I converted a 88 dodge Carburetored truck and the original wiring was
left hooked up and taped over to run the electronic lock up and such
and new was wired in as per instructions! Yes as far as I know all you
need is a intake and carburetor and the electronic conversion kit.

What year is it and what body style Dakota or ram?
Barry A. Lee

Steve wrote:

> Bret Ludwig wrote:
>
>> Let's say hypothetically I have a Magnum 318 Dodge truck with a dead
>> ECM and I want to get rid of the ECM entirely. I know there is a carb
>> manifold available, will a standard electronic or points distributor
>> fit these engines? Or is there an aftermarket one that does and
>> provides conventional triggering and advance mechanisms?
>
>
> As far as I know, a circa 1973 full-function (trigger, mech. advance,
> and vacuum advance) distributor for a 318 will fit in the engine and cna
> fire a standard circa 1973 Mopar ignition module (or GM HEI module since
> we're in the custom realm anyway ;-)) The big question that I do not
> know for certain is whether or not there's room back there for the
> vacuum advance on the side of the distributor to swing around to allow
> you to set the timing- that's more vehicle-dependent than engine
> dependent, since the carb-type manifold WILL have clearance for the
> distribuor.
>
>>
>> If it has an automatic, does its box need the data from the ECM and if
>> it does, can it be rewired to use other inputs or a
>> non-electronic-engine box?
>
>
> That depends on the year of the truck. From the start of the Mangnums
> until about 1996, the transmission only used electronic controls for two
> things: 1) locking the convertor, and 2) engaging overdrive. Those
> signals came from the PCM, but a lot of guys that put these trannies in
> old muscle cars just used toggle switches, and there is a little "black
> box" available to do it automatically without a full PCM. The rub is
> that starting around 1996, Chrysler got rid of the hydraulic governor in
> that transmission, and used a tonewheel type outputs speed sensor that
> generated a signal fed to the PCM. The PCM in turn combined this with
> other inputs and sent a signal back to an actuator in a modified version
> of the valve body and thus was involved in ALL the shift-points and
> shift-rates. That's a much harder system to duplicate than the earlier
> trnamission that still retained a full hydrualic governor.