friend of mine is doing a 83 ramcharger for a customer. its been modified and the wiring is a mess. (think hillbilly logger) he had me look at it today and all i could suggest is a underhood wiring replacement. buddy has a 85 harness but would like to know if anybody knows of a interchange thats going to work.

Which part of the harness? The motor harness or the headlight harness?

engine would be a good start

Should be the same as long as the bulkhead connecter is the same. Both are AC harnesses and both have the same size alternator I'm guessing.


I have an 85 that has a terminal strip on the firewall....talk about modified but it works. No, I didn't do it either.

They're still simple enough it shouldn't be too hard to compare the two. If they're the same engine and same ignition it should be close enough to work or at least be usable to clean up the mess.

I have an 85 that was butchered horribly, don't know how it didn't do a Christine impersonation before I got it and burnt to the ground.
I went to the junkyard and found a NICE harness on an 84. I have the FSM for both years and the only thing different was 1 or 2 wires for the wipers were in different holes but the opposite year's terminals were empty in the bulkhead. It was a matter of popping those terminals loose in the bulkhead and plugging them in the correct formerly empty holes in the other year's bulkhead connector. I seem to remember 81-84 pretty much the same then 85-early 87 then later 87 and up/ my son retrofitted an 89 ramcharger to 87 to do away with the TBI and originally got an 85 harness, in late 87 they changed the width of the terminals at the bulkhead and the earlier engine side wouldn't plug into the later year body side.

thanks guys. were going to give it a try. this guy is a bush mechanic who built it and its a mess. coax cables running something, had a 6al that was cut out. still had the ecu installed among other things. ill post the results.

There were differences between the 1984 and 85 under dash harnesses. It seems as if the 1984 had a one year only blower resistor for the heater fan. (The 1985 resistor did not work on the 1984 truck) It seems like there was another change made, but it is slipping my mind currently. Bottom line: there were some electrical changes made between the 1984 and 85 models.