Help Please

[nathanmustangii]

I have a 1976 Mustang ii. These cars originally had a 2.8 option. I found a 1984 ford ranger 2.8 l engine that I bought. I bought all of the parts and have already installed the engine and have it hooked up to my 4 speed transmission in my mustang ii. I have the wiring harness that came with the ranger 2.8 and I have the wiring harness that came with my mustang ii. I am at the point of wiring. Any tips anyone has would be appreciated. I am wondering if I can use my original wiring harness in my mustang ii and just modify it to work with the 2.8 from the ranger. What do you guys think?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Trash the ranger harness and put the II distributor in the ranger engine. Plug and play and keep the vastly better ignition system.

Putting the mustang 2 setup in Rangers is a common upgrade.

If sensors don't line up swap to the ones from your 2 engine.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Does the distributor have the three wires coming out with a vacuum advance? The water temp and oil pressure should just plug in from the old mustang harness you will need the schematic for the mustang and just wire the ranger motor the same. Alternator, voltage regulator, ignition module and guages should all be similar but you may need the sending units for the mustang guages. Just take your time get the schematics take some pics we can see what your working with!

 

[nathanmustangii]

Thank you

I was looking it up with a parts interchange and it says the distributor from the 84 ford ranger is the same at the one that came in the 76 mustang ii. There doesn't appear to be anything coming from the distributor except one main plug. The distributer that was in my ii had that as well. So I may be okay there. I will look at it more soon. I really appreciate your guys help.

 

[nathanmustangii]

Thank you

Trash the ranger harness and put the II distributor in the ranger engine. Plug and play and keep the vastly better ignition system.

Putting the mustang 2 setup in Rangers is a common upgrade.

If sensors don't line up swap to the ones from your 2 engine.

Thank you very much! Do you know anyone who has done this swap or has information online about it?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Thank you very much! Do you know anyone who has done this swap or has information online about it?

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/2_8L_Performance.shtml

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/2_8Duraspark.shtml

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/DurasparkII.shtml

Should give you some reading to digest

I swapped to Duraspark years ago (probably getting close to 10 by now) if you go to the 2.8 forum you will probably find more that have done the swap.

 

[nathanmustangii]

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/2_8L_Performance.shtml

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/2_8Duraspark.shtml

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/DurasparkII.shtml

Should give you some reading to digest

I swapped to Duraspark years ago (probably getting close to 10 by now) if you go to the 2.8 forum you will probably find more that have done the swap.

awesome. thank you so much!

 

[nathanmustangii]

so I have the duraspark module and distributor on my mustang already. the distributor I have is for the 2.3 but I looked up a interchange that says the 2.3 distributor will work on the 2.8 as well. looks like I am on my way.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

They are completely different engines designed on different continents, I doubt they interchange. Get on a parts store's website and compare #'s for sure. A rebuilt one isn't too bad to buy.

I thought you had a 2.8 in your car originally when I said use the dizzy out of your car's previous engine.

 

[nathanmustangii]

i looked up a parts interchange and it showed that the distributor from a 1976 ford 2.8 would fit the 2.3. I then looked up the distributor for the 2.3 and it showed it also fit the 1976 Ford 2.8. At least according to the interchange it should work. I was basically upgrading my mustang with a 2.8 as the 2.3 is dead. now just trying to figure out the wiring to get this 2.8 to work. The 2.8 from the ranger has the electronic modules that my mustang doesn't have so trying to figure out how to make it all work. I my 2.3 and my mustang already had the duraspark setup luckily.