Hello group,
The time has come where I need to sell off my baby... Time to buy a
sedan and leave the world of trucks for a while. I tried to talk my
wife into letting me keep it, but she's playing hardball, saying we
don't need 3 vehicles! Hrmph.
The stats:
1997 3.9L V6 Dakota Club Cab
She's got approximately 149,000mi
VIN -- 1B7GG23X5VS119110 (See below for salvage title info)
The good:
*Has a set of BFG AT TA-KO tires that are two years old and still have
very good tread (I never went off road! *cry*)
*Gibson exhaust system and new factory catalytic converter put on last year.
*She's got new O2 sensors as of a couple months ago
*Definitely passes PA state inspection and emissions with flying colors
* For what it's worth, she runs good! (as if someone selling a car would
say otherwise!)
The bad:
*This truck has a *SALVAGE TITLE* -- Why? It was in a highway accident
with approximately 500miles on the drivetrain. The previous owner whom
I bought it from was a mechanic and restored the truck to good running
condition, but from what I've heard, you can never take a salvage title
off of a totalled drivetrain? The truck had numerous transmission
problems in the 1000-5000mi range until they found that the driveshaft
was actually bent out of shape by a few millimeters and it caused the
transmission to get all screwy. They fixed the driveshaft and the
transmission eating ceased. This is, from what I'm told, the third
transmission the truck has had and it's been in there for approximately
140k miles.
* The airbags were never replaced in the truck -- the quote I got for
replacing them was approximately $2500. (I think Bernd actually checked
that for me some time ago!)
*I've got a click in the front suspension. This click could be a bad
ball joint but I haven't had it to the mechanic for him to diagnose yet.
Could be something stupid, but we all know dakotas eat ball joints.
*I've got a radiator leak and a power steering leak, both of which I
plan to address before I sell the truck. I've been told the radiator
leak is probably a bad seal on the water pump, and the power steering
fluid leak is a pinhole leak that I can see while looking down into the
engine compartment.
* The front drivers side brake assembly will probably need to be
replaced at some point. My mechanic said the bolt was stripped and he
had to put an oversize bolt on it to secure it. He said that he didn't
really approve of that particular repair but it would be a temporary fix
until the brake spindle could be replaced.
Turkey Talk:
KBB says she's worth $5500 if it was private party sale and it was in
fair mechanical condition -- I consider it to be fair mechanical, but
the salvage title may scare people away. Plus,there are things wrong as
enumerated above.
Because of this, I'm asking $4000 OBO.
I live in Pottstown, PA (Approximately an hour northwest of
Philadelphia). If you'd like to come take a look at the truck or give
her a test drive, there's plenty of city-like driving in Pottstown
borough, and there's also a freeway just a mile or two away if you'd
like to open-her-up a bit.
Feel free to either call my cellphone (484)919-1400 or shoot me an
e-mail (pgrace@fierymoon.com) if you want to make an offer or want to
schedule a visit!
I'm going to borrow a digital camera to take photos of the truck so that
there's visual evidence of the condition of the truck. I hope to have
them sometime this coming week.
Any and all offers considered!
Thanks,
Pete
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Nov 01 2005 - 09:50:04 EST