Ive had my 98 Dakota for a few years now, bought it with 212K miles and it now has around 240k miles on it. Its a 3.9l V6 with 5sp manual trans. Ive had a couple random occurrences of momentary loss of power/jolt while driving and random CEL misfire codes that i never noticed a misfire when the CEL came on, but nothing major until now. recently the momentary losses in power became more frequent and last longer, sometimes bad enough to cause the engine to quit firing at all. Most of the time it does not throw a code but yesterday it did, P0351 Ignition Coil/Circuit malfunction. I have read previous posts about PCMs on these trucks going bad and exhibiting symptoms when pressing on the middle wire plug on the PCM, which mine did. So this is apparently indicative of a PCM going bad.

I tried looking at local wrecking yards for a PCM I could swap in but there are currently no trucks with the necessary donor configuration in town, and I am unsure about what PCMs could be swapped in from other configurations, if any.

So where is the best place to get a used/reman PCM and what is the best way to go about getting the vin/mileage programmed on it?

Or would anyone recommend prying the PCM open to see if i can fix it? or are these filled with that silicone jelly?

 

I didn't look but I tried this in google and came up with quite a few hits that might help.

location of pcm on dodge dakota

 

Update:
I was able to find a PCM out of a 2000 Dakota at a junkyard that works ftmp. it is a different unit with a smaller molded aluminum casing (vs the stamped casing of the original unit)
The CEL is on solid all the time and the Cruise control wont turn on but everything else works. Nobody will reprogram the vin on this PCM for me so i really just have it in there while i fix or replace the original one.

due to my current financial situation I am going to attempt to fix the original one before i go buying a reman unit from a parts store

I came across this:
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/9...tures-1303589/

The PCM pictured in that thread is identical in design to the one that was in my truck so im already halfway through with the board pulled out of the casing now i just need to clean the potting off the back and do some soldering.

 

Hope you make out okay! I have been through the same thing, one of the PCM's I bought a while ago was suppose to be for my truck 3.9L automatic however, cruise didn't work and constant ABS light on. Anyway, replace with another and it's fine. I think I still have the other so called rebuilt one which runs the truck fine but again cruise don't work and ABS lit. If you should need to borrow it if you get stuck, let me know.