Quote:
Originally Posted by Father&son56project
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?
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Absolutely not! In fact all the plugs will work. I would retain the in-dash ignition though. For those I use 67-72 C10 ignitions. And buy the aftermarket 55-9 bezels from Classic Parts to make them look nice. You’ll need to remove the ignition plug (red=B+, purple=start, pink=ignition, brown=ACC)
don’t hack up that beautiful dash! Any electronic programmable speedometer will work. And for gauges use electric ones with the sender wires you already have.
Your truck has no VATS, Brendan was correct on that. Put it out of your mind.
Any further questions, feel free to PM me.