Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) how to get cruise control to work after 6 speed swap

[KHelfrich]

well i have a 96 ram 2500 and i switched it from a auto to a 6 speed and everything worked great but my cruise control doesent work does anyone know hoe to fix this problem is something that needs changed in the wireing or is it the pcm or could it be just the cruise control doesent work wheni did the swap i had the whole truck dissambled to repaint everything



thanks

ken

 

[acook]

I think the truck ECM on the firewall is different on an automatic versus a manual.

 

[Andy Redmond]

Yes, you likely need the man trans pcm. The cruise circuit is looking for several things, tps, engine speed sensor, vss, etal



Go aftermarket, sell your old PCM on the classifieds to help with re-couping some costs.



Good luck

Andy

 

[KHelfrich]

you say to go aftermarket who makes an after market pcm for these trucks and what would an aftermarket pcm gain me over a stock one and is there a way to just reprogram my pcm to work



ken

 

[ABorchard]

After going over every wire and sensor trying to get a cruise to work on an auto about the only signal I can see that would be missing on a six that would stop the cruise from working is the P-N switch. I'll bet your sensor wire is just hanging in the air but should be shorted across or connected to your clutch safety switch.

This assumes your speedo is working, not familiar with the VSS on a six but on an auto it comes from the transmission and is necessary for the cruise to function properly.

It won't effect the cruise but you might also need to jump across the leads that used to go to the trans temp sensor with a 1000 ohm resistor to trick the pcm into thinking the temp is normal, otherwise the warning light may come on.

 

[Andy Redmond]

Aftermarket = Blue Streak, Standard Motor Products, Federal Mogul, Napa/Echlin (likely Standard Motor stuff) plethoia of I-net ECM/PCM repair shops, boneyards etc.



I like the dealer product, but pricey. My transmission friend once got two bad Mopar (PCM's) computers, so my guess is the remanufacturing was lacking at Mopar that day too.



A general statement, although I'm no elec. engineer. Sometimes the parameters in a PCM can be good (in spec) on the high or low of a value. However, with oem and or aftermarket equipment added, that spectrum may not be optimium for operation as we desire, then we get gremlins, intermittant gremlins, etc. .



Listen to Art! He's been their done that. . right Art?

 

[Andy Redmond]

One more time, forgot to answer another of your questions. Yes it could be altered with components or software. I would say it would be difficult to alter the factory code (software) reliably, unless you are a great software person.



I think our Italian friend "Mad Marco" has broken the code, purchased software lic. etc. for his 24 V ecm/pcm hop up.



For your 12 valve, no performance advantage exists, you just don't want the idoit lights from missing components in your conversion and you want the no working components to work.



Good luck

Andy

 

[ABorchard]

Listen to Art! He's been their done that. . right Art?

You've got that right Andy, I am familiar with every inch of PCM and cruise system about twenty times over, all due to one mistake the dealer made followed by another of my own.



What happened is while under warranty the dealer bent a pin in the brake pedal switch connector while replacing the switch. Cruise was intermittent for years due to this bent pin that was in a position under the dash that you couldn't easily see.

In the meantime in my efforts to trace the problem down I lost all pcm functions. Only problem was the pcm worked fine on another rig. After weeks of head scratching I finally figured out that while probing around with my volt meter I had inadvertently enlarged the female connectors on the pcm so they made bad contact. Just squeezing the connectors back together solved all my problems.



Ken, try the couple of things that I mentioned above, if that doesn't do get back here and we'll figure it out. Doubt if you'll have to change pcms.