Retrofitting Air Conditioning>

[DonovanJM]

I have a '99 XL with no A/C and am thinking about doing the Explorer 5.0 swap and got to wondering if while I'm swapping out the engine if it was possible to add A/C at the same time. Does anyone have any experience with this? Or any advice? It sure would be nice to have A/C in my truck. Not absolutely necessary but it would be nice. I tried doing a search but didn't really find anything specific to what I am looking to do. Though my search parameters may be bad.
Thank you,
Donovan

 

[fastpakr]

I think you can use most if not all of the engine compartment pieces from the Explorer, but I'm not at all sure what's involved on the interior side. At the very least you'd need the control unit from a '99 Ranger with A/C.

 

[DonovanJM]

I think you can use most if not all of the engine compartment pieces from the Explorer, but I'm not at all sure what's involved on the interior side. At the very least you'd need the control unit from a '99 Ranger with A/C.

The control unit from the Explorer won't fit? I was kinda hoping that the dash was pretty much all the same. I guess that would be too easy, huh?

 

[fastpakr]

As I recall it was different. Not positive though - my donor is long gone.

 

[DonovanJM]

As I recall it was different. Not positive though - my donor is long gone.

Oh well. Getting most of it in one place it better than having to search all over the place. If all I need to find is the controller that is good for me!
Thank you!

 

[fastpakr]

Please understand - this is what I believe the case to be. I used the Explorer hoses, condenser, etc. when swapping the engine over. The evaporator housing I'm not sure of. There are certain weird differences between the Explorer and Ranger that do come bite you sometimes. For example, the air cleaner design looks identical from a few feet away but is not mounted the same way so you have to get creative to secure it. It's entirely possible that the same holds true in parts of the AC that I didn't try to reuse from the Explorer.

 

[DonovanJM]

Ahh, ok. Makes sense. I may still have to do some junkyard searching. No big deal. I think having the majority already available will be biggest thing.

 

[RonD]

In 1999 Rangers the AC system is computer controlled...................not sure on Explorer but should be as well

On the 5.0l PCM(computer) look at pins 41, 69, and 86 those 3 are used for the AC activation

86 wire is from the pressure switches, it is a ground if switches/pressures are OK
41 is the 12volts when panel selector is on AC, or defrost, or panel/floor
69 uses the Ground from 86 to Ground the AC clutch relay to activate it and sends 12volt to Compressor clutch

So 41 gets 12volts, then PCM connects 89 and 69 together, AC on

The components in the AC system should all be the same, but as said heater box may not be, and larger AC heater box may need to be trimmed for V8 install

 

[DonovanJM]

In 1999 Rangers the AC system is computer controlled...................not sure on Explorer but should be as well

On the 5.0l PCM(computer) look at pins 41, 69, and 86 those 3 are used for the AC activation

86 wire is from the pressure switches, it is a ground if switches/pressures are OK
41 is the 12volts when panel selector is on AC, or defrost, or panel/floor
69 uses the Ground from 86 to Ground the AC clutch relay to activate it and sends 12volt to Compressor clutch

So 41 gets 12volts, then PCM connects 89 and 69 together, AC on

The components in the AC system should all be the same, but as said heater box may not be, and larger AC heater box may need to be trimmed for V8 install

So it sounds like everything from the explorer should worth with the possible exception of the AC heater box (too big) and the controller. That sounds super doable to me. Thank you for the pin information as well! That will come in very handy!