8 speed swap

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Wild one

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Do you have an OE tune file read from HP Tuners?
My tuner would have the stock file on his laptop,and we haven't transferred the stock tune to my laptop yet.If you want to read the tune file,i'm in Alberta and you can come plug into the car and read it if you want.Sending a file is beyond my paygrade.
 

Sami932

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I am writing it up as we speak as i just did the swap on my 2014 in my driveway at my apartment garage with basic hand tools, a jack and all the OEM parts needed to do it.
Did you manage write it up?
 

t0ymach1n3

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Still working on it. Life has not been kind to me the past two months and I have about a 1/3 of it written up so far. I also didn't take a lot of pictures being I did it all by myself at my apartment garage. I'm hoping to get some stability going and sit down and just knock it out.

In the meantime, if you got any questions at all, feel free to ask me and i'm happy to pass along what knowledge I have.
 

t0ymach1n3

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Just wanted to give a quick update to everyone:

Want to start with thank you. It was this site that gave me so many ideas that brought the youthfulness in me out. Over the past year this place has helped me change my 100% bone stock 2014 Ram 1500 Express to something I could have only dreamed about. I can't express enough my gratitude to everyone, no matter if we are cool or could have had some disagreement. Thank you for helping me to live my dream and I hope to help you live a bit of yours. Or at least help ya fix something lol. Now to the really important stuff.

I am still on the fence on how to publish this work. It has been suggested to me to paywall it or even actually publish a book on it. I can't, in all good conscience, do that to a place that freely gave me information and assistance with no thought of getting paid for it and neither will I. Plan is to start a new thread and put everything there. I have about half of the steps written out and do not have many, if any, pictures of the actual project process. I am doing my best to try and take pictures and deep explanations of the more difficult points to this past just basic swapping of the trans and the harnesses. I will also be doing my best to include the needed steps for the things that needed to be done in AlfaOBD to make everything happy and working. That part will come after the guide is published.

I want to say one other thing before I put out anything. I am not a mechanic. I have never worked for anyone that does this kind of stuff for a living. I am just a good ol boy from a small town in Oklahoma that enjoys tinkering and figuring out how things work. I'm in the IT field and sit at a desk most of the time and do this for fun more than anything. This is a guide, a story if you will, of what I did and what I experienced and what I was able to accomplish and wish I'd had known before hand. I take no responsibility for anything you do, break, brick or destroy in the process. I will 100% answer any questions anyone has about it and give my opinion. I will always help out anyone that needs it. Just wanted to get this out there so there is no confusion as to what this is and my responsibility to taking on a project such as this and your outcome versus mine. Thank you again!
 

jawzs2

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Looking forward to your write up, I've been toying with the idea of doing this with mine
 

DILLIGAF

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from Sound German Automotive FB post

So I have been fielding a lot of questions about 8 speed swaps on 2013 and newer Rams. Hopefully this will get shared among the appropriate groups out there and reduce the amount of calls and emails to me about this. My products are not needed for 2013 and newer Rams. Just copy what Dodge did with wiring and programming on the factory 8 speed. Dodge made this truck so you just need to wire up the transmission and shifter and reprogram/replace the ECU and BCM. BCM can be done with Alpha OBD and ECU is just a factory 8 speed ECU file. This can be done for 1500 and 2500. If you have a 6.4 it looks like the 2019 up 2500 with 6.4 will work. I have only ever looked at the 2019 file personally but this looks solid to work. And you can see on the diagram here. The shifter and TCM are really minimal wiring. Power ground/ Switch power, CAN_C and dedicated CAN directly from the shifter to the TCM. I can program ecus with just about any file needed but I recommend that you just get a used ECU from an 8 speed truck and change the vin. Then you have your old one reprogrammed later for a spare if you want. This is it. It is pretty easy to do and you can see it is about 13-14 wires total.
If you want the console shifter with manual mode then you will need a Charger/challenger TCM calibration in the transmission. The Ram calibration will not work. You will loose tap+- on the steering wheel though. Also the BCM will need to be coded for this shifter instead of the Dial shifter. I can flash TCMs if you need this. I have 5.7/6.4 files for most model years of challenger/charger. A couple of the GC files as well.
Hopefully this helps.

329609187_559064196154269_8968166473770056812_n.jpg
 

HemiLonestar

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from Sound German Automotive FB post

So I have been fielding a lot of questions about 8 speed swaps on 2013 and newer Rams. Hopefully this will get shared among the appropriate groups out there and reduce the amount of calls and emails to me about this. My products are not needed for 2013 and newer Rams. Just copy what Dodge did with wiring and programming on the factory 8 speed. Dodge made this truck so you just need to wire up the transmission and shifter and reprogram/replace the ECU and BCM. BCM can be done with Alpha OBD and ECU is just a factory 8 speed ECU file. This can be done for 1500 and 2500. If you have a 6.4 it looks like the 2019 up 2500 with 6.4 will work. I have only ever looked at the 2019 file personally but this looks solid to work. And you can see on the diagram here. The shifter and TCM are really minimal wiring. Power ground/ Switch power, CAN_C and dedicated CAN directly from the shifter to the TCM. I can program ecus with just about any file needed but I recommend that you just get a used ECU from an 8 speed truck and change the vin. Then you have your old one reprogrammed later for a spare if you want. This is it. It is pretty easy to do and you can see it is about 13-14 wires total.
If you want the console shifter with manual mode then you will need a Charger/challenger TCM calibration in the transmission. The Ram calibration will not work. You will loose tap+- on the steering wheel though. Also the BCM will need to be coded for this shifter instead of the Dial shifter. I can flash TCMs if you need this. I have 5.7/6.4 files for most model years of challenger/charger. A couple of the GC files as well.
Hopefully this helps.
Saw that yesterday....again, so easy for the 4th gen guys lol.
 

BADHEMI1

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Has anyone been successful on getting the 09-12 Ram clusters to show "8" gears on the factory gear indicator instead of 5 & 6? I believe it can be done with programing. Does anyone know if AlfaOBD is able to do this?
 

gtomike60

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Has anyone been successful on getting the 09-12 Ram clusters to show "8" gears on the factory gear indicator instead of 5 & 6? I believe it can be done with programing. Does anyone know if AlfaOBD is able to do this?
I'd be intersted in this too as I'm in the process of doing this swap on my 2012 Power Wagon
 

HemiLonestar

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Has anyone been successful on getting the 09-12 Ram clusters to show "8" gears on the factory gear indicator instead of 5 & 6? I believe it can be done with programing. Does anyone know if AlfaOBD is able to do this?

I'd be intersted in this too as I'm in the process of doing this swap on my 2012 Power Wagon
Theoretically should be able to do this since it is done with 15+ LD clusters when swapping into an 11-14 LD (Charger, 300). As those newer clusters normally aren't hooked to a 5sp shifter, shifter type has to be changed for the display to work in the newer cluster. You will have to go in and see if it is an available option. Considering the 8sp wasn't an option in any vehicle until 2012 it may not be there in the cluster software.
Best thing to do is call or email Russell and ask how (or if) he did it in his early 4th gen test mule.
 

1SLwLS1

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Theoretically should be able to do this since it is done with 15+ LD clusters when swapping into an 11-14 LD (Charger, 300). As those newer clusters normally aren't hooked to a 5sp shifter, shifter type has to be changed for the display to work in the newer cluster. You will have to go in and see if it is an available option. Considering the 8sp wasn't an option in any vehicle until 2012 it may not be there in the cluster software.
Best thing to do is call or email Russell and ask how (or if) he did it in his early 4th gen test mule.
Check the available options for the shifter type in the BCM or?
 

BADHEMI1

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I spoke to Russell but really did not get my question answered if it's possible or not. It has to be possible since the screen does not know any different, its the brain telling the screen what to display.
 

1SLwLS1

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Here are the options for shifter type in my 2013's BCM. I am assuming I would select the "4 pos Rotary Eshifter PRNDL (DS)" from the options - current configuration is "Not Applicable" - didn't really want to try it out at work as sometimes the settings take a bit to enable and didn't want to be stuck somewhere later when the configuration change takes place.

Thoughts?

IMG_1863.jpg
 

1SLwLS1

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Well I changed the shifter type and noticed no immediate change. The gear indicator stopped at 6, just as before. I also enabled Performance Pages, which also didn't work. So we will see if everything is unchanged within a few days and change it back if nothing worked.
 
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