5.0L Sport Swap Speedo and Messaga Center Help

[R1dd1cK]

Ok so here is the deal. I have a 99 sport that has a 2000 v8 awd drive train put in it. The sport has 4.10 gears and the v8 doner had 3.73. I might also add it has a 01 sport cluster in it. What can I do get the speedo fixed. It is almost 10MPH off. Also I took it to ford and they reprogrammed it for tire size but said they could not change the axle ratio.

Ok same turck also now has the message center out of the v8 doner. Is there anything that can be done to tell the message center that it has a smaller tank in it then what the v8 doner had? It always seams to say I have more gallons of fuel then I know I really have.

 

[corkey]

hmmm not sure if Blueka , or vroomzoomboom figured that out, but you may pm them and ask ,,

 

[Turdle]

A Ford dealer can reprogram for gear ratio, if they knew what they were doing.

I watched Mountaineergreen use the dealership breakout box to reflash mine when we changed it from 373 to 410 gears.

He then had to tell the PCM how many revolutions per mile the tires made. This is found on the tire manufacturer's website.

 

[R1dd1cK]

Well yea I guess I just went to a dealer ship that had no Idea what they where doing. I had to tell them how to use there there own programer. They told me they could only change the tire size. They said they could not change the axle ratio. Then on top of that they wanted to charge me 115 bucks. Does mountaineergreen live close to you? Humboldt kansas is about 2 hours from me. I would be willing to drive up there for some help.

 

[Turdle]

Well yea I guess I just went to a dealer ship that had no Idea what they where doing. I had to tell them how to use there there own programer. They told me they could only change the tire size. They said they could not change the axle ratio. Then on top of that they wanted to charge me 115 bucks. Does mountaineergreen live close to you? Humboldt kansas is about 2 hours from me. I would be willing to drive up there for some help.

I drove down to his house for all the work. He lives about 7 hours away, in Arkansas.
You might hit him up with a private message, maybe he can shed some light which could help the dealer. One of his friends owns the local ford dealership where he lives.

 

[R1dd1cK]

Thanks for the heads up. I will do that and see if he can help out.

 

[Turdle]

I think the SCT xcal boxes can re calibrate gear ratio.

They are a very valuable tool, for loading custom tunes, deleting the pats, ( you can have a valet tune file limiting speed to 30mph to avoid theft), checking error codes, and recording live data.

James can hook you up with one, loaded with a tune which will give you better performance.

www.hensonperformance.com

Considering the cost --payback this might be the way to go for you.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

what turdle said about the axle thing. it might be a few bucks upfront, but as you add things to you truck (like that cai you have coming) you can change things in it to get the max out of them.
as for your message center, there is one wire you are suppose to ground. i cant remember which one however. i never did it. one of the first people that did a v8 swap (i cant remember his name anymore 99sportx i think) did it, and had it working correctly.
you can read the links that i posted. i believe it might be in there.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225017&highlight=BIG+COUNTRY

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80670&highlight=message+center

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245085&highlight=Ryon40

 

[delexploder]

Hmm I need to keep an eye on this thread

 

[R1dd1cK]

I have found out there is a wire that is for fuel tank select but that is all the info I can find. I from what I can find it is either grounded or not. I guess I will try it both ways and let every one know.

 

[R1dd1cK]

So here is an updated on the message center. I found that mine did not have the wire that I was talking about for the fuel tank size. So I guess right now that if the wire is not grounded it is set up for a 22 gallon tank. Since my message center came out of a 2000 V8 AWD EB 4 door I'm sure it had a 22 gallon tank. So my guess is that if you ground the wire it will be set for a 17.5 gallon tank. So I will take a pic of the location where the wire is at tomorrow.

On so now an update on the speedo problem. I hooked up my code reader to see if the computer was seeing the right speed or not. The speedo is showing 10mph faster then what the computer sees. Any one know of a fix?

 

[ahodges]

Sounds like either the gauge cluster you have isn't any good or the one out of the 01 is wired slightly different than the one in your 99 was. There were many variances in those over the years, not sure about between 99 and 01. If you can try swapping the gauge cluster out for a different one and see if that solves it.

 

[R1dd1cK]

Ok so here is another update on my speedo problem. My message center and the odometer show the same miles traveled. So now I know it is just the speed that is off its self. Any ideas?

 

[Turdle]

Ok so here is another update on my speedo problem. My message center and the odometer show the same miles traveled. So now I know it is just the speed that is off its self. Any ideas?

The message center and odometer are probably on the same signal. Even though they match, they may actually match the speedometer and report more distance than actually traveled. The 3 are all tied together--mine all math with over sized tires. On my truck 65mph indicated is actually about 69
This input matches both the odometer, and message center. It also matches what is reported by a scangauge.

Here's what you need to do. Go out on I70 and watch the mile markers. Right as you pass one reset your odometer, then drive 6 miles according to the odometer. I bet you will be short of the 6th mile marker. Miles may be marked off in 10th's in your area, so be certain you are counting the mile marks.

Man I could eat a Wyandottes BBQ sammich right now.

 

[R1dd1cK]

OK so I just looked at a wiring diagram. The speed signal comes form the 4WABS control module. Some where down the like it splits in to two wires. One wire goes to the message center and the other goes to the speedo. The speedo is 3 wires. Power, Ground, and Signal.

I do under stand what you are saying Turdle. But where I'm not thinking what you are saying is going to mean anything is that the code reader is saying I'm doing 20 mph where the speedo is saying I am doing 30. Now with the message center saying I have gone lets say 100 miles and the odometer and the GPS saying very close to the same I'm sure its just something with the speedo.

I just have no clue. Maybe I just need to swap in a different speedo.

 

[99SportX]

Yeah, as vroomzoomboom said, there is a pin that needs to be grounded out. I did it to mine, but in all honesty I cannot remember how I did it. lol I do know that there is a diagnostic mode for the message center and there is a point in the menus where there are a bunch of 0's and 1's. By grounding out the one pin, it changes one of the digits and the message center knows there is a different fuel tank size. If you cant find any info that I posted years back, I can pull the message center out of mine and try to document what I did.

Edit: after thinking about it, I vaguely remember soldering a wire to an internal pin and somehow running it to a ground wire.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Yeah, as vroomzoomboom said, there is a pin that needs to be grounded out. I did it to mine, but in all honesty I cannot remember how I did it. lol I do know that there is a diagnostic mode for the message center and there is a point in the menus where there are a bunch of 0's and 1's. By grounding out the one pin, it changes one of the digits and the message center knows there is a different fuel tank size. If you cant find any info that I posted years back, I can pull the message center out of mine and try to document what I did.

Edit: after thinking about it, I vaguely remember soldering a wire to an internal pin and somehow running it to a ground wire.

PLEASE! i never did mine. lived to ignore it, but would love for it to work the correct way

 

[R1dd1cK]

Well form what I have found out it is pin 21 that needs to be grounded out. I have not done this yet because I'm the kind of person that need to have another plug to take one of the pins out off so its wired right.

 

[R1dd1cK]

OK so I finally fixed my speedo problem. I took it out of the dash moved the needle to 70mph locked it in place with a pair of vise grips and moved the needle back 10mph. Now my speedo is dead on the with computer. What a dumb but simple fix.

 

[ahodges]

how did you figure that out?