I have a ranger that I have been working on for about 2 years now. It started off as a 1988 4x4 ranger with a 2.9. My dad drove this truck for a long time and about 8 years ago he parked it. The body was ruined on it and the engine locked up. I few years ago I decided to fix it. I pulled the body off of the frame and bought a 1989 2 wheel drive truck pulled the body off of it and put it on the 4x4 frame. It went a while with out an engine until I contacted someone over the internet that didnt need there engine. I went and pulled the engine and wiring harness from the truck. It was an 86 model 2.9. So now I have a 1989 body with the 1989 wiring harness, I have a 1986 engine with complete wiring harness but I have no idea where to get started to make that engine run...I was wondering if any of you have any ideas besides putting a 302 in it as to how I should do this. I would really like to put a carburetor on it and be done with! Help Please!

 

Grady, dont panic! you have all the right stuff and with a little guidance from this forum and a good haynes manuel this project wont be near as hard as it looks. There are 3 plugs that connect to the engine harness from the truck harness. There will be a small one tward the rear of the engine bay above the transmission tunnel entrance. The other two are grey and black, shaped the same and connect over the front of the passenger side valve cover. These two are sometimes called the salt and pepper shakers. As long as you left the engine harness connected to the engine you will not have to worry with matching up your injectors to the fireing order. I'm not shure how you would go about that if they are out of order but i'm shure someone here has a good answer for that. The harness should be the same between 86 and 89 assuming the trucks were set up the same (air conditioning namely). the only other plugs you need are the standard assortment of alternator, oil pressure sending unit water temp etc... Bear this in mind. some of these engines came with a low oil level sensor in the side of the oil pan. if the truck had it make shure it is hooked up or find a way to bypass it. Also please dont take this as written scripture or gosple. Most this info comes from just takeing a 2.9 out of an '89 bronco II and putting a new one in. Some of this stuff may be incorrect or incomplete but it's a good start. The fellas on here will correct eachother when we are wrong and we want to help. Take your time and it will work out. Good luck. -Eveready

 

Thanks a lot for the help! I did leave all of the plugs pluged up to the engine but none of the plugs match up to the plugs on the body because in 1989 they cahnged all the wiring, also all the plugs on the body are for the 4 cyl. engine. Thanks again!

 

Ok, there is still hope Grady. I didn't realise the donor body was a 4-cyl. truck. First off you did good with the '86 2.9L. they had a bigger throttle body that is desireable. Did you by chance save the engine bay wireing harness from your old body, the one you removed? if so lay it out along the edge of the engine bay following the existing 4-cyl harness. try to find where it plugs into the chassis harnes and see if you can swap them. They should interchange but the computer wont as best as I can remember.