Hey Mike!
Happy Anniversary and great story!
For those of us that have owned our Dak's for a few years, we too have good
memories! My '92 and I have been together for 9 years on April 2. Bought her
new with 183 miles (from a dealer swap) and have had great luck with little
repairs needed. Only one major item, replaced the tranny at around 105K. I
didn't get a chance to talk to the technician, but the service rep said he
did not know what happened. I simply could not put it into any gear - stuck
in neutral. In October I replaced the water pump (myself) and the only thing
tricky with that was they changed the mounting of the heater core fitting.
The original had a treaded insert and the new one had a slide in model.
Yikes! That longer tube is supported off the AC mount which is not a problem
if you have AC! Of course I don't so the dealer and I made a spacer to
substitute for the AC bracket. Other than that it was a walk in the park.
She has been so solid, I had to get her a big brother to play with in the
garage!
Many more happy year together!
Sean
'92 RC Sport 3.9L 5spd - 250,000mi!
'01 CC SLT+ 4.7L 5spd 3.92 LSD Mobil-1!
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Styer [mailto:m_styer@go.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 2:36 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: Happy 3rd Anniversary! (long)
My Dak and I have been together for three years now :) In that time i have
put almost exactly 70,000 miles on her (current mileage is 195,763 :) Here
is a not so short history of me and my 1993 Dodge Dakota V6 5 speed CC Sport
2wd.
YEAR 1- From day one I was wanting to modify. By the end of the first week
I had swapped out my stereo and speakers from my Silverado and built a
custom box to replace the rear seats. Pioneer tape deck and changer
controller, 6-disc cd changer, Pioneer Premier 6-1/2"s on all four corners,
and two Pioneer 10"s in the box. I later traded my rear 6-1/2"s to a buddy
of mine for some new Pioneer Premier 5x7" speakers for more midrange :)
Only major repairs were replacing the brake pads and shoes. Around June, I
found the DML and promptly signed up. Soon after that, a deer ran into the
side of my truck, leaving a huge dent i have yet to repair on the side of
the bed right above the gas cap cover.
YEAR 2- During the summer I found some bucket seats/fold-up console from a
98 regular cab. it took me a week to adapt the newer seats to the older
mounts, mainly cause i was working in a parking lot and my kitchen table.
The only major repair needed was after the centrifugal clutch on the cooling
fan exploded, spraying the engine compartment with silicone. After gettting
the money, I promptly remove the stock fan and clutch and put in a 16"
Permacool electric fan. Yes folks, you can tell the difference without the
stock fan sucking up hp ;) I also put new tires on the Dak this year, as an
alignment problem wore the old ones down, replacing them with some 235/75/15
AT's. My ABS malfunction light was also on the better part of this year, it
ended up being a blown fuse caused by me towing a 6000 lb trailer w/o
brakes. Easy fix.
YEAR 3- This past year has been rough on the Dak. Major repairs were
numerous. Spring- both front calipers were clogged and locking up, which
warped both front rotors, so these needed replaced, along with the front and
rear pads and shoes. About the same time I developed a severe power
steering fluid leak, that i am pretty sure is bad hoses (but I still dont
have the money to repair them). However, i accidently put brake fluid in
the power steering pump, and since then I have not leaked a drop...who
knows, i dont look gift horses in the mouth. Around Easter, my gas mileage
suddennly (in one weekend) dropped from a consitent 19-21 mpg to 10 mpg. I
did not figure out the problem until trhough the DML I discovedr i could
pull computer codes. i replaced the MAP sensor and the O2 sensor ($50
each!! Damn!!), but my mileage and performance instantly jumped back up to
20 mpg (I expect this to go up when winter and bad gas go away). An
offroading accident around the same!
t!
ime left my fron bumper mounts bent, destroyed my air dam, and bent the
front bumper itself.
Summer time, the Dak moved me and all my stuff from Nashville to Syracuse on
nearly bald tires (still had the alignment problem), but she handled all
that weight in the bed and trailer just fine. During the fall and another
offroading trip (to get fire wood) I managed rip apart my exhaust by driving
over and getting caught on a cable fence. A week after driving with no
exhaust on my truck (get earplugs if you ever plan on doing this ;) I
replaced the stock exhaust with a dynomax Turbo catback setup. At the same
time I replaced the timing chain. Man, can you tell the difference for the
better :) Somewhere around then I also put on some freebie minivan tires
that evven with their All season tread, handle the CNY snowfall VERY well.
After Christmas and many nights researching the DML for how to info, I
modded my TB by cutting off the ridges and grinding and smoothing the rest.
Not a big mod, but easy, free, and VERY noticable.
PRESENT- The Dak is running pretty well. I can hear some valve clatter,
and figure with as many hard working miles as she's seen, a head rebuild
would help. But in the meantime, she gets me around town during the week
just fine, and safely and smoothly gets me from Syracuse to Allentown, PA
and back every weekend. And once i can get some money, some serious mods
are in the plans...that is unless my fiance can convince me sell my Dak and
get a newer Gen II, but with 4x4 and a V8 :)
Sorry this was so long, but i have a lot of good memories with my truck, and
this is the first vehicle I've had that I honestly think will last me many,
many years :) And for 2 1/2 years the DML has been there to help me, listen
to my rants, and encourage my wild imagination more than it should be.
Mike S.
Present: 93 Dakota CC V6 5speed
87 Chevy Silverado SWB 5.7L auto lowered and loud
81 Ford F100 SWB 302 auto
64 Plymouth Valient 2 door Slant 6 three on the tree (wish I still had this
one)
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