Not necessarily. It's worth a shot at any rate. Cheaper than replacing all the electronics.

 

Will see if I can even find one lol, was hard to find that computer to begin with, let alone finding a 96-97 1500 5.9 MT computer

 

Don't think weight rating matters, so, 2500 or 3500 should work as well.

 

Fair point, i just think about the people who just put “5.9 PCM” on eBay… like cool… which one?

 

What?? Your esp isn't working??

Yeah, mine doesn't either.

 

So now on my way home from work I noticed that if it’s idling for awhile, like at a light, it runs like crap again with the exception of full throttle then it runs better, so I’m thinking that has something to do with it ignoring what the sensors are telling it and running off of the base map?

 

Entirely possible. Programming will lean out the mixture at idle..... it should recover right quick though once you step on the gas, and it starts paying attention to the O2 sensors again....

 

Are you talking about fuel trim? How do you do that thru programming on an OBD1?

 

I am yet to set that properly because I can’t get the obd2 port to work, but I did do the v8 mark to TDC and the 5 volt in the signal wire trick to get it close. I do have the OBD1 diag port tho but I honestly have no idea how you go about using those.

 

Don't know if fuel trim adjustment at idle will show.... not 100% sure the PCM even does that particular trick. (its an emissions thing... ) There is no reprogramming OBDI. They don't have that capability.

That's Fuel Sync. Different parameter. Dodge gives a 'range' of plus or minus 7 degrees on that.... so, pretty tight tolerance....