Thanks for the offer, Tim. I already have the pigtail connectors which will work for the custom installation in the Ranger.

 

Good to hear! If there's any way I can help you during the install, I'd be more than happy to. I removed the entire message center/center console from my donor truck and documented the process pretty well.

 

heh yeah figured that much, i just have to be careful cause mine is grey and i dont want black carbon marks on it

 

Unfortunately, heating it tends to turn the surface finish from matte to gloss and can discolor it a little too. You may have to repaint it after heating to get the original look back.

 

hmm yeah i might have to. is it at all hidden by the boot and shifter? guess i'll just get some grey interior paint

 

Only about 1/3 of the part that was heated was hidden on mine.

 

so would that work with any manual tranny linkage?


I might have to keep that in mind for my trac, dont wanna lose the full console when its still an auto

 

I think you're talking manual transfer case shifter with the Ex floor console, right?

The linkage for the 1354 T/C used with the 4.0 transmission sits more on top of the tunnel than the linkage for a fullsize T/C. I think that would make it harder to package both together. Mine was just about at the limit for how far I could easily reshape it to clear the shifter.

 

well,
id be looking at using a Bronco Manual t/c not sure which that is

but yeah, its with a 4.0 tranny

 

The Ranger/Explorer/Bronco II transmission extension housing has a 5 bolt pattern and something like a 25 or 26 spline output shaft.

The F-series, F/S Bronco, Expedition, etc. that I've seen all use a larger 6-bolt pattern and a larger 31 spline input. Advance makes an adapter kit for a F/S transmission to a RBV transfer case but it sounds like you want to do the opposite. I think that would have to be custom made.

 

Here's the Message Center in operation. I put 8.1 gallons into a nearly empty tank and the display told me that I have 8 gallons to empty. Pretty cool.

 

Looks great Bob... but that's expected, isn't it.

 

freakin sweet Bob! you and your truck are my idol!

 

Now lets see and hear some videos!!!!!!

 

Very Nice!!!

 

Your truck is ridiculous, there's nothing left to say...I am in complete awe.

 

How hard was it to recover the lid...how did you do it? I'm thinking about getting a console and painting it black like you did, but I didnt know how to change the color of the lid. Thanks

 

Kind of a pain. You have to separate the inner and outer plastic pieces and stretch the cover into position to be stapled before reassembly.

Problem 1: It is very difficult to staple and I have no idea how the factory get its thin staples to penetrate the the hard plastic - heat maybe.

Problem 2: The covers tear with age and the plastic in the lids is usually cracked or broken - very common. Because of this, good used lids on eBay usually go for $60~100.

To make matters worse, I used fabric-backed black Naugahyde (fake leather, lol) which is thicker and harder to work with than the factory vinyl. Several vendors sell vinyl recover kits on eBay but I couldn't find any made in black. Black was not a factory color for the Gen2 4-door Ex interior.

 

One option is to grab any color console and lid in good shape from your local junkyard, then pick up a (spray) can of black SEM interior plastic/vinyl paint from your nearest auto paint professional store, and paint away. You can (and IMO should) also get a can of SEM satin clearcoat to apply as a finish coat in order to perfectly match the factory vinyl "sheen" and add a layer of protection.

Clean the old vinyl & plastic well and wipe it down with an alcohol-drenched rag right before you paint, that will prep the surface very well. You can hide small nicks and blemishes too by lightly sanding them flat before applying the paint.

 

So, sorry to bring this thread back from the dead. But today I was yarding, and I got my hands on one of those message centers. Do any of you have a thread of a link to the wiring for this thing. it has three plugs and one says ABS, do I need to have ABS on the truck? Any info thanks. Bob I can't send you an E-mail or a PM so I have to bring this back from the dead.

 

Old Thread Dig up! I have a question for you Bob, about the message center. In the original post you wrote

"This is the Explorer/Mountaineer trip computer and systems monitor which Ford calls the "Message Center". I got it from Frank (Pastfinder) who stripped it from an Explorer console. This won't work on a stock Ranger because Ranger PCMs don't have a fuel flowrate output for the trip computer functions. Now that I'm installing the Explorer engine and PCM, I should be able to make it work in my truck."

Well I was looking through the Ranger Station and the have a tech write up on how to add a Tripminder computer. Very similar to the message center but an older relative. In the How To they splice into the ranger PCM and wire a signal for the fuel flowrate ouptut. I'm guessing that the computer is generating the signal but it is not being used by the ranger. Do you think the same thing could be done of taping into the rangers pcm for the fuel flowrate signal to be used with the Message Center? I was looking at this for 87 to 93 mustang wiring and their wiring harness does not utilize pin 34 just like the ranger.

 

I don't know for sure if the output is there or not. Since it costs money for every feature included in the PCM, Ford usually only populates the PCM with those that will be used in a certain application. I don't have a vehicle here to look at but you could monitor the pin for frequency or voltage level to see if it is there.

Here's something else to think about though. Somewhere in the Message Center / PCM combo, it is calibrated for the injector size that was originally was fitted to the vehicle. Cylinder count may also matter - the Gen 2 Ex Message Center uses a ground wire to tell the MC if it is installed in a 6 or 8 cylinder Explorer - or perhaps that is just how the MC decides which of two internal calibration tracks to use. I don't know anything about the inner workings of the FE calculations or where the calibration is done. However, it seems to me that if you have a different injector size, different number of cylinders or a mismatched PCM and MC, then the FE and DTE calculations could be inaccurate.

 

Thanks for the feedback Bob.