Seems fine so far, good power. Agreed on the turning radius, but not
NEARLY as bad as my father in law's '90 club cab with the 8 foot bed!
Talk about a parking garage disaster.
I'm now noticing little things, though, like I think the tires might
have a flat spot (sat at the dealer since October from the looks of the
Carfax). The steering feels "loose" (has about 1/6th of a turn slop
either direction off center) so I'm suspecting it'll need a pitman arm
and/or some tierod ends soon unless this is "normal" (this is the first
vehicle I've owned without rack and pinion steering). The gas pedal has
to be totally mashed to the floor to get it to kick down, so I suspect
the cables need adjusted. It has a slow "ooze" oil leak from the valve
covers, not unusual on a car of this age and a cheap easy fix.
My main concern is when I caught a whiff of antifreeze when I was
running it after I left the lights on by accident (no idiot buzzer like
my Neon). Hopefully it's just a hose that needs replaced, but with my
luck it'll be a bad head gasket. Of the last 4 cars I've purchased, 2
of them had bad head gaskets that didn't display themselves until I got
a hold of them. Doh.
Then there's the two mystery switches on the lower left dash... one must
be the driving lights but oddly it's a 3 position switch, and the second
is one little metal toggle switch... who knows what that does!
Factory service manual was just ordered... gotta love old Mopars. ;)
MattB
SandMan wrote:
> Date: Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:34:50 -0700
> Matt, I had a 92' Dakota 4x4 CC about 10 years ago, was only 4 things
> wrong with it:
> 1. It was only the V-6, great on gas but piss poor on torque,
> transmission was always "hunting".
> 2. The turning radius was awful!!! My old full-size F@rd would turn
> circles inside what the Dak could do.
> 3. I drove a 99' Dak... I wanted the V-8 plus full time 4x4, then
> the gas prices went up... Ouch... 10-12mpg. Maybe I should have kept
> the V-6 after all???
> 4. 92' was one of the years w/ bad paint...
>
> Don't get me wrong here, I loved that truck at the time, despite its
> flaws. Had 125K on it at the point of purchase, I had to put a
> waterpump on it (pain in the butt) & new shocks. So & spent $200
> bucks in repairs plus normal expenses (gas & oil changes) for 2 years,
> that ol' truck did good by me. You'll enjoy the Dak, plus where else
> do you find a brotherhood of ownership like this?
>
> SandMan
> 99' Dakota CC, 318cid, 4x4 mostly stock ;-(
>
>
>
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