I have tried twice to get my daughter a dakota. 1st on 98 318 sport automatic. seller has yet to produce a title(lost). 2nd on 98 318 sport 5spd. trans bad. 900.00 used, 1700.00 to rebuild 5spd. Question is: Can i put the automatic in place of 5 spd. have donner pu for parts. Not sure of computer part of truck. can this truck be made into an automatic. Second of all what is so diffrent about the 98,99 5spd that only the two years will work as a replacement.

 

you would have to replace the wiring harness and pcm at least. imho its not worth it to put a auto in. just look for a dakota with a auto, they are a dime a dozen on craigs list

oh and the 97,98,99 dakotas were the only 2nd gen dakotas to be equiped with the 318 so the torque converters are different i believe. they started puting the 4.7s in the dakotas 2000+