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How to read vin?

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Old Feb 1, 2015 | 01:31 PM
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Default How to read vin?

So for those of you aren't familiar with my story, I finally got an engine for my 54 Bel Air project. It's an LM7 allegedly out of an 01 Silverado. I've got it and the trans assembled on the run stand/dolly and been messing with the wiring, got the pcm and diag port wired up and I'm trying to verify the vin of the donor vehicle but my scanner keeps saying "nonsupported vin". Am I missing something or ...?
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Old Feb 1, 2015 | 03:13 PM
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what scanner is it?
Ive got a test harness and bench test BCMs and read VINS with my MT2500
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Old Feb 1, 2015 | 04:02 PM
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I have 2 small handheld minis but only one even has vin support which is my Mac ET50.

You bench test BCMs and PCMs or just BCMs? What is the oldest unit you've been able to read a vin from?

What is the cheapest way out of this short of having to buy yet another scan tool? If I build an OBD2-USB or serial adapter, are there any pc utilities that can decode?
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Old Feb 2, 2015 | 09:15 AM
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Originally Posted by stmotorsports
I have 2 small handheld minis but only one even has vin support which is my Mac ET50.

You bench test BCMs and PCMs or just BCMs? What is the oldest unit you've been able to read a vin from?

What is the cheapest way out of this short of having to buy yet another scan tool? If I build an OBD2-USB or serial adapter, are there any pc utilities that can decode?
thats a good question about a pc based one
have you looked at tuner cat?
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Old Feb 2, 2015 | 10:02 AM
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The only Tunercat version you can still buy is for OBD1. You can get the TC OBD2 branded as JET DST but it is not cheap. Get a cheap ELM327 cable off Amazon. The one I got was less than $25 and came with a CD with at least 10 different scanner programs, some of which will display the vehicles VIN when connected. I got a USB version.
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Old Feb 2, 2015 | 11:46 AM
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Originally Posted by 2xLS1
The only Tunercat version you can still buy is for OBD1. You can get the TC OBD2 branded as JET DST but it is not cheap. Get a cheap ELM327 cable off Amazon. The one I got was less than $25 and came with a CD with at least 10 different scanner programs, some of which will display the vehicles VIN when connected. I got a USB version.
I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. Although I know I'm going to be effing pissed that some free app that comes with a cheapie ebay/amazon cable will display it and my Mac "professional" scanner won't
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