about to attempt this regular cab to ext cab short bed swap.need tips and advice.
 

Got a 94 cummins 4x4 5spd. Love truck but hate that its regular cab long bed. So I picked up a very clean 1997 extended cab short bed sport 4x4 1500 complete running and driving for dirt cheap.I've got some infor like, on my diesel chassis ill need to move the first set of factory bed mounts to make them rear cab mounts for ext cab. No biggie. Got a complete shop, 2 lifts, welder, plasma. I'm not worried about the major things. But more the cab harness. My cummins is no power anything while the gasser has it. I'd like to keep it power.Do I got to swap dash harnesses from gas to diesel? I've read I can keep the gas cluster and it'll work fine, does this mean I don't even gotta pull dash to swap harnesses? Any tips, advise from those who did the swap. What you'd do different. Thanks for any and all information.

my recommendation is sell them both and go buy you a ext cab cummins, more difficult to sell a gasser body with a cummins in it than to sell an actual dodge cummins when the time comes, save yourself the heartache and jerry riggin that is about to go underway. it may seem like an easy task and you might finish it evenutally, but i personally would sell both and go buy one. when we built a gasser with a cummins in at school it was about a 7-8 week proccess and did work but i will never do it aqgain, unless i put it in a s10 or something, why put 150+ man hours in something when you could go find exactly what you want with cash, thats just my way at looking at it. but fastest way to do it is leave everything thats on one truck as atached as huminly possible it makes it faster, keep harnesses with motors as you swap!! you will need to make sure your front end on the gasser will hold the weight of the cummins engine

You miss under stand. I'm not pulling my cummins engine. I'm taking the 1500 cab and bed and putiing it on my 2500 diesel frame. And around here (pa) a beat up rotted out ext cab cummins automatics go for 10-18k. And good luck finding a 5spd. I've researched and people say to swap cabs n beds is a weekend job with a couple buddys. I'm not swapping motors and drive lines to different frames. Just taking my 2500 long bed reg cab diesel body off. And putting my 1500 ext cab short box onto the diesel frame. And I'm not gonna sell truck so not worried about re sale value.I just want to know can I use the gas dash harness with the cummins cluster and the chassi. Or do I gotta put diesel harness in the dash:humm:

So no one has ever done this swap that can chime in?

UMMMM ....... wow ... i think that a "weekend with buddies " is real hopeful ..... but i look forward to seeing me be proved wrong too :w2:

So even with each truck on a lift and all my shop tools would still take awhile to complete. I'm not doing this in my back yard but at my buisness which I own an auto repair shop

I'm not too sure ... maybe if you had doen a few maybe .....

Only thing I'm still up in the air is wiring. I know engine harness stays with the cummins. But someone on cummins forum said it'll plug right into the chassi/cab harness under left kick panel. If this is true then yes I'd have it swapped in 2days. But if I got to tear complete dash out n swap dash harnesses then it'll take longer

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Can n will the cab harness under left kick panel plug into my engine harness?

You need to get wiring and pin it out wire for wire or find some one who knows facts on wire for wire what u may need to rewire ..... otherwise its an expensive smoke show for you ......... just plan ahead .... that's what I'm getting at ..... do ur own research or find someone who's done these that will walk ya through it

Exactly why I am here. Seeing if some one who has done the swap can chime in on how they went about it