Why and how are you doing this?

I am in the process of swapping my 1996 Explorer V8 2WD body onto a 1999 Explorer V8 AWD frame (with motor, tranny, t-case, and suspension). The reason I am doing this swap is because I have always wanted and needed the AWD. That, and this new drivetrain I have only has 1,400 miles on the odometer. My current 1996 Explorer has 135,000 miles on it (but still runs perfect) and a slightly bent frame due to a few minor mishaps in the late 90's.

So let's get started. First, I aquired my rolling chassis from eBay. The Seller had auctioned the chassis once before and was unsuccessful at finding a buyer to meet their reserve. On the first auction the bid got up to $1025. They ran the auction again, and that same day I emailed them and told them I'd buy it, pay cash, and pick it up the next day for $1050. They agreed and closed the auction 9 days and 12 hrs early. So that's what I did. I was very lucky to find a chassis in this good of condition, this close to my house (3.5 hrs), and this good of a deal.

The reason the chassis was a chassis is because whoever bought the Explorer back in '99 decided they didn't want to make payments on it anymore and set the interior on fire. A little bit of the engine was damaged because of this. I tore into the valve covers the night I got it home and everything looked perfect in there. The whole drivetrain only had 1,400 miles on it went it was set ablaze! (Bastards). The only things that were damaged were the fuel rails, injectors, hoses, engine fan, belts, and electrical harnesses. Most of the stuff I am just going to swap over from my 5.0 anyways

So.. what am I doing now? Well, I began to tear off everything on the '99 chassis and motor that I will not need. Such as wiring harnesses, exhaust manifolds, fuel rails, injectors, and anything that was burnt and needs to be replaced. I tore off the valve covers, upper intake, and manifold so I can clean and re-gasket everything. Who knows how hot it got in there and what the heat/fire may have done to the original gaskets. Everything actually looked really good inside.

So, am I having an problems yet? Yes. A few. But luckly I have a guy who knows his ford computer systems, (ASP84 AKA: Arizona Al) working on this swap with me.

This swap would have been a little easier if I went to a '96 or '97 AWD chassis. In 1999 Ford Changed the fuel system to returnless style fuel system. This requires a different computer to run the fuel system. Also in 1998 Ford added "PATS" (personalized anti-theft system) to the EEC-V computer systems. This meant that using a 1999 computer system in a 1996 explorer was a "no-go" since converting over to the 1999 computer would require the addition of the PATS Transponder system. Therefore I decided to stick with the 1996 EEC-V OBD-II computer system, which has no PATS and a return style fuel system.

Click to Enlarge Photo of the OSS sensor which I plugged the VSS sensor into.

[EGR]
The 1999 Explorer 5.0 motor came with an externally controlled EGR system. It took hot exhaust from the passenger side header by an external tube that lead up to the upper air intake. The external EGR was controlled by two different electronic modules. Since my 1996 EEC-V computer was wired to run an INTERNAL egr only. I decided to install the 90 degree EGR bend off of my 96. Unfortunately the 1999 intake did not have the internal EGR Flow chambers for the exhaust, so I had to also remove the upper and lower intake off of my 1996 5.0 to allow the 96 internal EGR system to work. I will be using my 1996 FMS headers, so I won't have to worry about the external EGR tube port on the headers.

Click to Enlarge Photo of the Internal EGR Flow Chamber missing in '99

[Returnless Fuel System]
The '96 EEC-V is not designed to work with the '99's returnless style fuel system either. Meaning, I will have to swap all the fuel components, ie fuel rail, fuel pressure regulator, fuel lines, and fuel pump from the '96 chassis over to the '99.

[Internal Tranny Harness]
I'm glad we finally whipped this one's ass. As soon as I got the truck all back together and started it up, the "OD Off" light began to flash. This was before the truck was even put into gear. So I was fairly certain the problem was electrical and not a 'bad tranny'. Anyway, I test drove the truck and found that it would slip between gears one and two. Also, it didn't appear to be going into overdrive. Well, I took the truck into my Uncle's shop to run the codes. I had four codes pulled from the computer. P0500 P0713 P0750 P1746. Eventually, I got my Dad's laptop and digital camera down in the garage, and by sending pics of my tranny (external and internal), my good buddy Al was able to draw me up a custom tranny harness that would solve all my problems! The deal was, the '99 tranny internal harness was slightly different than the '96 one. In '99 two wires were combined with two other wires, meaning two wires coming in from my '96 harness were not going to where they should be. Basically, we spliced some wires together in order to match the internal harness.

Click to Enlarge Diagram of the custom tranny harness we made.

So, the swap is scheduled to take place this weekend (Nov 1-3, 2002). Hopefully there are not too many suprises and everything works smoothly.

Well, the swap took place November 1-6 (roughly, I'm still polishing stuff off). I'd have to say overall the conversion was a HUGE success. It was about a three times as large project as I thought it would be. But thanks to the help of Arizona Al, and my friends here in CA, I pulled through!

Day 1 - We got a lot done on the first day! I thought I'd might even have my body lowered on the new chassis on Day 2 because Day 1 went so smoooth. Well, we got the body complety off the '96 chassis and rolled into the driveway in about 5 hours or so. It was all in all an amazing event. We called the night early about 9PM to get ready for the big Day 2!

Day 2 - Well, today wasn't has productive as yesterday (at least by looks). I got all the fuel lines ripped out of the '99 chassis, got the gas tank down, ripped out the brake lines. I began rebuilind the '99 motor (adding my upper and lower intake to it). I got most of the engine wiring harness on.

Day 3 - Okay.. I thought this would be the last day of the project, but you know how it goes...

Today, I swapped the fuel rails from the '96 to the '99. Swapped the body harness, the gas tank, & tranny harness. I finally got the damn steering rack out and set inside the new frame. I just need to bolt it down. Got the motor 100% rebuilt and wired up.

I found out the CMP sensors are different, and I'm going to have to change the '99 one to the '96 one.

Day 4 - Today we got the body back down on the new frame! I'm about 90% done! Everything went pretty smooth today. Didn't break or bend anything...

Day 5 - Well, STILL not done! But almost! I only have to find two vaccuum lines their homes, splice into the ABS sensor, bleed the brakes and install the passenger side header. I think thats it! I'm ready for this to be done and gone!

Day 6 - I did a lot today. The truck is basically all back together. Today, I added all the fluids, fixed the cut abs sensor wire, installed the header, uhmm.. slapped on the fenders and started her up.

Day 7 - I was under the truck, two trannies torn apart, trying to solve my slipping transmission and four "your tranny will blow" codes. Some how, my good buddy Asp84 comes up with this theory and diagram:

Day 8 - I finally got my ebrake hooked back up. I attempted to align the steering wheel, but failed once again!

Oh, I installed my Add-a-leafs and shackles and did the TT again. I got three inches from the aals and shacks. I only did a little less than 2" on the TT now that I have CVs!