So, I've got to admit...I've been falling out of love with my truck lately.

I know the PO babied the thing for all it was worth, but generally when you buy something at 150k miles...it's going to need your standard bevy of work. Wear items are just getting...well...worn out.

So I buy the truck with airbags and bad tires and good paint and everything working except the power mirrors.

A trip to Costco nets me $800 worth of 33x12.5s and it rolls smooth.

The transmission explodes and I spend a LOT of time replacing the 518 with a Getrag. Finally got that working pretty good, although I could use a new rear driveshaft to complete the job. I had mine cut slightly too short and it wobbles a little at the slip joint in the front. Not that big of a deal, but still.

The getrag makes a lot of noise, which I know they're known for, and its probably coupled with a need for some additional sound deadener around the shifter hole.

The truck is loud inside, only fits me and one other person, and on my daily drive the thermostat doesn't open up on my trips to and from work (and I drive home for lunch, so that's 4 trips a day).

I'm getting to the point where the quirks are starting to get annoying. I'd hoped that after I redid the clutch job for the 4th time, that it'd give me a little bit of slack, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Yesterday I was underneath the truck for a little bit of time in the 8 degree weather, and it was the last place i wanted to be.

I've started to get visions of a newer gen Dodge with an nv4500 (or 5600) and 4 doors (be they suicide or not), and I'm having a hard time shaking that thought.

 

i know where you're coming from. bought mine drove it for a year and took it off the road for some much needed restoration. a $hit load of money later and im still working on her. im not gonna lie i bought a cummins and it came with a dodge lol. but its worth it, when i drove it i always had the biggest grin on my face. if you having doubts maybe look into doing a conversion on a newer truck that way you still have the ve cummins at heart but the luxury of 4 door lol. i thought about putting a cummins in a crew cab chevy before i bought mine. what would be sick is a newer crew cab chevy with a blown duramax and drop in the 12 valve and you have the allison behind it and the ride of a indepent front suspension! good luck with what ever you decide to do

 

The quirks can be annoying at times but you don't have a truck payment do you. Mine has quirks that annoy me at times too. but it runs strong and doesn't let me down.

A bit of sound deadner and perhaps an electric fan setup and you may find that you have a truck you enjoy.

 

That would be a totally sick truck!

Subliminal, I don't blame you for wanting to ditch the old beast for something newer and, (hopefully) less maintenance. As you say, like most anything the age of our trucks they need almost constant maintenance. Which is great if you're so inclined and/or have a bottomless wallet . But there is definately something to be said for newer. Is it just that the grass is always greener? Maybe. If you do need to do anything to a newer truck, it's not as easy as on ours. The hope is that you won't have to until it's reached it's used-by date. Which isn't really a good way of looking at it, although most folks do.
My own aspirations are to get an '05 or '06 2500 Megacab to haul with, and keep my heap for playing around and as a backup tow vehicle. Thankfully, it's not my DD, although it was for a while. During that time it was both a blessing and a curse. It was great because it never ever let me down and fun to drive sometimes, but it wasn't very comfortable in general; loud, lots of vibrations, big and heavy, not so good in traffic.
Don't get me wrong, I love my truck. But I can totally see how it could get to be too much.

Ok, over!

 

Well your description of the noise, vibration, and potential problems probably ring true with most guys who drive these 20+ year old trucks. They are long past there "Best before" date and the maintenace has to be expected. Although sometimes it can pile up on you.

I know that my crew is in constant need of upgrades and repairs, but it still gets me to work and back, and hasn't let me down. Right now I have water pouring in around the front windshield, vent windows etc. Very annoying, and will again cost me several hundred dollars to fix.....but I will gladly pay it. Better to spend that money on fixing and upgrading my truck, then paying the bank all that interests and depreciation.

Hope you can find the love again.

 

Mine has had it's issues, but has been available for use at least 98% of the time that I have owned it. All vehicles require maintenance and at least these 1st gens are known entities, no more surprises like ANY new vehicle is going to have. That said, I still like to drive my Range Rover around town, it's sooooooo comfy... Mark

 

You know...for me its the noise. I don't know if I'm just missing something, but I've had a noise that increases in speed and annoyance with engine rpm. For the longest time I stayed out of the upper range of RPM because I had a serious vibration.

Finally fixed the vibration and now I have this annoying sound. My truck kind of sounds like in has a v8 or something...almost lopey.

Grrr.

 

the loud noise of the truck really bugs me too. Sometimes I think and dream of driving something that isn't so loud (engine, exhaust, and wind noise... as well as a few other rather loud annoying noises). At the end of the day though, I still like my truck too much to sell it for now and also having too much money in it to ever bother selling it as well. So it's mine, probably forever because the engine will probably never quite on me and so long as it runs its going to be mine.

buy a car to drive sometimes. That way you can get sick of driving a car all the time and just go back to the truck because it's a truck, and you like to drive a truck.

 

Yeah, pretty annoying.

I guess I should clarify a bit more:

I don't believe the noise my truck makes is normal. I think it's something screwy somewhere...and I'm getting really tired of not being able to fix it. It makes me sad every time I get in it and drive. First it was the vibration...now this noise.

I'm going to get my video camera or something and get the noise on tape, for you all to hear. I just looked/listened at/to a bunch of videos on youtube with incab shots, and none of them made this noise...

I think my truck hates me.

 

Sounds like Christine was reborn into your truck...

One thing for sure is that 4 clutch jobs combined with a short driveline, that is not gonna help.

1./ Is your clutch properly fixed now or do you still have issues with it?

2./ Get a shop to measure and cut you a new driveline.

Maybe wait for the spring when everything comes back to life, including truck love...

 

1. Yeah, everything seems to be good now, unless the noise I'm hearing is clutch related...which is a stomach-sinking possibility.

2. Yeah, that's the plan...it really only seems to cause issue over 60 mph, and that is not something i do on the daily.

 

Dont feel bad subliminal you are not alone. On mine I replaced the brakes and rotors to get rid of the warped rotors (good part got rid of the pulsing pedal) bad part found the upper ball joints out of the A-arm. Sooooo off to the shop ordered new springs (since mine sagged and was going in there anyway) new ball joints tack welded in. Good to go I thought! That night the alt. went out! Oh Brother! got that fixed then the trans line cracked and started leaking. Got that fixed then the vss went south lost speedo/cruise/od. havent fixed it yet,then the batt. quit. Got a new one. Now to the vss next. Will it never end? Anyhoo I have to keep it ( it was my fathers and he passed away in 06) Soooo I feel your pain! MARCH ON

 

Wont try and talk ya out of it. Newer are nice too. Do what ya got to do. I am thinking here about this summer of getting rid of mine. Now that I got all the bugs worked out of it, I think I'm just getting older and craving the nice/quiet ride now.

 

Sometimes you have to walk away and take a break, but if it's your daily I can see where that's hard to do. I hope it works out for you. Beautiful truck BTW. I wish I could find a 1st Gen as clean.

 

You can...want mine?