How to: Install a Lincoln Town Car Shift Handle - Ford Ranger Forums

sheltonfilms · 02-02-2011

Check out this mod to complement the one shown here.

I went to the Junkyard and picked up a shifter handle from a 1996 Lincoln Town Car for 2 bucks! It looks nicer than the Rangers and is chrome.
Note: These also came on some Crown Vics

Here is what it looks like in my Ranger:

Now on to the How To (very simple).
First thing to do is to remove the lower parts of the dash.
The plastic piece and the metal behind it, and the part surrounding the cluster.
If you don't know how to do this refer to this thread.
To make this easier I lowered the column to give me more room to remove and replace the O/D wire. Just loosen the front two 13 mm nuts on the column.
Now you need to remove you column shroud. (three Phillips head screws at the bottom.)

This pictures are from a removed column but should give you the idea of how to do it:
Unplug the O/D connector (its under the column and usually attached to the ignition harness)

Here is the connector:

Unclip the wire from the steering column (3 places):

Now lets move on to the shifter boot.
There is a clip at the bottom of the boot to the right that needs to be pushed and then wiggle the boot upward.

Then unclip the upper left clip:

Now you can pull the boot up and out of the way.
Now you need to knock out the pin holding the lever in.
You don't need much force (hell you can use a ratchet to knock it out). Hit it upward and you can pull it right out.

Here is a pic of it removed:

Now all you have to do is install by reversing the steps.

sheltonfilms · 02-05-2011

Ok so I've had some time to figure out how to get the Multifunction switch modded for the Ranger. I took all the pins out of the weird shaped connector on my ranger and replaced the connector with the one for the Lincoln. All the pins are the same but 2. They need to be repositioned and the reason you need the other connector is because of the extra slot it has for one of those wires to be repinned.

Now here comes the fun part (the square connector) according to my wiring manual for my 2000. The resistances generated by the wiper **** to signal how fast the wipers should go are the exact same as the lincolns.

So I hooked up the repinned connector and square one unmodded. Hazzards, Turn signals, brake lights, high beams, low beams, flash to pass worked. The wiper sprayer worked BUT the wipers weren't right. At each selection the wipers didn't work until on high and after put on high they wouldn't reset until the negative battery cable is pulled.

I physically checked the resistances on MY switch and they are showing big time differences than my manual. Looking at other year manuals the resistances I'm showing are the same as a 1999 and 2001 and different than the Lincoln. Doing a part cross showed that a 2000 switch is the same from 1999-2003 so I'm really confused. I had an 1998 explorer switch and I plugged it in and it did the same thing with the wipers.

I could understand if my ranger was made in late 2000 since ford does half years. But my truck was manufactured in Jan 00.

sheltonfilms · 02-05-2011

Update on my last post:

I did some more research and I found out that starting in 1999 Ford redesigned the switch for the Rangers( and others). So now they have different resistor values than the 1996 Lincoln which means the only way to get the Lincoln switch to work (for the wipers) is to pull out the resistors in the stalk and replace the with the ones you already have. ARRRRRGGGG!