I just saw that and had my buddy at ford order me one. He said its on the way and that there were only 7 left listed anywhere.

I hope you're right, I know the first time I saw the set up I thought it was some aftermarket stuff.

I have the rubber floor mats. Thats going to put a damper on my mood.

 

Well good news! I emailed a picture of the RCM cover to the salvage yard and pics of a stock FX4 level 2 setup to them with a list of parts I need included. The guy there said that after looking at the pics everything in the truck is stock. He said he'd make sure everything was included in the picture. I then asked him what he'd charge to throw in the Fx4 transmission shifter and he said he'd throw it in for free his comment was "it'll just get thrown away so I might as well give it to you." Sweeet! The parts were still all in the truck so they'll be removing them and shipping them my way. Once I have them in my hands I'll post where the yard is at if anyone wants to go pick the bones and get them some tow hooks and other level 2 stuff. So far every other salvage yard i've talked too with FX4 level 2's just yank drivetrains and send the rest to the crusher.

 

You gonna get the floor plate too?

 

^^^ Good call - that's a $300+ part and it's obsolete.

 

Yep! Its supposed to me a complete set up everything I need to do the swap.
Transfer case
linkage
T-case shifter
tranny shifter
Bezel
RCM cover

Anything else I need to get added?

The thing thats scary is that the stuff has to be removed by some guy at a salvage yard. Lord knows they're not the most gifted when it comes to parts removal. I'm not worried about the T-case and stuff but I hope the bezel gets removed in one piece.

 

As Ryan said, be sure to get the floor plate as well. The floor plate fits into the large opening in the tunnel under the carpet and adapts for the various transmission and t-case combos and shifter arrangements. There are different plates for auto, manual and manual/manual. You need the special FX4 manual/manual plate because it has a large rubber diaphram that accommodates the two shift levers. Without it, you would have to cut a custom hole for the t-case shifter and make or adapt an inner boot. The FX4 part will bolt directly into your tunnel without modification and keep dust, water and a lot of noise out of the cab.

 

Bob, do you happen to know the part number or price on that inspection cover? Starting to get more serious about the swap!

Get the pics up of the install when you do it man, anxious to see how it turns out!

 

Ok so when you say the floor plate you mean a metal plate under the carpet. I thought you were refering to the bezel. I'll call the yard on monday and make sure they throw that in. Bob if I get that added to the list will that pretty much take care of everything I need.

Transfer case
linkage
T-case shifter
tranny shifter
Bezel
RCM cover
Floor plate

 

That's call the inspection cover for the trans, but yea, that's the one Bob is talking about.

 

This is a pic of the floor plate. Even if they wanna charge you extra for it get it cause its exclusive to the 02 and 03 two stick trucks and super dooper rare!

 

Thanks RazorsEdge, I'll make sure they toss it in. I slid under my truck the other night and saw that there appears to be a hole in the floor for the T-case shifter already. So the plate just more or less bolts down and holds the rubber boots? I'll make sure they give it to me but wouldn't it probably be the same as earlier Rangers with twin sticks since the body really hasn't changed any?

 

If the truck didn't have a manual case then the floor plate will only have the hole for the trans shifter. Also the floor plate is not the same as the older trucks since the shifter linkage offset is different. The older floor plates also just used a foam type stuff with an inner boot that fit inside of the actual shift boot. The FX4 floor plate, as you can see, has the inner boots built into it.

This plate makes a huge difference in the cab noise, I ran without it for several months and when I was finally able to get my hands on one of these and put it in my truck the cab was much much quieter.

If you decide you don't need it you'd probably be able to sell it for top dollar as well.

 

Did you look to see if you already had a shifter coming up through that hole in the floor like you said? $10 says your transmission shifter comes up through it lol

 

i just cut my floor plate

 

Well there's a right way, and a not so right way. You take your pic at doing it. You've gone this far, just order the floor plate man.

 

or cut the floor plate and get another "gap gaurd" rubber thing from the trans shift and use it for the t-case shifter... thats what im doing on mine

 

The parts shipped on Monday. They should be here Thursday if I'm lucky. He said he included everything on the list and a bit more. He said when it gets here if I need anything else to call him and he'll ship it my way. I hope it all makes it here ok. I'll post when it shows up.

 

Ok well I've been very anxiously awaiting the arrival of the parts to see what I got and what condition it arrived in. Sometimes salvage yard guys are a little rough with stuff. I'm happy to say that the parts are in awesome shape and I believe I got just about everything I need.




You can see in the pics that for some reason they removed that cast steel donut shaped ring off the T-case but included it. What does that thing actually do?

The tailshaft housing and my spare RCM lvl 2 cover are sitting at my buddies dealership and I should have them Saturday. I'm cleaning up all the parts and I'm going to try to get the floor plate and tranny shifter installed by Saturday. That way all I have to do is the tail shaft and T-case swap. Call me crazy but it sure seems like it should go quickly.

One question to the guys with twin sticks. I've read that you can add some wires from the T-case up a plug in the cab and have the lights on the dash work when you put it into 4wd. I don't have any problems adding the wires but I'm wondering do the lvl 2's have a special plug in harness? or is the chassis wiring harness different to accommodate the plug on the manual T-case? I'm wondering if I should call the salvage yard and see if they'll sell me the harness. I'd love to have the complete factory setup.

 

Nice!

The round doodad thing they removed is some sort of balancer and the t-case drain plug is behind it which is probably why they removed it. As for the 4x4 light wires I doubt your truck is prewired for the manual case setup. It would be super easy to run the two wires if it comes down to it though.

Ever figure anything out about the carpet? Or rubber floor or whatever.

 

I'm pretty sure my truck isn't wired for the manual t-case as well. I thought I read that you just need to unplug the 4wd control box and then run two wires up from the T-case to this plug in and splice them in. I'm just wondering if the lvl 2's had a small little harness from the factory that went from the T-case to where the 4wd controller would be on and electric t-case truck and if I could get that harness from the salvage yard where I got all these parts.

As for the carpet/flooring I'm some what undecided. I really want to do it right but to do so I'd have to find some nice rubber flooring out of an auto, 2 door extended cab, and that might be tough. At this point I might consider doing it though but I'm going back with rubber flooring. We own a concrete company and I swear that sand gets worked into carpet and you can never get it out. What did you end up doing for the flooring?
I'm hoping we have terrible weather this weekend like they forecasted so I can hit up the salvage yards on saturday. Also it'll give me a chance to test out the twin sticks if I get them installed.

I've gotten the old floor plate out so far and I've found out that the top of my shifter is covered in a flim of oil. Apparently it needs a new seal/gasket. I guess I need to find out whats involved in fixing that before I button it all up.

 

Nope.

It is simple to add a pair for the lights. Hopefully, the guys who sent the t-case also included the pigtail for the switch. If not, you can order a repair pigtail from Motorcraft for way more than it's worth.


The auto floor also has a large hole that is covered by the cupholder/consolette. At least every one I've seen does. Only the 02 FX4 and 03 LII manuals have the carpet with the small double shfter cutout and there is no rubber floor for that year or any other year that will match.

Possible solution: There are aftermarket companies that sell preformed, OEM style carpets or rubber floors and the final trimming is left to the customer. As far as I can tell, those are supplied with no shifter cutout at all. I don't know how those compare to the factory carpet in terms of fit or quality.

Auto Carpet for Car, Truck, Van - Automotive Replacement Carpets


Could be a real leak. If the truck has been used a lot off road, it may only be slosh - the transmission breather is built into the shifter tower and can lose a SMALL amount of oil under the right conditions.

While it's apart, take a quick look at the 3 rubber plugs that close the shift rail holes on the back of the top cover. They sometimes leak and later fall out and then drop enough oil to burn up the transmission. Not cool.

 

Coming along nicely man. I need to find me a another rubber floor pan too.....Can't wait to see it all together...

Mr. Bob what would we do without your incredible knowledge!

 

Bob...great information but why did it have to be bad news. I think in order to get the swap done this weekend I'll probably try to find some black material to stick under the old hole in the floor then install the bezel. I'll try ordering some aftermarket flooring and installing it later.
I might of lucked out then and the leak from the shifter is one just from sloshing. The tranny isnt even wet at all its just the stop of the shifter base and the bottom of the old floor plate foam was just a little damp. I'll double check those rubber plugs though. My cousin lost his tranny in his explorer that same way so I know what it can do.

I'll just run wires for the transfer case then if there is no special harness. Apparently this was one of those good salvage yards that actually unplugs stuff rather than cutting every electrical connection. So finding the plug will suck. I hope my buddy at the dealership can get it for me at a decent price.

 

Can you get the LII carpet from the yard that sold you the other LII parts?

 

I paid like $28 for that t-case pigtail from the local dealership.