Yesterday my son and I finished stripping down the partial '99 Explorer I bought as a donor vehicle. I have it down to the rolling 4WD chassis with the floor pan and firewall. As I understand, there were some Explorers with a manual floor shift transmission. I am told they were mainly the two door Sport model. When I got this one stripped down I found the removable cover on the transmission tunnel. Of course I have no idea what they did with the clutch linkage since the one I have was an automatic.

My questions are as follows. One, did they use a mechanical linkage such as a flex cable or was it a hydraulic set up? Two, are there compatible clutch linkage parts used in Rangers? Three, is the brake and clutch pedal a cimbined or integrated unit? And four, if so, do I need to look for the complete set up including vacuum booster and MC or can I use what I have?

For the sake of clarity here, I'll explain what I am doing with this. I am going to use this rolling chassis as a base for my '53 F-100 cab and bed. the wheel base and tracking width is just right for it. The engine, tranny and transfer case I plan on using is a 351W with a 4sp. manual tranny and transfer case from an '83 F-100. Because of the manual tranny I will be needing clutck linkage. I will be integrating and grafting the '53 cab to the remaining Explorer floor pan and firewall. When I do a mock-up test fit I may have to modify the transmission tunnel. Another FTE member has done a similar job using a '93 2WD Explorer but he kept the original engine and drive train of the Explorer. This project is going to be quite a bit more complicated because I am going with the different drive train and going with the 4WD. I am taking pictures as work progresses and as soon as I have enough to post I will have them on my website, www.Darkside53.info in case anyone is interested.

 

The 99 Ranger appears to be identical. Shouldn't be too difficult at all to graft the hydraulics onto the F150 system. As for the pedals just grab a pedal tree and swap it out. Master cylinder & booster should be the same too.

 

Thanks Steve,
Since I have never seen one so I didn't know if it was hydraulic or mechanical. I had assumed it was hydraulic. We spent the day stripping down the '83 F-150 and I can see I will have to mount a slave cylinder down at the bell housing where the clutch arm is because it was all mechanical. Thanks for the heads up.

Later Man...