1966 A100 Engine swap

Well folks I'm back. I bought a donor 1986 Dodge Ram P/U yesterday and I am going to swap motors and trannys. When I pull the 318 and tranny out of my 66 A100, do I need to seperate them or is there enough room to pull them together? What about trannsmission tailhousings? Will I need to swap them? Any heads up info would be appreciated also. I will post pics when I can figure out how to do that.

Yes, you have to swap the tailhousings if it's an A100. If it's a A108, you have to make a crossmember and get a new driveshaft.

They can come out/go in as one piece. I went from underneath and used a come-a-long connected to the rear bumper (I should have removed the radiator though). Nate takes off all four sides of the doghouse and goes from the top.

If you have any electronics going in, install in an electronic voltage regulator. Forget that, put one in regardless and save yourself lots of headaches.

Good Luck

the 86 pickup "might" have a lockup torque. thats not a bad thing but interchangibility limits the transyou can use. the trans from the van is probably a 727 and your doner could be a 904. not compatible for parts swapping between the two. the original 727 and a lockup 727 have the same look but are not the same internally. the governer on the tailshaft is different and the valving from the valve body is also different. my suggestion is have your original rebuilt professionally and add a shift improver kit. the way to tell the difference between a 904 and a 727 is the pan on a 904 is basicly square and the 727 has a bump out by the dipstick area. the engine swap is a switch of pieces with no modifications at all. the electronic ignition and voltage regulator is a piece of mind and reliability upgrade.........good luck.......

Nate takes off all four sides of the doghouse and goes from the top.

I sure do!

I also recommend having your trans. rebuilt..that way you'll know it'll go right back in without any headaches.

OK guys, I just pulled the motor out of my 1986 Dodge PU last night. It has electronic ignition and my old one didn't. What parts do I need to pull out of the PU and where are they before I scrap out the PU. All the info I have gotten so far is great! And no the tranny won't work so I am having it gone through before putting it back in. Any help would be great! Thanks guys.

keep the distributer, the coil, and the control unit and the plug for it. check to see how many pins are in it. the four pin ones are easier to hook up and only need a two terminal ballast. if its a five there is a little more work but the same result, dependable ignition. the drawing above is for the 5 pin control unit with a 4 wire ballast. bet you could get the other 4 pin control unit that uses a two wire ballast at napa for about $30.00 and save a little wiring and time. the plug from the pu's control unit is useable for both so keep it no matter what. when we know what you have we will go from there. there is a vacume advance on the dizzy correct.??http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/elecignconv.pdf

OK. There was a small silver box with 2 wires right bebind the distributor, mount to the cowl, and the ballast is mounted to the intake just forward of the coil. The distributor does not have a vacuum advance on it. I pulled the whole harness from under the hood. There was a small relay also mounted on the drivers fenderwell. So talk to me people. What's next

small silver box with 2 wires-save thats for your late model alternator , the one on our As is a little black box under the dash drivers side next to the vent door, the neat thing about running a newer alternator is your headlights wont "blink" at idle when you turn on the turnsiginals. what colors are the wires on the relay on the inner fender? you sure its an 86 not an 85 my 86 w250 doesnt have a ballast resistor or the small silver voltage regulator on the firewall my 85 1/2ton however my chiltons book goes to 88 i cant scan anything [no scanner yet]

you have a lean burn engine in the doner truck. if there was no vacume advance on the distributer, its a dust collector. there must be a computer on the inner fender or on the breather.sorry to say but you need a dizzy with an advance unit.the one off your doner will start and run the truck but no mechanical or vacume advance for driving on the street. that is why you don't have a ballast either. what you got off the intake is probably the heater element for the choke assembly. you no doubt have one wire from the choke housing or its broken off and just the spot for it.

OK. Guess i'm going to the bone yard for a vacuum advanced distributor. The silver box has a blue and a green wire. There is no black box inside truck on drivers side. There was a box inside the drivers front fender though. OK what next?

I misunderstood the last message. I do have a little black box by my drivers vent in my A.

Inner fender relay wire colors are, 1st relay has 1 plug with large red wire and a small yellow wire. Single plug with large brown wire and a single plug with a purple wire. 2nd relay has 1 plug with 2 blue wires and a blue/white wire and a single plug with an orange wire.

"Little silver box" is the voltage regulator, same as the "little black box" in your A.

So I put the "silver box" inside the A where the old regulator is, and put in a distributor with a vacuum advance, what about the box that was mounted inside the drivers fender? Does that have my ballast in it? If so, can I take that apart and take tthe ballast out and put that inside too?

the ignition system from the doner is junk.
you need :distributer with vacume advance
control unit preferably 4 wire and plug
2 terminal ballast for the 4 wire control ONLY
wire to connect as in the drawings above
the cap and rotor and plug wires are the only useable items from the doner truck.there is way to much work involved to make a lean burn / spark control ignition system work. besides they are more headaches than points in my opinion and i worked on a lot of them. mopar parts,- summitt, - jegs, - all sell the electronic conversion kits to make this swap and all instructions are included. so simple my wife could do it.part #3690426

i agree with jkr here- a mopar performance distrubuter is in order comes with instructions, control box ,wires, ballest resistor. some things your better off NOT to pick up in the junk yard,. however a non egr intake would be something to look for, if your keeping the 2bl.unless your A had a v8 use that intake instead of the one from the 85 .

egr valve is no big deal either. just block it off with a piece of plate steel about 3/8 thick or a heavy duty piece of exhaut gasket paper the same as the valve but only holes for the bolts.

I should be able to cap the ends of the exhaust manifolds with the original tubes welded shut and a plug by the exhaust valve on the passenger side. Has anyone tried going HEI for the ignition?