Converting a 92 Ranger to a 4 banger turbo Diesel?

[Spartan]

Hey all.

My friend and I are in a pickle. He picked up a 86 ranger 4X4 with the 2.3 Turbodiesel engine in it. After messing with the motor a bit, we decided that his cab and box are pretty shot. He picked up an immaculate 92 4X4 with a blown 2.9 in it, so we want to swap the 86 engine/driveline into the 92 chassis.

The 86 will eventually be restored back to like-new condition, and at that time we'd either swap the motor back or pick up another 2.3 TD to go in it. Its not going to die completely!!

A couple of questions though:

1. Can we get the 92 cluster to work with the sensor inputs from the 86? What is involved with with this swap? We want all teh guages to operate correctly, but the warning lights are obviously not going to be the same.

2. since we will be using the Transfer case and everything from the 86, is there going to be a problem with the speedometer working correctly?

Any help would be great with this, as we just want to make sure that we get the TD engine up and running in the newer body style so we can concentrate on the total restore of the 86. Plus, I think it would be an awesome combo.

 

[rurouni20xx]

your talking foreign territory to pretty much everybody here. there isnt much info on the diesel ranger as they were limited production. since you have a donor truck and are swapping the entire engine/trans/transfer/driveshafts the easiest thing to do would be also swap your dash and use the 92 speedo cable. your going to be changing the engine harness and ecu as well so that isnt too much more work. hate to tell you that but its the easiest way to ensure there are no problems. the difference your going to run into speedometer wise is if the gear ratios in the differentials are different. in the speedometer section of the tech library or somewhere in this forum (trans section i think..cant remember which) they show the different color speedometer gears for each rear end ratio to correct the speedometer. you can purchase those from ford, or if your lucky and the 92 2.9 trans is the same series (m50d for example) you can simply use the speedometer gear off of that transmission on your cable.

 

[svoking]

Actually the turbo diesel uses the same gauge cluster as any other 86 ranger. the real question is will a 92 cluster plug in to an 86 harness and work? And yes I own the 2.3 TDR.

 

[rurouni20xx]

not sure if the plugs are the same on the back of the clusters and if the pins are the same, thats why i said use your 86 cluster/wiring and it will work withoutadoubt.

 

[Spartan]

He wants to keep the 92 Ranger dash and such, and we are planning on using the TD Harness. We MIGHT be putting a T-bird cluster in instead of the stock 92 cluster though.

 

[Spartan]

BTW, good to see you Aaron!!