Looking at a 96, what should i look for?
 

A friend of mine called me up and asked me about a 1996 ram club cab long box 4x4 5speed with the cummins. The truck has 265K mile on it and is in fair condition, little surface rust here and there ect. The price tag is $4k, whcih seems pretty decent. It has a new clutch and a bunch of new front end parts, not sure what though. I looked at the truck and it seems to be decent, It started right up, had a little white smoke, i did not think to much of it because it was cold. I am not sure how to check for the KDP and if that has been fixed or not. Any other things i should be aware of? Thanks for your time

Welcome to DTR

4K for ur truck? sounds about decent. U have a similar truck to mine. A new clutch for these trucks if it is stock will run you about 500 bucks, and if the front end is taken care of, then you should be set to roll. Is this truck stock? The white smoke is probably cause the truck is cold, or timing has slipped. Either or. The KDP is not an easy check, If the previous owner knows nothing about the KDP chances are close to 99 percent that it has not been terminated.

A TST kit and four hours of your time will fix that. SOme of them are jig killed, i am not familar with that method to do this work, But i would suggest killing that KDP with the TST kit and putting a new seal on the crankshaft, it wouldnt hurt, plus you get the experience of tweakin with the front of your engine...

On these 96 trucks, not much else i can think of other than KDP, and the front end.. seems to me u r good to go. Just check it like you would any other car ud test drive and enjoy

Good luck!

Rick

$4K sounds like a steal to me for a 5 speed 4WD CC.

steal
 

this is def a steal. i would def buy it if i was u. its got 265k on it so theres usually goin to be A thing wrong here and there but sounds like a steal. go for it

Well my friend called me up today and told me that he bought the truck. He is picking it up tomorrow. We will have to get the KDP taken care of, that is my only real concern with it. he bought the truck from a heating/refrigeration company, it was a guys company vehicle. The boss of the guys who drove the truck does not know anything about diesels or this truck, but my friend was able to talk to the guy that drove it for the past 7 years and the guys said that he would still be driving it if his company had not just given him a ford 6. Nogo powerjoke. Said he liked the old dodge better then the new ford