Duranged84
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- September 21, 2012
- Messages
- 218
- Reaction score
- 4
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 03 Explorer 4x4 4.0
Small backstory-- bought an 03 Ex for parts to fix the Merc. (Mainly engine/trans) lucked out and got a complete, wrecked but drivable 03 xls 4wd with half the miles my Mounty has. . The previous owner of my Merc pulled everything for the awd except the t-case. No idea if it was any good. After driving and working on several awd Mounties, I wasn't too impressed with how sloppy they get and how easy they bind up. However, I drove the explorer for a couple weeks before the engine/Trans swap and ended up on a pretty nasty mud road. It was then I decided the complete 4wd system was going in the Mercury at some point. I didn't want to screw with the awd t-case especially if it was bad so I pulled everything in one shot and swapped it all. P I T A btw.... Not sure I would do it all again as a complete assembly without different lifting equipment....
So fast forward to now--- I'm getting ready to swap all of the front end 4wd components back in. Only thing I'm still trying to figure out is if the ecm has anything to really do with the 4wd. I have most if not all of the wiring diagrams for both trucks (almost identical of course but got both anyway) and there's an input for ecm signal and abs input or signal. The 2 4wd fuses under the hood have power to them already. I have pulled the dash harness, 4wd module, and module to t-case harness, so I'm 99.5% sure I have everything needed to make it play together except I don't know if the awd(2wd) ecm will provide the needed signal for that wire as well as the abs wire. I would like to run the Mercurys original ecm/security module, etc but I do still have the explorer if I have to use that one. Any other known issues anybody knows of that I might have?
On the dash, both are manual hvac with only cruise on steering wheel, merc has adjustable pedals, explorer didn't. Merc has power seats where expy don't, and merc has rear hvac where expy don't. Merc also has heated mirrors but current dash and harness came from an expy that didn't and now has auto dimming mirror that it originally didn't, and was plug and play.
Unless I missed something, it seems all of the 4wd fuses inside should power up properly with the explorer dash harness. What's got me so stumped so far is car-part interchange shows 2wd and 4wd ecms to interchange based off original sticker. In other words, it showed the same ecm being in 2wd and 4wd vehicles. Is it going to be as simple as the 4wd module looking for a signal that's already there and operate as a stand alone system or am I looking at a reflash/have to use explorers ecm? If I get everything figured out and working properly, I plan to do a write up. I've seen a lot of people wanting to do this and only replies have been that it's next to impossible or to convert to a manual t-case.
So, since I like doing a lot to this thing that people usually don't have an answer for, here's another one to "be the pioneer for those that search for this trail later on" wish me luck lol. And whoever is praying for rain, please put that on pause so I can get this done.
So fast forward to now--- I'm getting ready to swap all of the front end 4wd components back in. Only thing I'm still trying to figure out is if the ecm has anything to really do with the 4wd. I have most if not all of the wiring diagrams for both trucks (almost identical of course but got both anyway) and there's an input for ecm signal and abs input or signal. The 2 4wd fuses under the hood have power to them already. I have pulled the dash harness, 4wd module, and module to t-case harness, so I'm 99.5% sure I have everything needed to make it play together except I don't know if the awd(2wd) ecm will provide the needed signal for that wire as well as the abs wire. I would like to run the Mercurys original ecm/security module, etc but I do still have the explorer if I have to use that one. Any other known issues anybody knows of that I might have?
On the dash, both are manual hvac with only cruise on steering wheel, merc has adjustable pedals, explorer didn't. Merc has power seats where expy don't, and merc has rear hvac where expy don't. Merc also has heated mirrors but current dash and harness came from an expy that didn't and now has auto dimming mirror that it originally didn't, and was plug and play.
Unless I missed something, it seems all of the 4wd fuses inside should power up properly with the explorer dash harness. What's got me so stumped so far is car-part interchange shows 2wd and 4wd ecms to interchange based off original sticker. In other words, it showed the same ecm being in 2wd and 4wd vehicles. Is it going to be as simple as the 4wd module looking for a signal that's already there and operate as a stand alone system or am I looking at a reflash/have to use explorers ecm? If I get everything figured out and working properly, I plan to do a write up. I've seen a lot of people wanting to do this and only replies have been that it's next to impossible or to convert to a manual t-case.
So, since I like doing a lot to this thing that people usually don't have an answer for, here's another one to "be the pioneer for those that search for this trail later on" wish me luck lol. And whoever is praying for rain, please put that on pause so I can get this done.
