The tranny in my 96 (3.3) went bad so I've been looking at options to fix it... The van has 187k on it and runs good but I don't want to spent $1400 fixing it. I have found a wrecked 01 with a 3.3 and good tranny with 120k and was considering swapping both the engine and tranny as a unit. The questions I have are: Are the subframes the same, ie can I unbolt one and directly swap the whole frame without having to undo all the half shafts, etc. and 2: Can I use the same electronics or do I have to change the ECM and other modules? Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

1996 is an NS body and the 2001 is a RS body. The engine will not work, the trans will only if you have a TRS on the 1996 trans, and if it does then you need to replace the flex plate from the 2001 and a jumper harness for the TRS. The last NS body was 2000. If you need more information just send a pm.

 

Thanks! That will definitly help making my decision easier.

 

If you do decide to do this, I have the aftermarket part number for the jumper harness from Transtar. I don't know if Dodge offers the harness or not, if they do it will probably be cheaper from them.

 

Yes, Mopar does make the harness and it cost about 110.00 dollars. And If you were in the san francisco area, I'll would just give it to you. I have three of them in my tool box.

 

Wow, 110.00 for that short harness. LOL, thats crazy.

 

Thanks again for all the info. I decided not to go this route mainly because of the miles on the 01 transmission. Since it has apparently never been cracked, I thought 120k is probably on the far side of needing rebuilt itself, so I don't think I want to do a replacement twice. I enjoy reading the formus- they are very informative and have answers you can't get anywhere else. I appreciate the time the specialists spend reading and answering the questions.