ecu questions
 

is it possible to use an auto ecu with a manuel trans?

oook i have a 96 motor what year ecu's can i use

I believe that it is possible to use an auto ecu with a manual transmission. You can fool the ecu into thinking that you are in park all of the time and use resistors inplace of the sensors on the trans (they wouldn't change b/c the trans isnt moving). The biggest problem that I see with this is that the ecu would probably throw codes when it starts seeing a load on the motor with the ecu thinking that you are still in park and no movement out of the transmission. Also the ecu could have a different timing map for when it is in park.

In other words - yeah, it might be possible, but not a very good idea if you have to do all that work and then re-do it because you need a different ecu/harness.

I am assuming you have a non-california, 96 taco automatic harness.

From the looks of the ewd, a 98, 99, and 00 taco ecu's should fit your plugs.

Be VERY cautiious doing this. Just because the ecu fits the harness does not mean that it is wired the same. You will have to go through the harness, pin by pin and compare the two ewd's side by side to make sure that you dont fry your new ecu if you go this route. If you dont know how to handle this type of thing, this would be an expensive way to start. However if you are comfortable with electronics then it will be more tedious than anything else. Dont listen to the people that tell you "You cant use an auto harness with a manual transmission ecu" I did exactly that on my truck - runs great and not one code. You just have to be real careful that toyota did not switch up the pins between the ecu that you are using and the harness that you use - which they do alot between the years. When you find these out of place pins, use a needle and take the pin out of the plug and put it in the correct location.

Another thing that I forgot to tell you, if you use the auto harness like I was saying above (with a manual ecu) you will have to cut the auto transmission ends off and use the ends from your original harness to wire up the switches on your transmission (reverse light, 4wd light)

ok so it would almost be better to get a manual harness and ecu?

yeah, if you are not comfortable with reading wiring diagrams

all this wiring completely boggles me, ive printed off all the diagrams for my truck and new motor, im just lost cause i dont know what goes where from the engine harness to the two body plugs in the kick panel of the truck