Just bought a used 1996 Ranger sport, 5 spd with 94,000 miles on ebay. Picked it up Thursday and drove 350 miles back home with it.

I just cut the bench (60/40) in it today. Now I have a nice path between the two seats and no longer have to worry about the useless middle "seat" and the worthless arm rest.

Now, I would like to know the best center console that would fit and not interfere with the 5 spd stick.

I'm real interested in having an arm rest so it should be up high enough. I am currently looking on ebay and am watching the following:
Ford Explorer
Ford Windstar
Ford F150
Escape/Mazda

I don't have any dimensions on the above but am just looking at the moment.

Anyone have any pics?

Thanks in advance.

 

Explorer is the easiest fit and will fit perfectly. The years you need to look for 1995-2000, I believe. Having the 5-speed will make things a lil more fun with fitment, because unless you can find the ultra-rare 5 speed explorer console you will have to remove the front pocket on the console.

Here are some pics of my unfinished console, before I traded the truck in. It didn't have a shift boot, hence the big open spot.




And no that is not a stock shifter arm, it is from a 01-03(I Think) Manual FX4.

 

Ok. Thanks for the picture.

Now I can see how to make the console work.

 

Its not that hard. The console lines up with the dash with the front pegs. You need to do some modifying to the underside of the console. Remove all the A/C stuff. Also depends on what cab you have on what else you will have to modify. I have pics that show what you need to modify/remove if you want to see them.

 

yes, please send me modification and installation steps for the Explorer center console.

I'm going to go ahead and buy one off of ebay unless someone on this list wants to sell me one. (hint...hint)

Trad

 

One more thing.... I've seen the Expedition console and was wondering if it was similar in dimensions?


I like the look of that one a little more than the Explorer...

By the way I have extended cab Ranger.

 

I like the shorter Explorer console myself...dont take up as much space.... I pulled the console from a 94 Explorer Limited.

 

the only thing bad about them consoles is the fact that the arm rest becomes weak and floppy.

 

Expedition I doubt will fit without modification. The dash is different. The Ranger and Explorer shared the same dash up until 02 I believe.

I have pics of what to remove, but not how to install. I worked on the console for a couple months here and there to get it to work right, then I traded the truck in, lol.

 

This one held up for 12 years now..... not too weak :P

But yes your right the weakest part is the pivot area of the arm rest.

 

Was Bench seats an option or something for that year? My 5 Speed 1994 has buckets. I'll take a picture of the console tomorrow for you.

 

its most common that rangers come with a 60/40 split bench, but some did come factory with buckets, it is you that have the option. I myself cut the seats to make buckets, and slapped a nice 10" subwoofer right in the way...

*edit* where in anchorage are you located?

 

Dude I freaking love that !

I assume you had buckets and not the 60/40 ?

 

Buckets lol, nope. I sawzalled the crap out of the 60/40.

 

I do want to put in buckets with 5 point harnesses maybe after that, thats way down the road though.

 

On Tudor and New Seward. By what use to be Tony Roma's which turned into Call of the Wild for a bit then went out of business because of complaints from people in my neighborhood about the noise, trucks spinning out, gun fire (into are/ground) and stuff. Now just a vacant building. Were you stationed up here or something?

 

no my father was on elmendorf, we lived just off of there over by boniface and what was russian jack. I loved it there....and i miss it so much. But as my friends say i went straight from the ice box into the frying pan....TEXAS IS TOO HOT.... it was 78 today...but just a few weeks ago we hit 98 in places....i miss snowboarding...

oh and i went to school at steller secondary, its off of northern lights!

 

Well after I made the 60/40 mod to the 40/40 I am finding out that my "new" bucket seat (driver) isn't that good.

I like a semi-firm feel when I sit down but I feel like I'm sinking to the floor when I sit in the drivers side.

I don't know if this was the consequence of the mod or just the fact that the seat is 10 years old. It does look worn with a slight smoky smell.

Anywho I am going to look at some explorer leather bucket seats to put in unless some one here will make me a good deal on some bucket seats??

 

the reason the seat is feels "saggy" to you is because when you cut the foam, you probably cut just a little bit too much. What you could do is take the left over foam (if this is recent lol) and shuv it back into the seat, just make sure not to put to much and keep the contour of the seat otherwise it feels really strange.

explorer seats are nice, try to get some eddie bouer(sp?) leather ones, i have seen them in some rangers and they compliment well.

also mustang GT......ymmm.....lol