First off, don't start yelling at me about pictures yet. I will get them up soon. Last year I got a good deal on a BII and I was just going to lift it and call it good, but then I got an even better deal on a 93 Explorer that met it's fate with a ditch and bent the snot out of the passenger side TTB. So, for a combined total of $1100 for both vehicles, I have a project 
The plan is basically simple. Strip down the BII to nothing but frame, body, and seats. Yep, that's right, I did not include dash, steering column, axles, or wiring. All of that will come from the 93 Explorer. Basically, the 88 BII shell will be gutted and built stronger, faster, and better than it was before, just for much less than ol" Steve Austin.
So far, I have both vehicles stripped down and 3 different piles of parts. Need, don't need, and might need. I have a one last thing to take off the Explorer, and then it's off to the crusher
The BII has already received the newer A/C controls and inner(under dash) and outer assembly(under hood) and is currently waiting to have it's firewall modified to accept the larger diameter steering column of the Explorer. I had to wait to get the Explorer on the trailer before I removed any of it's rolling or steering capabilities. I cut that section of firewall out of the Explorer firewall and will use it as a template and a bolt backing plate.
I scored a manual 1354 t-case for $50 and have already replaced the electric 1354 on the tranny. I had no idea how hard it would be to find the gasket that goes between the tranny and t-case.
Going this route makes things a little more time consuming in the beginning, but all that time is made up in the end when the wiring harnesses just plug back into each other rather than spending days chasing wire colors from two different Chilton's manual and pulling your hair out a crying yourself to sleep, er... Sorry, I was having flashbacks of 90ranajos ranger.
I have found a couple of snags that will require a little bit of splicing of wires and a small issue with fuel delivery. The headlights and tail lights will have to be spliced into the Explorer harnesses as they are different connectors. The two doors will also have to be spliced if I wast the power windos and locks to work. The other snag was fuel delivery. The 88 BII's use two fuel pumps, a low pressure lift pump in the tank and a high pressure on the frame rail where I am used to seeing a fuel filter. There is also some weird round oil filter looking unit on the frame between the tank and the high pressure pump. I have no idea what it is or what it's purpose is except that it is not electrical and it is not the filter cause that is located between the high pressure pump and the engine. Whatever it is, my solution eliminate it as I will use the Explorer fuel lines to make the span down the frame rail. From there I will use Dorman repair kits I found on rockauto toattach to the tank sending unit. The tank sending unit will have it's pump replaced with, yep, the explorer one. It needs to be modified ever so slightly to get the larger pump to fit, but I've already made the measurments and am sure it will work just fine. I will also have to splice there as the 88 BII used a different connector for it's fuel sending unit. So long story short, I have a few splices to do, but there all simple 12VDC circuits that aren't being monitored by 3 different pins on the PCM.
I'll get pics of the progress as soos as I can.
The plan is basically simple. Strip down the BII to nothing but frame, body, and seats. Yep, that's right, I did not include dash, steering column, axles, or wiring. All of that will come from the 93 Explorer. Basically, the 88 BII shell will be gutted and built stronger, faster, and better than it was before, just for much less than ol" Steve Austin.
So far, I have both vehicles stripped down and 3 different piles of parts. Need, don't need, and might need. I have a one last thing to take off the Explorer, and then it's off to the crusher
The BII has already received the newer A/C controls and inner(under dash) and outer assembly(under hood) and is currently waiting to have it's firewall modified to accept the larger diameter steering column of the Explorer. I had to wait to get the Explorer on the trailer before I removed any of it's rolling or steering capabilities. I cut that section of firewall out of the Explorer firewall and will use it as a template and a bolt backing plate.
I scored a manual 1354 t-case for $50 and have already replaced the electric 1354 on the tranny. I had no idea how hard it would be to find the gasket that goes between the tranny and t-case.
Going this route makes things a little more time consuming in the beginning, but all that time is made up in the end when the wiring harnesses just plug back into each other rather than spending days chasing wire colors from two different Chilton's manual and pulling your hair out a crying yourself to sleep, er... Sorry, I was having flashbacks of 90ranajos ranger.
I have found a couple of snags that will require a little bit of splicing of wires and a small issue with fuel delivery. The headlights and tail lights will have to be spliced into the Explorer harnesses as they are different connectors. The two doors will also have to be spliced if I wast the power windos and locks to work. The other snag was fuel delivery. The 88 BII's use two fuel pumps, a low pressure lift pump in the tank and a high pressure on the frame rail where I am used to seeing a fuel filter. There is also some weird round oil filter looking unit on the frame between the tank and the high pressure pump. I have no idea what it is or what it's purpose is except that it is not electrical and it is not the filter cause that is located between the high pressure pump and the engine. Whatever it is, my solution eliminate it as I will use the Explorer fuel lines to make the span down the frame rail. From there I will use Dorman repair kits I found on rockauto toattach to the tank sending unit. The tank sending unit will have it's pump replaced with, yep, the explorer one. It needs to be modified ever so slightly to get the larger pump to fit, but I've already made the measurments and am sure it will work just fine. I will also have to splice there as the 88 BII used a different connector for it's fuel sending unit. So long story short, I have a few splices to do, but there all simple 12VDC circuits that aren't being monitored by 3 different pins on the PCM.
I'll get pics of the progress as soos as I can.
