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Father&son56project · 11-15-2019, 06:55 PM

After 2 years of reading these swap posts, gathering parts & planning my approach, I am about ready to start my swap. The ‘46 truck has been gutted, and all measurements are documented. My donor S10 (96 reg cab long bed with a 4.3) is in amazing condition, and only has 128,000 km on it (79,000 miles). Finding something this solid here in Ontario is rare, as we salt the roads like its going out of style. Before I tear apart a really nice S10, I just want to ensure that I have not overlooked any big electrical issue. My plan is to use as much of the S10 as possible (including engine/transmission/wiring harness), with 2 exceptions:

I am not a big fan of the bulky, plastic covered S10 steering columns, so I would prefer to use an aftermarket column but if necessary I could use the S10 column and change just the steering wheel and build a custom column cover the way Skymangs has shown.
I am also not a fan of modifying the ‘46 truck dash to use the existing S10 instrument panel and gauges

One of my concerns is anti-theft features, but I can’t locate any obvious anti-theft features in my donor S10. Its a very bare-bones model without any power options at all. There were also no body control modules in 1996. I don’t have a “security” warning light in the gauge cluster and the truck starts and runs fine using a spare key that was cut at a hardware store and clearly has no chip in it. According to Brendan at LT1swap.com my PCM (model 16244210) contains no anti-theft for 1996 and 1997 model years. So after my long winded explanation, my question is this:
Is there any reason that I won’t be able to use an aftermarket column (with GM wiring) and run aftermarket gauges to replace the S10 instrument cluster for my particular build?

11-15-2019, 06:55 PM	#959
Father&son56project Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: Grey County Ontario Posts: 207	Re: S10 Swap how to After 2 years of reading these swap posts, gathering parts & planning my approach, I am about ready to start my swap. The ‘46 truck has been gutted, and all measurements are documented. My donor S10 (96 reg cab long bed with a 4.3) is in amazing condition, and only has 128,000 km on it (79,000 miles). Finding something this solid here in Ontario is rare, as we salt the roads like its going out of style. Before I tear apart a really nice S10, I just want to ensure that I have not overlooked any big electrical issue. My plan is to use as much of the S10 as possible (including engine/transmission/wiring harness), with 2 exceptions: I am not a big fan of the bulky, plastic covered S10 steering columns, so I would prefer to use an aftermarket column but if necessary I could use the S10 column and change just the steering wheel and build a custom column cover the way Skymangs has shown. I am also not a fan of modifying the ‘46 truck dash to use the existing S10 instrument panel and gauges One of my concerns is anti-theft features, but I can’t locate any obvious anti-theft features in my donor S10. Its a very bare-bones model without any power options at all. There were also no body control modules in 1996. I don’t have a “security” warning light in the gauge cluster and the truck starts and runs fine using a spare key that was cut at a hardware store and clearly has no chip in it. According to Brendan at LT1swap.com my PCM (model 16244210) contains no anti-theft for 1996 and 1997 model years. So after my long winded explanation, my question is this: Is there any reason that I won’t be able to use an aftermarket column (with GM wiring) and run aftermarket gauges to replace the S10 instrument cluster for my particular build?