Wiring BW1354 to AWD harness questions

[stretchstick]

I will be starting a V8 swap in the next week...


The donor is a '99 AWD Mountaineer, 5.0 and 4r70w.

The recipient is a '99 Ranger, 4.0 OHV with 5 speed manual and BW1354.


I want to ditch the Mountaineer AWD case and use the Rangers selectable BW1354. I already had the 4r70w rebuilt and an Advance Adapters tailshaft installed to accommodate the Rangers BW1354.

I bought the Mountaineer complete and intend on swapping over all wiring from the engine, the engine bay, the dash and the cab. There is a lot more wiring in the Mountaineer cab harness than needed, but my only area of concern is the transfer case shift motor and selector wiring.

I should mention the Ranger does not have power windows or locks. I have sourced up a GEM from another '99 Ranger that was the exact same drivetrain, but equipped with power windows and locks.


I have already stripped all harnesses from the Mountaineer. I also pulled another cab harness from a salvage yard Ranger of the same year I'm working on, just for comparing.

It appears that, even though the Mountaineer was AWD, some of the selectable case wiring is embedded in the cab harness (I assume Ford used the same harness for both the 5.0 AWD and 4.0 selectable). It also looks like the 4.0 in the SUV used the BW1354 but was, for lack of a better word, a 'hybrid'? Kind of a selectable AWD case?


Anyway...

... from the Mountaineer harness, I have tracked down -

- the plug under the drivers seat that goes to the transfer case, it was just an open plug and did not have the pigtail to the transfer case.

- traced this section of harness back to where the relay pack plugs in behind the dash. It just had a plug on the end with no wires.

Comparing these plugs to the Ranger cab harness, I've noticed -

- the one under the seat of the Mountaineer is larger, with more wires compared to the Ranger.

- the one under the dash of the Mountaineer (for the relay packs) is the same size, but the alignment pins on top are reversed.


So, what would be the simplest way to wire the selectable 1354 to this harness? Could it be as simple as removing the wire and pins from the Mountaineer harness connectors and replace them with the connectors from the Ranger?

... but, an original pigtail from the connector under the seat on a selectable Mountaineer (I scavenged one up from a 4.0) is square-ish and consists of 14 (or so) wires, where the Rangers is round-ish and only 8 wires (these plugs being at the transfer case shift motor). I assume the extra wires in the Mountaineer are for the front and rear wheel speed sensors? Can I use the Ranger pigtail and do away with the extra wires, or should I be looking into a shift motor to match the SUV pigtail?

... and for the selector switch wiring, I assume these come from the newly acquired Ranger GEM?

Sorry if this is a muddled mess (I tend to overthink things, to the death), and thank you for any insight you may be able to provide.

David

 

[Curious Hound]

I’m not sure how the AWD controls work. It may be an entirely different animal from the 1354. You need complete wiring diagrams from both in order to figure out how to fix the wiring.

 

[JoshT]

Well I did this swap myself a few weeks/months ago except I kept the AWD. I think I might be able to help with some basics.

First off, save yourself a lot of headache, forget swapping in the Explorer's harness. Yes they are the same year and both Ranger based vehicles, but the harness are very different. Your best option if you want to add power windows and door locks is to install them as standalone systems using factory components. The only thing those circuits need from the vehicle is power and ground. For remote door locks, I'd go with a properly installed aftermarket security system.

The AWD does not have any transfer case controls. As far as the electrical or electronics in the AWD Mountaineer know it is a 2wd vehicle. I can not tell you about the 4.0's Torque-on-demand transfer case, but the transfer case wiring does not exist in the V8 Explorers that I have been around.

Controls for the transfer case in your Ranger are seperate from the engine and transmission wiring. If you retain your Ranger's chassis harness and 4x4 GEM, you simply plug the transfer case back into the same connector after the swap in finished. That's why I left all of my wiring in place, wrapped, and tucked away. If I want or need to swap back to 4wd in the future, the components are already there.