Has anyone used a firstgen PCM in a conversion?

[Niki]

I know this is a conversion question, but its still about a firstgen... I'm going to use my 92 as a donor for a conversion. I was thinking, I have this whole truck, how hard would it be to use the engine harness and PCM, and keep the Dodge alternator, grid heaters, etc? Then everything would work like stock, no switches and pushbuttons to start it in cold weather. Too big of a hassle? I was thinking even if I don't use the PCM that maybe I could use the crank sensor for a tach?

 

[AKimmel]

I used the factory PCM when I put the cummins in my 87. There is a big enough difference between 87 to 93 that is wasn't a simple plug and play, especially since I wanted to keep all my 87 style switches and such in the dash. I have both service manuals for the 87 and the 93, and that helped a lot when it came to splicing all the wiring together.

 

[Simplysmn]

If you are staying all first gen it will bolt right back in place when I did my 85 I used all of the wireing from front to back being mine was a crewcab I had to add length to wires going to tail lights and fuel tank but other then that Everything from dash foward encluding heater system bolted in place without any troubles . hope that helps some .

 

[Niki]

The drivetrain is going into a Chevy. I was considering using the engine harness and just powering up the PCM, using a few LED's for the wait to start, water in fuel. I'd like the cruise to work also.

 

[rumblefish]

my crew was un-pcm'd by the po/builder. maybe thats why the heater grids don't work.

 

[Simplysmn]

I found the easiest way to do a swap is use as much as the stock stuff as possible that way you are sure to have things running ok . as for the chevy swap you might beable to find a place to stash the pcm so that way things would work . Not sure