1991 Dakota 318 TBI Belt Tensioner made of Unobtainium

DionR said
My winter rig is a 1991 Dakota 4WD with the 318 TBI that I have been making plans to replace with a '98 5.9 Magnum. Right now the biggest issue standing in the way of the swap is the garage I have spent all summer trying to build. Now it is too late to do the swap as I need the truck, so that will have to be a next summer project (provided I'm not still trying to build the garage).

In the mean time, the serpentine belt tensioner froze and the truck ate the belt. Not a problem IF I could find a new tensioner. Seems the '91's are a special one year only item and I can't find a new one any were.

So, I am wondering if anyone has successfully swapped the '92+ tensioner onto a TBI motor? I know the air pump would have to go away (darn :)), and the belt length will have to be figured out ('92+ have the idler in a different location), but sure like to see if anyone else has gone down this road.

Note that I posted this over on Dakota-Durango.com but the traffic there seems pretty small so I thought I would give FABO a shot too.

Thanks

this might be a dumb question, maybe you've done it already. But have you called a dealer and given them your vin? They at least should be able to give you a part number, to which you could cross reference it and find out if its used on anything else. For example, my wife's 87 dakota had the cruise control unit go out. Dodge couldnt get them, neither could anyone else under the dakota. However, come to find out that Chevy Astro vans used the exact same unit, swapped it right in in 10 minutes.