Getting annoyed trying to sort out all the issues left by the PO on my 95 Acclaim. I have found a 98 Caravan 3.3l/4-speed I can get for nothing, so it's got me thinking on putting the drivetrain in my Acclaim.
I know the motor and trans will bolt in, but after that I'm at a loss. Will it wire in easy? Is it do-able?

 

The 98 is going to be OBDII, your 95 is OBDI, so, the computers are not compatible, and neither are the wiring harnesses. So, "doable"? Probably. "Easy"? Not a chance.

 

94/95 was an odd changeover period for Chrysler. IIRC The AA-bodies and minivans of those years are technically OBDII.

That said, If I swapped the harnesses and ECM/TCM (which I'll have to do regardless going from 4-6cyl and mechanical to electronic trans) it should work?
Or if I swapped the drivelines, then got harnesses, sensors, and computers from a 95?

I'm not scared of some work on it, I just like to know what I'd be getting into before I tackle something like this.

 

In all reality, I really don't know..... Swapping harness/pcm/sensors may be adequate to the task, but, need to see how the gauges are driven as well. Does the PCM tell them what to do? Or are they direct reads from their own sensors. VSS would be the one that most concerns me.

 

I believe the gauges read from their own sensors (coolant and oil temp for sure), which are just senders, so they should be able to be swapped for the old style to make them read correctly.

I've had a few transmission shops tell me that the trans is identical to the Pre-95 trans, just swap the sensors to the old style. That should mean VSS wouldn't be an issue?

Hoping someone has more insight on this, I'm getting the van this weekend, so I'd like to get started into it next weekend. If it's all plug and play, I can easily pull it off in a weekend.

 

My other option is to rebuild the 3spd I have in the garage and swap the 3.0/3spd into it, those are both 94s so they would be easy plug and play.