if you're 4.0 swapping a 1st gen truck.