ALH into 95 Ranger 4x4

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
1.9ZOOK that is really clean, I would have done that instead if I had seen it first. How do you tension that belt? I see some slots on the bracket, but I question how well that would work. Does your bracket have any miles on it, or the one you saw? I don't know how much the tensioner needs to give while the engine is running, but I would switch to your set up right away if you know that it works. What I'm working on now is figuring out how to tension the belt set up I have, and I haven't come up with anything as simple as that if it works.
Sorry I've been awol, right before Christmas my jetta blew an injector, then I was out of town for most of the holiday break. And by blew an injector, I mean the bolt snapped on the #1 injector and it was pushed out of the cylinder. Just got that back and working this week, so now the truck can have my focus again.
here's a picture for anyone interested. I got lucky and didn't lose the hold down bolt. That's where I found it when I opened the hood.

I do have a small update though, I have gotten the tunnel trimmed to fit the new location and covered. The transmission is rotated quite a bit in case it's not obvious in this picture. I'll be creating a wedge for the transmission mount, as it's probably a 20+ degree rotation or more.
 

1.9ZOOK

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Joined
Dec 13, 2015
Location
Downstream of a Volcano
TDI
ALH Samurai
HB
I have around 350miles on it and it hasn't come loose.
I used a large screwdriver to pry it up and tighten,if you do
go with that design the belt is a Gates Micro V 060461 that
should get you close.Most auto stores are pretty cool about
exchanging belts.The idler pulley is 2 1/2" and non ribbed.
 

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
I 3D printed up a mock up of my take on 1.9ZOOK's great idea. I printed it 100% fill and cut it down to a size that fits.

I plan to run the belt in the same path as I have it shown in previous pictures.

I found this website that lets you search for part numbers by belt length and number of ribs. http://www.daycoproducts.com/online-catalog-1?part_type=20&effective_length=56&num_ribs=4
I used string to measure what length belt I should need (between 56-57"). I plan to get belts of varying length around what I measured to test fit and see what works best.
I also got the interior all put back together, and it is now the cleanest it has ever been since I bought the truck. Not a glamorous picture, but I'm still amazed at how clean I was able to get the carpet when I had it out of the truck.
 

Nozzleman

Veteran Member
Joined
May 30, 2014
Location
About 15 miles from Venus
TDI
2002 Ford Ranger ALH
I like to take a scrap belt that is too long and cut it to fit and then let the parts store match it by length.

Looking good. I am glad everyone else is making progress on their projects because I keep getting sidetracked on mine!
 

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Nozzleman: Do you have a thread going for your swap? I'd be interested to see how you're going about everything.
Belt tensioner has been made. That wraps up everything on the engine that needs to get done. The engine has to come out when I cut a hole for the starting the transmission, so it'll get painted then with the engine mounts.

I pulled the dash apart to see how well the jetta cluster would fit, and it doesn't. Atleast not without significant modification to the plastic on the cluster, and the shroud that goes around it. The jetta cluster is an inch taller than the Ranger, and the two knobs at the bottom go straight into the steering column. Here is a picture for those who are interested. Going to be following what GreenGeeker did to add another light to the gauge cluster for the glow plugs. It should pretty easy. Just requires a pin and bulb from a junk yard.

The ranger cluster has more gauges, but I have grown pretty fond of the clock on the dash in the jetta. Oh well, guess I'll just have to put one in once I get this thing running. That and some LED bulbs will probably be one of the first things to happen once I'm driving it. Here's side by side compairson of the two. They are pretty close, but not enough to swap easily.

Next on the to-do list is fuel and exhaust, so that I can put the bed back on the truck and not have it sitting out in the yard.
 

Hasenwerk

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Nov 28, 2003
Location
Quesnel, BC
TDI
1982 Cabriolet (BEW|VNT17|Stage4), 1989 VW TriStar Syncro soon-to-be CR TDI (CBEA), 2001 Ford Ranger Edge 4x4 (ALH|VNT17|R520|Stage4)
Look at an Audi B5 instrument pod... it fits very well - I thought about it, but just decided to keep things simple. The Ranger pod, in the area where the automatic transmission PRND123 thing normally goes is where I am going to put my OLED display for boost pressure. Something else to think about!
 

busch4all

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2012
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Passat TDI, 320,000+
I'm working on fitting a 1Z out of a 1997 passat into a 2005 ford ranger 5spd 4x4, so i'm watching your thread closely. Looking forward to seeing more updates!
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Making new adapter pieces

It's been a long time since I posted on here, but I haven't given up on this project. Just had life happen, so I didn't have a chance to work on the truck.
I got the engine and transmission sitting in the truck and really didn't like how far forward and rotated the transmission ended up. So I made a new transmission adapter, and now I'm building a spacer to go between the adapters. And also a new longer clutch spacer. Here's a few pictures of what I've been up to. I'm hoping to have more to post about more often now, as my goal is to be driving the truck the beginning of April.

I made a practice piece before starting to cut the metal piece. I'll be finishing the metal piece tomorrow.

Here's the clutch spacer I bought and the material I'm going to use to make the new spacer.
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Latest Update

Well its now early April. The truck isn't driving yet, but I do have all of my engine transmission adapters completed. I bet you all thought I had given up on this project. I haven't given up, just life getting in the way. I did a final test fit in the truck today and it all fits up really nicely. I won't know how well it was made until I drive it. Mechanically it is sound, but I've seen other people have issues with the alignment of their crank shaft and input shaft on the transmission. That's the only thing I'm worried about. It's built to the best accuracy that I could.

Extending the adapter has allowed me to use the stock oil cooler and coolant flange. I can also run the coolant hard pipe across the back of the motor as well. It has really simplified my coolant plumbing and I'm glad it all worked out so well. I may end up cutting the hose and changing the bends a little bit. But for now it'll work.

I'm glad I bought the extended length triple square bit. And that the spacer didn't need to be any longer to make everything work. Because I was able to get the transmission to stay in about the same spot it should be.

I had to undo a bunch of work that I had done because of how the spacer was able to solve a lot of the problems that I had tried to solve other ways. This spacer is definitely the more elegant solution for anyone working on this generation of Ranger.

That's all for now, I'm going to hard anodize the parts at work this week. Then it'll all be ready to go in the truck. I'll likely be working on routing water and air next. Then do the electrical work last once I know where all the wires need to go. I'm pretty happy having gotten the motor to fit into the truck.
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
It's not dead yet!

Well it's been a year and a half since I last posted on here. The project isn't dead, I just stalled out for 9 months and then spent too long (6 months) fighting to get a welder to work (it never did, gave up and got a different one). But I've been making progress the last 5 months or so. I'm going to try and get caught up and then stay up to date as I make more progress.

I needed a working TIG welder because I had a few parts I wanted to make out of aluminum. It was also a good excuse to learn to weld AL.

First thing I made was a windshield washer fluid tank. The tank has mounting brackets for the stock coolant ball, the two vacuum solenoids for the turbo and EGR, and I found room to store a bottle of power steering fluid and brake fluid. I’m now going to add mounts for a vacuum manifold to mount on top also.



 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Adapted to the Ranger Air box

I didn't have to weld this one, but I did spend some time on a lathe. I was playing around for a while about which air box to use. I finally decided to make an adapter to the ranger air box. The filters are about the same surface area, the ranger just has a cone filter instead of flat, so I'm not worried about air flow at the moment.
I cut up both the jetta and ranger airboxes trying to see what I could get to fit. The base idea of what I ended up doing came from this. I cut the ranger clean side so that it was shorter and would fit.

I liked this but needed a way to mount the jetta MAF on it. So I ended up turning a few pieces to mimic the mounting surface, and added in a few bolt holts so that I could get the MAF to fit and viola. I even saved a few more inches. I thinned the walls where I could, but this thing is still a fair amount heavier. Fits like a glove though.



And how it fits when installed.
 
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HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Battery Tray

I've been making a lot of progress and it's kept me motivated to keep working so I've been slow to update this. So here's what I've gotten done.
I wrestled with the Ranger battery tray. For some reason it has 2 bolts and then something like 10 spot welds holding it in. The bolts seem irrelevant in my opinion, but oh well. The old one is out.

The new one I made from some angle I found around the house. It holds my radiator fan controller, power steering reservoir, and fuel filter.

I've had a lot of practice welding AL now, so it was easy to throw together the tank. The inlet and outlet are on the bottom where routing to them will be easy and neat. The fuel filter bracket is straight out of a jetta and just bolts on, since it was as easy as welding it directly to the battery tray.
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Intake Plumbing

The intake is plumbed minus the CCV inlet. That's low priority at the moment. I'll weld it in once I figure out where to put the oil separator that I've seen recommended in other places on this site.
Map bung is welded on though and everything fits nicely.
Intercooler is mounted, it sits at an odd angle and doesn't point directly where I would have wanted it to, but I had to guess since I didn't have it mounted when I welded up the inlet and outlet. Overall I'm pretty happy with how well my guessing worked out.

And a shot of the plumbing.

Map Bung welded in

To and from the turbo. The tube crossing over goes to the overflow tank.
 

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Vacuum manifold

And finally I made a vacuum manifold. I had all the hoses in this area so a metal manifold made more sense to me than using all the plastic Tees that VW used. I think it came out pretty neat, and I also bought some metal Tees and extra hose that I will be carrying with me when I take this off roading for any repairs that may need to happen.
There's also a bit of a because I can and it was a fun challenge on the mill to do this.

It has 8 vacuum ports (1 blocked off on the end) and 3 vent lines that route into the air box.

 

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Now I've finally gotten to the most exciting part, WIRING!!!
I tried to simply remove the dash cover so that I could wiring up the gauge cluster and the other circuits I plan to add in. (rock lights, fake A/C on signal to keep the cooling fans on, fuel tank selector and others). But the whole thing had to be taken off first because the bolts are all on the firewall side. It was actually pretty easy to get out once I figured out the 3 firewall connectors.

The firewall side of the dash, notice the three connectors on the right. All the wires that pass into the engine compartment come through these three plugs. I'm hoping to keep my swap this way. We'll see if enough wires opened up and are available for this to happen. I'm still trying to figure it out.

And the engine bay currently looks like this because I decided to try and put all the connectors in their proper locations before trying to get the motor to run...

Cutting up the harness that way is my eventual plan, but I didn't get the motor running first so now I won't know if the issue is the motor or the harness.
This motor hasn't run in 6 years, so I know it's probably going to have some issues getting it running and I'm hoping not to be trying to figure out which side is the issue.
I'm trying to figure out what the bare number of components I need powered up needs to be for me to attempt to get the motor running.
I've seen several posts say that it's about 6 fuses and a 30 amp to start the motor, but I haven't seen anyone actually post what they are. Can anyone enlighten me as to what they actually are?

I'm thinking it would be:
-30 amp goes to the glow plugs.
- Power to all the appropriate pins of the ECU
(I have the pin outs, just not in front of me.)
- N75 to the turbo
- N239 for Anti-shudder (this is probably not necessary?)
- Injector Pump
- Crank Position sensor
- Needle lift sensor (injector 3)
- Throttle pedal?

Have these powered up and crank the motor?

(I do have another motor I can check my harness on, but it doesn't have the modified accesory bracket so I can't drop it into the truck.)
 
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HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
So I've been staring at circuit diagrams for the ranger and Jetta for the last few months planning out how to integrate the harnesses. I'm planning to do a full integration (minimal use of VW relays, fuses, etc.) so that all my wiring is protected as close to how the factory intended. I figure this will be my best bet for not shorting something out when driving through water or mud.

I got the motor started outside the truck last week, so I know it runs now. So now I'm figuring out which fuses I can use to do an initial start up in the truck with minimal circuits connected.

Random question for everyone though. I have one motor harness that has the 4 wire glow plug and one with the 2 wire. I did some research and saw that people don't have good luck trying to use the 4 wire harness on the 2 wire ECU. But the manual I have says that pins 33 & 42 on the ECU for the 2 wire harness and pins 33 & 9 on the 4 wire. Has that already been noticed and tried?

The harness I'm using is the 2 wire, but I'd convert it to the 4 wire if that works.

Just a random thought in my jumbled brain while trying to connect all these wires in my head.
 

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
On the same thought of glow plugs, does anyone know why there are two power wires going into the relay?

One is a 50 amp circuit from the battery,

the other is from J317, I would think the ECU would put 12v onto one of the wires going in and then grounds through the ground wire attached also.

J317 also is turned on by the ECU (pin 18), but then also supplys power to the main power pins for the ECU (pins 1 & 2).

Am I reading that correctly? It seems backwards, but if the ECU gets woken up by the key and has enough power to turn on J317, it works.
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
I don't recall at the moment but I believe the ECU sends the ground signal to the J317 to close the contactor. This then sends main ECU power to pins 1&2.

Sorry, I can't answer your question on the 4 wire vs 2 wire but I know the ecu's are different. You said you have both harnesses but I'm assuming you have the earlier Ecu. If so I would just go 2 wire.

Here is my page on the Ranger wiring: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=4240257&postcount=285

I'm happy to share my excel spreadsheet if it is helpful for you.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
That's what I see in the circuit diagrams too. It seems like an odd way to do it, but it must have made sense to someone. The ranger has the key switch the relay for ECU power, but I think I'm going to switch mine to match the VW way just to make sure the ECU doesn't have any issues.

I have a 2 wire ECU that i already had the IMMO removed, then just parted out a car and now also have a 4 wire glow plug harness and ECU. I've already started cutting up the 2 wire harness for integration, so I'm going to continue using that.

Thanks for the offer of the spread sheet, but I've already got mine most of the way filled out. You posting yours way back when was definitely part of my motivation to do this swap though.

I already went through the diagrams for my year and mapped each wire on the Ranger connectors going through the firewall to figure out what I could re-use. It's not a whole lot, so I'll be plugging the hole for the gas pedal cable with a grommet and running all my wires in through there.

I found a circuit diagram for how to wire up the coolant level sensor to an LED. I'll post that up here after I get it to work for me.
 

Runninwild

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Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Location
vancouver
TDI
AAZ swapped 2000 tacoma
that wiring doesn't look fun. how are you making out with it? I went from the ecu side and went through the connectors pin by pin and removed everything I didn't want. I then stripped all the crap from the harness, labeled the bare wires and put it all in split loom. when I put it in the truck I extended some wires to get it to route how I wanted then just ran a single 30amp relay for the ecu. was a pretty straight forward process. have you got it to start yet? I haven't gone through your entire build yet but have you sent the ecu off to be demobilized and deleted? if not that's probably your main issue of no start.
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
glow plug relay box, ecu mounted

I'm being very diligent with it. I did the same at first, removing all the unnecessary wires, and have since cut different sections out of the harness temporarily so that I can move them where I want then, then reconnect them.
I got the motor started a few weeks ago with a different harness that I knew worked. I haven't started it with this one yet. I've already had the immo removed from the ECU. Other than that it is stock while I get the kinks worked out. I'll start adding stuff once its running reliably.
Today I just got the ECU mounted and over the weekend I mounted the box that will hold my glow plug relay, along with a relay 43 that I'm adding to give me a low coolant warning light. I ordered the relay this weekend upon finding out that it has special circuitry inside and is not just a standard relay. I'll post more about this once I get the relay and test my circuit.
I took the mounting bracket off the jetta and bolted it in the ranger between the radiator and the air box.



Today I finished up the box to mount the ECU in and got it secured into the truck.


With these two things in place I can finish up the wiring for the glow plugs, and work on connecting power to all my vacuum solenoids that live over on this side.

Relay 43 should be here tomorrow, so I should be making some major progress this weekend.
 

HoneyBadger

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
As a separate thought, how have other people wired in their Crankcase vent heater? It looks like it's just wired to be on all the time, but I'd rather not be heating the hot air from the engine all the time. I know it's there in case the hose freezes shut, but it shouldn't need to be on for more than just getting up to operating temp. I know the manuals it was wired to the coolant glow plug relay, but I'm not using those, so I don't know if I'll be able to get the computer to activate it without them. I'll look into this later and report back.

Or I may just wire it to be on all the time, but if anyone has any ideas about this. I'm all ears.
 

jimbote

Certified Volkswagen Nut
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Location
spiral arm, milky way (aka central NC)
TDI
Tacoma 4x4 converted to TDI
As a separate thought, how have other people wired in their Crankcase vent heater? It looks like it's just wired to be on all the time, but I'd rather not be heating the hot air from the engine all the time. I know it's there in case the hose freezes shut, but it shouldn't need to be on for more than just getting up to operating temp. I know the manuals it was wired to the coolant glow plug relay, but I'm not using those, so I don't know if I'll be able to get the computer to activate it without them. I'll look into this later and report back.

Or I may just wire it to be on all the time, but if anyone has any ideas about this. I'm all ears.
mine is wired like stock...i guess it wouldn't be a problem to disconnect it...biggest "what if" is a chunk of ice forms in the elbow from condensed crankcase vapors and it dislodges trashing your turbo.
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
mine is wired like stock...i guess it wouldn't be a problem to disconnect it...biggest "what if" is a chunk of ice forms in the elbow from condensed crankcase vapors and it dislodges trashing your turbo.
I wired mine stock as well. Given the PO's location I wouldn't be too concerned about not installing though.

Honeybadger - where are you going to install the coolant reservoir? I'll be interested to see where you can make this work.

Another item I'm noticing in your images - be sure to seal the radiator against the bulkhead so any positive pressure you build up on front side [while driving] is not able to bypass the radiator and its only option is to go through the rad or CAC.
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Jimbote I'm glad you said something, because you're right greengeeker, where I live it barely gets below freezing and wouldn't be a problem. But I plan to take this truck all over the country and there are places where it is below freezing all day and that's where the heater is needed. I had the bias in my head of "it barely reaches freezing at night, this can't be an issue". But that isn't true everywhere. That said, I have it connected up like stock now to just be on all the time. I measured the resistance of one to be about 6.5 M Ohms, so it shouldn't really effect performance. Maybe I'll experiment with it on my jetta and see if I can even notice a difference in mileage.

Greengeeker - if you go back a page I've got some pictures of it. I made up a new washer fluid reservoir and put tabs on it to mount the coolant ball. It goes back in the stock location, but leaves me enough room to carry some extra fluids with me also. I've got an extra one I made that doesn't have a cap welded to it if someone was interested in it.

Also good call with sealing the intercooler, I think the radiator should be fine the way it's mounted, but the intercooler will definitely need to be sealed to make sure the air flows through it and not just around.

I got the relay 43 working this weekend, I'm going to update the circuit diagram to have for my records, and when I do I'll post it up here for anyone else who wants to use it. It's really a pretty simple system since relay 43 has all the fancy circuity built into it.
 

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
This is the diagram I found on a westy or vanagon forum. That's what this relay is from. I got a 43, but looking at what people are saying, I should have gotten an older one. The new one pulses a ground signal to turn on the dash warning light. But the older 42 holds ground. This would have been better for my plan to also put a buzzer in the circuit hooked up similar to how VW did it. With the buzzer only going off briefly when the occurrence happens and not continuously.
Connect power to one side of the LED and the signal wire to the other and you'll be all set with this diagram.



After a few hours of soldering, the ecu has been wired into the truck. Well just the engine connector, a few of those wires need to be routed elsewhere on the other side. I'm working my way around the inside of the truck though so that will happen a little later. All that's left to connect is coolant temp and oil pressure from the other ECU connector, and ground a few wires and I'll be ready to move to the next section of the truck.
 

CptJackSparrow

Active member
Joined
Feb 15, 2020
Location
San Bernardino, California, U.S.
TDI
2004 VW Golf GLS TDI
this is a sweet build! keep it up mate, I imagine you should get at least 30-33 mpgs out of that thing with the TDI engine.

I just joined the forums, but have been a long time anonymous lurker. Subscribed.
 
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