Ok, made a little bit of progress today here at work (they had a bandsaw i needed
)
One part of this project I havent really touched on is what am I going to do with all my backup lights, parking switch, and neutral safety switch from the a4ld? Well not to worry, I have that figured out.
Just a bit of background info...
The A4LD uses a 5-pin switch that, depending on where the shift lever is moved to, will direct current to whatever function needs it. For example, for the starter relay to recieve current, the switch needs to be either in park or neutral. For the backup lamps to work, the transmission needs to be in reverse, ect. Also, the transfer case computer is tied into this switch so that the low range can engage only in neutral.
The 5R55E uses something somewhat similar, but it is called the Digital Transmission Range Sensor, or DTR Sensor. These same 'switches' are built into it, along with along with switches that feed into the EEC-V PCM to tell it what gear you have selected (Drive, 2ND or 1ST gear). Obviously I cannot just install the 5-pin switch into the 5R55E valve body.
So the solution? You guessed it, build a wiring harness
I wanted to retain the two A4LD harnesses located underneath the truck. Using the following method, I will be able to obtain that goal. But first I needed a spare 5-pin switch, which is the one pictured above (Thanks Dan!)
My plan is to use the 5 copper pins, solder on some wire, and then tie that into the 5R55E C113 Grey connector. Doing it this way, when I drop the modified harness into the truck, it will simply plug into the existing electrical, and no splicing underneath the truck is needed. So I cut it half
:
See, the yellow plastic housing the copper pins is pressed into the steel case, and the edge is then beveled in to hold the plastic housing inside the case. Which is why I cut it in half. At this point, I still needed to get the rest of the casing off, so using a bandsaw, i split it on two sides, and just like a walnut, i got the yellow goodness out.
So now I have access to the 5 copper pins, and can solder on some wire, and thus have converted a switch into a male electrical connector. This should be much easier than trying to cut off the female plug, splice and solder underneath the truck.
And seriously everyone, thanks for all the positive feedback and support. Hopefully I will have an answer for you folks as to whether or not this whole swap will have been worth it on Sunday evening, 4-10-2011. Thanks!
lol, the only code that was thrown thus far was a fuel pump circuit failure...interesting. So now that I was able to communicate with the EEC-V, I selected a few sensor PID's to monitor, held my breath, and started the truck for a few seconds. I was actually able to monitor a couple of sensors like I would be able to in a complete EEC-V setup! IAT voltage was normal and Vehicle raw voltage was at 14.4 volts! Success! So Having done that for the night, i called it and disconnected the extension harness to the truck and can now sleep better tonight 
