Booooo, oh well. I’ll probably just hack into the harness and make it pretty with a bunch of conduit and electrical tape. On a more fun note, I finally got the v6 out.

It was not fun though, had to loosen the transmission mounting bolts (already hand tight, not even kidding), remove the front driveshaft, remove both of the axle support bar things, whatever mount the axle to the rear of the engine so it doesn’t twist, and do a lot of persuading to get everything out. So anyone looking to pull an engine on a first gen 4wd Dakota in probably the incorrect way, here you go those were my steps lol.

 

Engine is finally in, and it did start momentarily and ran for a couple of seconds before I started having electrical issues because of the way I ran the harness I would imagine. For the time being, I ran both harnesses and spliced the needed wires together mainly because the Dakota has 1 harness for the engine and body, but I now have 0 power anywhere which is odd, but a problem I will have to diagnose once I get back from Chicago. It ran and sounded healthy, just insanely loud because I'm yet to hookup the y pipe, but from feeling the headers, it feels like cylinder 1 isn't firing. I did break off a tap on the injector, but it really seems like all that tab does is hold the o ring on, so I think its a coincidence that it was cylinder 1 that was dead with that injector in it. I was going to try to use a spark tester to ensure I had spark, but like I said I lost all power to the truck entirely, so I will have to report back on that. I plan to just make a whole new relay box and use that to control the engine and body replacing the current PDC, like you would do if you were putting a Magnum into an originally carb controlled platform for example.

I do have a question though, as one would imagine, the PCM for the v8 needs the crank position sensor, which means I lose my tachometer... is it as simple as just finding the signal wire and splicing it into the wire that runs into the cab?

 

The previous engine had a crank sensor too, did it not?? Tach should get its signal from the PCM, just have to have the right wires hoooked up.

 

I figured I was just curious, hopefully running a new relay box is as simple as I’m imagining it is. From what I’ve seen the 5.9 really only needs like 4 relays to run, then I just need to run the fuses for the lights and such so it should be pretty simple.

 

Hopefully this is not a no no to do, but I wanted to recommend a site that was helpful to me on converting my dakota. Its forabodiesonly.com. They have a section on magnum swaps in A bodies, and alot of it applies to us as well. Some pretty good info, including engine mods, computer setup etc. Here is a link to the magnum section.
https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar...ine-swaps.131/

 

ill take a peak at that thread, looks like useful info

 

I don't have a problem with linking to other sites that have good info.

 

I'm in the process now of creating a wiring diagram so one I can actually have a plan on paper before I try to figure out everything, but two so I can see if I can be more efficient with the wiring. From what it looks like, there was a lot of seemingly useless splices and excessive wire gauge usage in the current PDC, so I'm going to try to be a little more realistic with my new box. While I have the harness apart and while I'm dismembering it to keep only what I need from the v6, I figured I'd tap into everything so all the gauges work while keeping the new PCM happy.

I've decided it would be smart to add in an OBD port, go through the diagrams, find the wires, and add it in, maybe just keeping it in the engine bay or if I feel like it, running it into the cab, but I looked at the 92 Dakota manual in the diagrams section for the bulkhead connector, I don't see anything for the wire that goes from the PCM to trigger the CEL. The only two things I see that are close are the power loss lamp, and the emission maintenance reminder lamp, both of which I'm not even sure my truck is equipped with. It's page 8W-108, AN71 if anyone has it available to take a peak. I'm assuming I can take the wire from the v8 harness that is supposed to trigger the CEL and tap it into that wire to make it trigger the CEL in the cab, as I wouldn't think there is anything inside the cab that gives you the flashing light sequence, and that it all comes from the PCM itself.

It seems like there are a lot of things on this bulkhead connector that I won't need, like the trans temp, cruise control, overdrive lamp, and the overdrive lockout. A large majority of the pins are for things like lights and wipers, so obviously I'd keep those from the original harness, chop off the engine part of the harness, and then add the wires for the new PDC and run the v8 PCM off of the new PDC, splicing the wires for sensors and CEL as needed.

 

So I'm rounding the corner for wiring, just need to adapt to the really strange wiring that the Dakota has, and will eventually just redo the harness entirely so I can get rid of a bunch of wires that do nothing (I'm a neat freak), but while messing around with the new fuse box and doing testing I pressed the clutch and noticed it was super soft. I have a new clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel for the truck, and its a 12 inch, bigger than the 9 inch or so that was in the trans originally, but the pedal is significantly lighter. I didn't touch the hydraulics at all, and I had my dad press on the pedal while I held the slave cylinder and I can feel it moving. I do know that I did not install the clip that holds the clutch fork to the pivot stud on the bellhousing, but I also don't recall ever removing one from it either when I had the engine out. The clutch was replaced at least once prior by the previous owners, so maybe they didn't put it back in? I know some people don't run them, but I was just curious if anyone had any input!

 

Thanks to Heyyou, for allowing links!!!
Here is another one that I think is helpful for your swap.