silly question. The new tranny has two electrical connectors near the gearshift lever -- one, i am sure, is the neutral switch. What could the other one be?

 

Reverse light switch.

 

makes sense. Better than tach, that should be easier off the distributor.

 

There should be another electrical connection, or at least a hole, somewhere in the tail shaft for the speedometer.

 

yup, same dimension as the F27A; the gear may not be the same, though

 

What's the ID tag on the new transmission?

I believe that all M5OD transmissions use the same number of speedometer drive teeth on the output shaft.

 

E77A

Its a Toyo/Kogyo tranny.

 

I don't think there should be an issue with the speedometer with that transmission. FWIW, I asked my buddy at the local Ford dealer parts department and he told me that all Rangers take the same speedometer driven gears, which in turn are the same parts Ford had been using since the 60s.

 

Bart, that's good to know...

Paul, I love projects like this, especially of this vintage, I don't know much about newer Rangers, but have spent a lot of time and energy researching and working on older (Gen-1/2's) Rangers. I really hope you get this going, just so there is another Gen 2 on the road, not to mention I love the 2.3l and get amazing satisfaction in saying someone is swapping a 3.0l out for a 2.3l!!! And the Toyo Kogyo is my personal pick for best RBV trans ever offered, I've owned all 3 types, I've never had a good Mitsubishi, and have had at least one Mazda die on me, but every Toyo I've owned has been rock solid well past 150,000, the one in my '85 has almost 160,000 and is as tight and quiet as it was new! It's all just my opinion, but I think the powertrain you're assembling is rock solid! Keep us posted!

 

that is encouraging.

I can't get the fellow who sold me the Toyo to be home (funny, he still works for a living!) to let me scavenge the old clutch, other fittings, etc., so I went ahead today with reinstalling the tranny. The clutch wasn't centered quite well enough and had to be readjusted, but, eventually, everything got bolted and torqued up.

I used a 2x4 through the cab windows just in front of the mirrors to support a rachet-buckle strap to help lift the tranny into place and then to adjust the angle. The engine just had one strap up to my come-along, attached to the rear "lift-ring" on the exhaust manifold. That way I could adjust the angle of the engine. It just rocks on the mounts for now.

The tranny to engine bolts went in far easier than the ones came out of the F27A tranny on the 3.0 engine (still available at a deep discount ) I actually had to cut one of those off with a hacksaw. Next shot will be to reconnect the crossbrace and driveshaft. Then I'll put the starter on before letting the '92 down off the service ramps.

I expect I'll be at this at least another three weeks (Mama says the tow-truck shows up Thanksgiving morning)

 

in case anyone might still be interested-- work is progressing. I fabricated a hydraulic clutch connection to slave cylinder fitting by cutting the one in two from the F27A to remove the check valve portion...drilled and tapped the remainder for 1/8" pipe thread and put an elbow->barbed fitting assm. on it. so far, the barbed fitting has broken twice and I might try a bigger one that requires drilling/reaming out the hydraulic hose a bit more. Also, the fella who sold me the tranny finally came home and said he would bring me all the clutch cylinder parts, etc.

The Toyo/Kogyo tranny floor stick sits 5 inches or so further back on the tranny, meaning I had to cut out an additional hole in the hump to clear everything. The tranny mount wound up 2" off, so had to drill three new holes in the frame for the cross member. The drive shaft from the '92 was exactly the right length, but the spline to tranny was too big and I had to take apart the U-joints from the two shafts to swap splines, then everything went o.k.

The clutch master cylinder wouldn't drain through to purge air, so I took it out of the truck to the bench where a couple of hammer slaps freed up whatever was stuck inside. After that, purging the air out of the system went well, if slowly, by hooking up an old IV line from the slave cylinder purge valve to the fluid well... first, I sucked the extra air out of the master cylinder with a short piece of IV line, using a wire in the end of the tubing to help put the hose into the hole in the base of the well without having to look for it every cycle...

The old fuel lines for the V-6 ran in a loop from inside the frame to above the frame, but the L-4 engine fuel connections are a little further back. I had to pull the SS lines out from under the steering column and bend them a bit to line them up with the 2.3 engine fuel connections (garter connectors).

The radiator, shroud, fan and water hoses went in today without too much trouble. Everything on the '92 was in the same place as the '91.

The throttle cable from the foot pedal to the throttle is the same length, but has a slightly different mounting that required me to drill a new hold in the mounting plate to hold the cable properly.

I think I'll put the A/C system back together tomorrow, and so I am fast approaching the hard part -- adapting the under hood wiring from the 2.3 to the electrical system left from the 3.0. Hopefully, it will prove to be a case of finding the major junction points, plugging in the harness from the 2.3 and, after looking everythingover, putting a battery back in and crossing my fingers.. oh, yes, I think I'll need to change the computer chip, too.

Anyone have a really good idea about this electrical situation?

Paul in Gainesville

 

Thanks for the update Paul, I'm glad to hear things are going together. I'll remember the driveshaft being the same length, that bit of info may come in useful at some point... I'll be interested to see what the wiring involves, but I'm sure you'll get it figured out! Keep us updated!

 

some progress -- lots of wiring problems that led to a complete changeout of underhood wiring. I am not convinced that every wire in the big 'doughnut' in the firewall correlates exactly to what I need for the 2.3, and, certainly, the connectors that go back to the fuel pump and rear lights are different. That meant cutting one set of connectors off and matching up the colors of the wires -- it seems to have worked, because I suddenly had fuel pump. The starter solenoid needed a new hot lead off the ignition switch "start" position in order to work.

Then, suddenly, there was nothing to do but to turn the key and see if it would start -- believe it or not, it started immediately and ran smoothly.

Bled the clutch again....

I still have dash lights all the time, key on or off, light switch on or off....I can turn them almost off with the rheostat, but it still bugs me. I might try the light switch from the old truck just to see what happens.

The more I look at the interior of this new truck, the more I realize it was in a flood at some point. sand up under the dash, etc. But it doesn't seem to have done any major damage, and looks like it can be vacuumed out.

Can't wait to give it a spin, assuming the clutch is actually working. I don't think much of the jimmyrig I did on the hydraulic connector, but it hasn't fallen apart, yet.

Keep your fingers crossed for me -- light a candle if you are so inclined -- I think I'll try to move it tomorrow.

Paul in Gainesville.

 

after some futszing around with wires that somehow got the dash lights to behave, it was time to take the project truck off the blocks and into the driveway. (Mama has been making noises about wanting her garage back.)

The short story is that the clutch isn't working, yet. I bled and bled two days ago and thought no more air was left, but either I was wrong, or the configuration is all screwed up.

I have read several horror stories about bleeding clutches that involve even more days than I have used up, already, so I guess I'll have to try again. Push comes to shove, if the jimmyrigged hydraulic connector is somehow at fault, I'll see what has to be done about that when I'm sure all else has failed.

Paul in Gainesville