I'm converting the automatic in my 94 explorer to a M5OD-R1 five speed transmission. I got the manual wire harness from the donor truck and it plugs into the existing connectors, but it's missing a connector for the evap canister. Should I just use the automatic harness and modify it to bypass the clutch safety switch and wire a switch for backup lights? Or use the manual harness and wire the evap canister to the ecm?

I'm not much of an electrician, just trying to find the correct way to do this so the truck runs good.

 

It's hard to say without seeing the wiring harness and connectors. Personally, I don't like to cut into the factory wiring and I would try to preserve safety features, especially if anyone else will be driving your Explorer. I assume you have the wiring schematics with the connector pinouts and other vital information. If not, get your hands on the schematics somehow. shorod seems to have quite a collection so maybe you can beg, bribe or otherwise convince him to assist.

If the pins/sockets for the evap are populated at the ECM connector for your manual harness (they should be), then trace that wiring to the next connector and so on until you find the connector where the evap wiring ends. Then, undo your automatic wiring bundle (assuming you don't care about preserving it) from the evap connector to the equivalent intermediate connector. Extract the pins/sockets from the intermediate connector and remove the wiring/pins/sockets/evap connector from the automatic bundle and transplant it into your manual bundle. If there is no intermediate connector, extract the evap wiring from the evap connector all the way back to the ECM connector, including the pins/sockets at the ECM.

I have yet to see a connector where you can't extract the pins or sockets, but the trick is figuring out how to do it without breaking anything. So, be patient and gentle when prying tabs up, tugging on wires, etc.

That's the approach I would take if it's possible. I place a pretty high value on maintaining the wiring as close to factory original as possible so I would spend the extra time attempting to do this. I know other people who wouldn't hesitate to hack into the wiring to save a little time. The risk with cutting and splicing is that you have new connections that may corrode or break.

 

It's been confirmed by other people who did this swap that you can splice a couple wires on the auto harness to bypass the neutral safety switch, then you can splice some wires for backup lights and 4x4 low. But would this mean that no wires connect to the trans at all?

I'm still a little confused on how to join the evap canister wires to the manual harness.

 

In simple terms, I would remove the evap connector and related wiring from the auto wiring harness and transplant it to the manual wiring harness. There's a big "if" to this and it's if the wiring harness construction allows and you don't want to preserve the auto wiring harness. Again, my goal when I do stuff of this nature is to not cut into factory wiring or use those quick splice wire nuts. That's just me. I'm picky.

You would need the wiring diagrams to know which locations to put the pins/sockets of the wires you're transplanting to the manual. Likewise, if you go the auto harness route, you'd still need the wiring diagrams to see what goes where.