1997 XL to 1995 XLT with RKE

[Mendomotox]

I have a 97 XL PSD zf5 4x4 and want power doors and the factory RKE. The donor truck is a 95 PSD 4x4 but it is an auto tranny. I'm wondering if anyone knows if I can just swap the whole dash and doors into my truck. Any experience would be aprieciated. Thanks guys

[superduty4x4]

You'll have to swap the entire interior wiring harness out. A friend of mine went through this and found out the hard way.

[Mendomotox]

Yeah, I figured that out too that is why I want to try to swap the whole dash that way I get the RKE. I guess what I need to know is if the harnesses are different from a manual tranny to an automatic?

[terryknight]

if you could do with out the RKE it would be as simple as just swapping doors. as for the auto/manual differences in wiring harnesses i have no idea

[superduty4x4]

No, but there are some things you'll need to do with the dash harness to make it work. The harnesses are the same but certain plugs are capped or not depending on if its an auto or manual.... just make the harness out of the donor dash resemble what the one that came out looked like around the steering column as far as what's plugged in and where.
When I say you have to swap the interior wiring harness, I mean the harness running through the cab that runs the domes lights etc. It's all a different animal on an RKE truck.

[Mendomotox]

I didn't say before, my truck is an ex cab. Is the dome light harness, etc. different on those too? And if so do you know why it is different? And about the power doors, I pulled all the guts and harnesses out last week and I ended up having to cut wires to get the drivers side harness out. Will they work with those wires not hooked up? Thanks for the help guys

[superduty4x4]

I don't know if the cab harness is different for an extra cab vs. single cab but I'd imagine they are. I can't remember why it was different, but I remember him having one hell of a headache trying to add RKE to his truck that didn't have it... he was thinking the same thing you were, swap the dash and dash harness and call it good. Some of the plugs where the harnesses connect down on the driver's side firewall were different and he spent a lot of time figuring out what the deal was.
If you don't know what wires you had to cut I'd say reconnect them when you put things back together.

[Mendomotox]

If I do the dash swap I would splice those wires back together but if the rke is gonna be such a pain ill just forget about it and just use the dash harness that I need to get the power doors working. I mean I could buy a viper remote start kit and wire that in eventually if I want a remote. Sounds like that will be easier? The reason I was thinking of swapping the whole thing is because I can get the whole dash for 75 bucks! So I thought, why not? But maby I can just use the sub harness for the doors?

[terryknight]

xl dash harnesses have the stuff for power doors and locks. ask Garrett (weareweird69) on here he knows all sorts of interior stuff

[Mendomotox]

I thought that before I went to pull the harness. There is a plug on the drivers side but like I said you also have to cut some wires that run up behind the dash that didn't have a connector. Maby those wires are just for the rke on that truck. Maby the power doors will work without those wires? Can I just pm garret?