Hi all
I ended up buying a 1997 2.3 Manual Red XLT Flareside a couple days ago with only 114,000 miles.
Got it from a guy that only had it about 6 months and he bought it from the original owner who is his neighbor.
Wierd to me that its a XLT manual
but has no tach?
Anyway I'd like to add a after market one but not sure if I need to buy a certain kind or will any after market tach work?
Don't really see a good place to mount one?
Anyone buy one and which kind/brand did u buy and where did u mount it?
Thanks!

 

Why not just switch instrument clusters and put a factory tach in ?

 

I thought about that......is it pretty straight forward? Will any year work? Does it matter if it's a auto or manual trans or the motor size??

Thanks!

 

Anyone know?

 

If you can stick to 95-97, that would be best. In 1998 they switched from the aqua/teal instrument lighting to green, so if you get a cluster from anything newer, the color will be off. But technically, 1995-2003 should be plug and play.

2004 and newer are a completely different animal and not compatible.

 

ok thanks Fordzilla, but here's my question........if I get a say, 96 gauges set up and it's from a 3.0 or 4.0 V6 is the tach going to be accurate for my 2.4 4? or does it need to be adjusted somehow?
Or do I have to get the gauges from a 4 cylinder Ranger?

I know after market tachs have a adjustment for 4, 6 or V8, but I would prefer to have stock gauges.

 

Might need to adjust a ground wire or something. I honestly don't know for sure as I haven't done a swap on a 4cyl. From my experience with older full size trucks, there is a difference in the tach pickup between the 6cyl and 8cyl trucks, so I'm sure there is for a 4cyl and 6cyl as well.

 

Yes, it will work fine
The tach signal wire is present on all Ranger cluster wiring

Its just ground wire placement on cluster wiring that changes for number of cylinders

Only Pin 16 of the 16-pin grounded ==> V8
Only Pin 8 of the 10-pin grounded ==> V6
Neither grounded ==> 4cyl

But, since yours is already set up for 4cyl, the wiring will be as it should be, neither pin grounded, so Plug and Play

Its only if you are changing engine size that you need to move ground wires on the cluster

 

Ok...Thanks folks!
Looks like I need to look for a 95 to 97 gauge cluster.

I noticed 3 or 4 screws at the top of the cluster, just remove those and the cluster lifts out??