Ls K10 swap advice

[Dhartmann]

Hopefully a couple of you have taken on a swap like this as I'm in need of some help. I have a 69 K10 and I would like to buy a complete donor vehicle ranging from 2000-2006 with a 5.3/4L60E setup. Having a tough time sourcing a donor with a manual transfer case, most seem to be electronic. Does anyone know if I use everything out of the donor (motor, trans, case wiring, etc) but replace the electronic TC for a manual one if it will throw the ECU or PCM off and not function correctly? Or can I just simply remove the solenoid on the TC and install a manual shift lever. I just feel like the truck is going to throw a fit since the wiring will no longer be plugged into anything. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

[kwmech]

Personally I like keeping my old trucks old and simple to get parts for and work on. With that being said, you can buy a stand alone harness made to your specs.
https://www.wiringspecialties.com/ls...IaAhw9EALw_wcB

[57taskforce]

Are you swapping to a ford front axle at the same time? The 00-06 trucks use a driver side front drop transfer case, all the old solid axle GM stuff is passenger side drop. You can mate an NP205 to that 4l60e fairly easily, same with the square body NP208. Most 70’s fords used driver side drop so that is why I asked about the ford axle. The 78-79 ford dana 60 is a popular axle when solid axle swapping the 88-07 GM trucks because it allows you to use the factory transfer case the trucks were built with.

As for the question on swapping electric shift for manual you shouldn’t have any pcm issues there, if anything comes up it can be handled in HP tuners.

[Dhartmann]

Originally Posted by kwmech

Personally I like keeping my old trucks old and simple to get parts for and work on. With that being said, you can buy a stand alone harness made to your specs.
https://www.wiringspecialties.com/ls...IaAhw9EALw_wcB

I was actually looking at that website a couple hours ago, PSI as well. Trying to decide who makes the simplest harness when I go down this route. Thank you for the info!

[Dhartmann]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

Are you swapping to a ford front axle at the same time? The 00-06 trucks use a driver side front drop transfer case, all the old solid axle GM stuff is passenger side drop. You can mate an NP205 to that 4l60e fairly easily, same with the square body NP208. Most 70’s fords used driver side drop so that is why I asked about the ford axle. The 78-79 ford dana 60 is a popular axle when solid axle swapping the 88-07 GM trucks because it allows you to use the factory transfer case the trucks were built with.

As for the question on swapping electric shift for manual you shouldn’t have any pcm issues there, if anything comes up it can be handled in HP tuners.

Not swapping the front axle, I completely spaced about the newer trucks being driver side drop though. Glad you reminded me. I currently have a 205 case in the truck but I get awfully weary of hanging that heavy ass boat anchor off the tail of those trannies. Not to mention the constant ATF leaking into my case after I've replaced both seals and the coupler inside the adapter. This truck will rarely see any off-roading anymore so swapping to a 208 or even a 241 would be ideal. But since either of those units weren't born with the donor truck I just don't want the headache of electrical problems. But I suppose if that PCM can be deleted or flashed of it ever having an electric TC then that would solve all my problems

[57taskforce]

The 99-06 trucks use a 4x4 module for electric 4x4 shift that is not part of the PCM. That powertrain won’t know the difference. The biggest thing you’ve got to make work is the vehicle speed sensor so the transmission will be happy. That is pretty easily done on either of those cases. I like the bomb proof goodness of the 205 but I can certainly see where you are coming from on the 208.

[Dhartmann]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

The 99-06 trucks use a 4x4 module for electric 4x4 shift that is not part of the PCM. That powertrain won’t know the difference. The biggest thing you’ve got to make work is the vehicle speed sensor so the transmission will be happy. That is pretty easily done on either of those cases. I like the bomb proof goodness of the 205 but I can certainly see where you are coming from on the 208.

Yeah I'll definitely hold on to the 205, that thing has never failed me!
I'll look into finding a 208 or a 241 and get an electronic speed sensor conversion kit if the case I find is cable driven. You feel pretty confident though if I remove that electronic t case that I won't have any haywire signals because it's on its own module and not integrated into the PCM?

[57taskforce]

Yeah I don’t think you’ll have any issues. I’ll put it to you like this. When you have an encoder motor failure on those trucks (transfer case shift motor) a normal pcm code reader won’t pick the 4x4 codes up. They are separate modules for sure.