After getting the engine and transmission mounted in the Dodge, I spent sometime looking at what else I could reuse from the Durango before I hauled it away.

I spent a lot of time trying to find a way to use the Durango’s 8 3/4″ rearend and the Durango’s rear suspension. The Durango’s coil over watts linkage rear suspension design is state of the art and very strong as is the rear axle housing. The problem was that it is almost 6″ too wide and could not find anyone who had the fixtures to narrow it, so it remained in the Durango.

Next up was the fuel module from the gas tank. Chrysler’s in tank fuel pump module is internally regulated and does not require a return line from the fuel rail on the engine back to fuel tank like the GM systems.
Gas Tank Follies

The good news was that the design of the ’56’s gas tank which wraps around the sparetire recess in the floor has enough height to allow the Durango’s fuel module to fit if you use a sliding float level sensor. The bad news was that the felt pads that the factory placed on top of the steel fuel tank became soaked in sea water when the old girl went for her swim in the ocean, the top of the fuel tank was riddled with small holes and weak spots. I found a fabricator down in Phoenix that had done a number of aluminum fuel tanks and he was able to duplicate the ’56’s tank and install the Durango fuel module along with the fuel level sender.
New ECM and Wiring Harness

The next issue was the damn security lock out system that was built into the Durango’s ECM and Front Body Controller. The issue is that there is a chip in the ignition key that is wirelessly accessed by an RF transceiver mounted in the steering column. My simple minded solution was to pull the transceiver out of the steering column and tape it and the key with the chip in it together and mount them both under the dash in the ’56. Unfortunately, the 2005 Durango was the 1st year that Dodge used the new CAN bus system in one of their trucks/SUVs. The transceiver was not wired to the ECM, but to another computer, the Front Body Controller so to make this work, I would have to go through all of the wiring on the FCB and weedout everything that was not needed to communicate with the ECM, then I would have to mount the FCB in the ’56 and I would still have to deal with the wireless tranceiver and chipped key. I finally bit the bullet and called Tony Squire at Hot Wire in Mena Arkansas. Tony was the 1st guy to deal with putting a 5.7 Hemi in a hotrod and is very familiar with the system.

Tony spent around an hour and a half on the phone with me to help me understand the issues that I was having. The key issue was the CAN bus that was introduced with the 2005 Durango. Had I started with a 2005 Ram 1500 truck I would not have the security system nor the FCB and complicated wiring harness. I discussed with Tony the possibility of having my ECM reflashed to remove the security code. I was told that it could be done but the guy who had cracked the Chrysler ECM wanted $800 to reflash it, Tony was able to sell me a new ECM for a 1500 Truck that didnt have the security code and didnt need the FCB. He also gave me a great price on a new wiring harness that had only the wires and connectors that I really needed to make the car run. Plus he asked me where I was going to mount the ECM so that he could make the wiring harness the right length. He suggest to mount it either under the rear seat or in the kick panel on the passenger side. I chose the kick panel location to keep the wiring length as short as possible to reduce electrical noise pick up.
Fitting the Durango Seats into the ’56

The stock bench seats in the ’56 were in pretty bad shape. Rust had taken it’s toll on the springs and frame to the point it would require a fair amount of work to repair, plus I really prefer a modern bucket seat to the original seats. After a few measurements it looked like the Durango’s seats would be a perfect fit for the ’56. I removed the seats from the Durango and test fitted them in the wagon, other than possibly needing to get rid of the headrests and shorten the backs some, the seats should work well. I will probably fabricate a console to fit between the front seats to gain a little extra storage and a center arm rest. I decided that I didnt need the third row seating so I didnt have to narrow the third row seat to fit between the ’56 wheel wells. Since I wont be using the third row seat, I can convert the foot well area into a hidden storage area for my cameras and computer.

I also saved the drive shaft, A/C condensor, radiator and fans. After I had removed all that I could use from the Durango, I loaded what was left onto the trailer for a ride to the bone yard.