I found a guy that was willing to do the work I didn't have time to do... he drove from his home to South Jersey, picked/paid for an engine/transmission from a 240D, and brought them to my house to trade for my OM636 that I asked about awhile back.

So now, I'm trying to get a 1994 Dakota ext that has a bad tranny, so I can swap in the diesel engine and the 4 speed and have a good diesel mid-size to drive.

So, where do I get serial numbers from the engine so I can check out where it came from, what year, etc..

Also - The transmission came w/ the shift linkage broken and disconnected... there are three levers, each with a rod... what does who?

I assume (from bell to tail) the first linkage is 1-2, the second one is 3-4, and the third one is reverse... With the OEM linkage, does the transmission remain out of the forward gears while in reverse, or does reverse simply act as an idler gear to change the output direction in, say, 1st gear?