Hey guys, im planning a swap from gas to diesel on my truck. the truck is a 99 1500 sport. I plan to swap axles also. My question is which would be easier to make work correctly, a 12 valve or 24 valve. I plan to buy a whole parts truck. could i just swap the engine wiring harness, ecm and pcm on a 24 valve? whats needed to make gauges etc work on a 12 valve?
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Ok i would suggest going with the 12 valve conversion. I am doing the same swap in my 01 Ram 1500. I am using the 98 12 valve harness and ecm. Everythign else bols right in no fabrication. The only thing you have to do is drop the fuel tank and put a draw straw in. -

I am swapping a 12v into a 96 ram 1500.

If it is a 4x4, the dana 60 is a direct bolt in replacing the 44, When I swap the 60 in mine, I got everything from the steering box down, and it bolted in with no modifications. The track bar is the same part number between the 1500 and the 2500, so I left it on the 1500 (mainly because I did not have a puller).

The rear ends will not directly swap,

• the leaf perches on the 1500 are wider than the ones on the 2500, so they will need to be cut off and replaced with new perches.
• the speed sensor plug is a different, just swap the sensor out with the one in the donor vehicle.
• the vent and brake connector (not sure exactly what its called, but a little box about 1"x1" and its on top of the axle on the driver side where the brake lines connect and a vent tube goes up to the frame), unbolt that and use the one that is on the 1500.
• use the parking brake cables off of the 2500, I have not hooked it up yet, but it does not look like it will be to difficult to make it work. Just get the bracket off of the donor vehicle to use as another point to hold it up.

As far as the frame goes, the frames were almost the same. The front cross member on the 1500 is just a single c channel where the one in the 2500 was more double channel(see the drawing). The transmission cross member was not as wide from front to back as the 2500. But the frame and the mounts are the same height, width, and thickness of material, until it gets behind the cab. Then the 2500 goes to 1/4" thick material compared to the 1500's 1/8".

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smokin24valve's Sig:

James
96 1500 RCSB 4x4 12v in the works

Ok, thanks. are the coil buckets on the frame the same size for the 1500 and 2500?
thanks -

Yes, if it is a 4x4. I also had a set of 1500 springs on my 99 2500 4x4 (lowered the front around 2 1/2") -