Neutral safety switch and fuel gauge on 98 swap

[oneBADDz]

98 4.3 to 99 5.3 swap. The truck won't start with the key, I assume it's teh Neutral safety switch because when I move the selector out of park I also don't have the light in the dash showing what gear it is in. I put the 5.3 and tranny in with their harness, then spliced in the wires from the 4.3 harness the went from teh tranny and up into the interior by teh blower motor.

Also, the fuel gauge doesn't work anymore, I don't know how the swap affected that at all, it stays pegged all the way past full at the 3 o'clock position.

I still haven't wired the tach, or speedo. I only did the temp, alt, and oil pressure, so I still have wiring to do, but help on those two above wold be greatly appreciated. I'm taking pics and trying to keep up with a writeup on all of these details to make other people's swaps mroe streamlined when they want to do their own wiring. It runs! Not with the MAF pluggged in for some reason, but it runs!

[ChevyLee]

Welcome to my world, Allen at Nelson performance is trying to figure out how to fix that problem, i have the same issue. I have a few of my in dash gear lights. Did you get your computer VATS turned off?? My gas gauge stays pegged at emtpy though. Also tach is off by about 1k under normal driving.

We are thinking its the 98 gauge cluster. He said in order to fix it, you put in a 97 cluster or get the stock computer and wire it up for that stuff.

[oneBADDz]

I do still have the stock computer in there, so I figured the neutral safety switch and fuel gauge would have been unaffected. I don't have the tach hooked up, but if it's off it should just be able to be changed by changing the tach output setting in the new computer. I believe we set mine to 3 in the tune, but I haven't hooked it up to see if that is the right setting yet.

[ChevyLee]

Mine is set to 3 as well, its still about 1k off under normal driving. It needs to go to 3.5 but you can only go to 4. Did you get a new computer for it? Also did you put in a new fuel pump? I just noticed you said it runs, thought you couldn't start it. Mine takes 2 trys to start, the fuel pump needs to build up pressure to start. Did you clean the MAF connectors? Mine needed to be cleaned, it was giving me some issues as well.

[oneBADDz]

Sorry for the confusion. I can not start it with the key, I can jumper power to the wire that is right by the pcm and it runs great. I believe the Neutral safety switch is the reason the key won't start it.

My fuel pump primes when I turn the key on, and it starts within 1 second of jumpering the starter wire. Stock 98 fuel pump. I took the wire from teh old pcm that used to turn on the fuel pump, and hooked it to the on that is at the extra plug by the 5.3 pcm on the 5.3 harness and the 5.3 pcm primes the pump just like stock.

I have the 5.3 computer that came with my swap engine, and the original 98 4.3 computer on-board.

[ChevyLee]

You are going to need to get a walbro 255 in tank fuel pump, the stock one will starve the new motor. The neutral safety switch is on the tranny right?

[oneBADDz]

Yes, it's the black box on the side of the tranny. I'm wondering if maybe it's different between the 5.3 setup and the 98 4.3?
I was sure I'd read on here where people knew what to do with it, but I can't find it now. Hopefully someone will stop in. I was told the fuel pump on the vortec trucks would be fine, and only the 94 down trucks needed a fuel pump. Man, it was easy up until now, and there are just a few things that are eluding me, lol. There is light at the end of the tunnel though, I've been impressed with how easy the swap was up to this point

[ChevyLee]

Yes, it's the black box on the side of the tranny. I'm wondering if maybe it's different between the 5.3 setup and the 98 4.3?
I was sure I'd read on here where people knew what to do with it, but I can't find it now. Hopefully someone will stop in. I was told the fuel pump on the vortec trucks would be fine, and only the 94 down trucks needed a fuel pump. Man, it was easy up until now, and there are just a few things that are eluding me, lol. There is light at the end of the tunnel though, I've been impressed with how easy the swap was up to this point

I drove around with out one for like 3 weeks, . Forgot to install it. They are only like 50$, and I do believe they are different. Did you have any trouble getting the motor to sit in there? On mine, it had to be moved back an custom mounts had to be made.

[oneBADDz]

I used the eBay knockoff mount adapters turned around backwards and it sat right in with no issues using the stock V6 mounts. It moved the engine forward 1" which was quite welcome since the truck is lowered and the DS was slightly too long as it was.

[ChevyLee]

I used the eBay knockoff mount adapters turned around backwards and it sat right in with no issues using the stock V6 mounts. It moved the engine forward 1" which was quite welcome since the truck is lowered and the DS was slightly too long as it was.

Nice, never thought of doing it that way. Get pics when you can. Good luck on getting it started.