Dodgeman01, I'll let you know after Saturday. I'm getting my finances in order and making the trip this weekend. It's about 5 hours from here so It'll be a good test of the truck on the way home. <br><br>John, thanks for the heads up. I have never heard of that problem and would hate to have found out the hard way . So do most people do the jig method, or is the tab just as easy if you have the abilities to make your own tab? I just read articles on how to do both methods. Seems like a small price to pay for prevention. Thanks again.<br><br>As for the truck in general, if I buy it on Saturday, I have a 330 mile trip home. What things do I need to check in the parking lot before I pull out? I guess I need to test drive it for a good bit Saturday and get it hot and see what happens.<br><br>Sincerely,<br>Chris 8) <br><br>

 

Be sure and check the front end real carefully. Especially the tracking bar. The 4x4's have a nasty habit of the tracking bar wearing on the driver side. When this happens the truck wants to wander at highway speed. Can get pretty interesting!!<br><br>Just have someone wiglle the wheel back and forth, with the engine running, and get under the front and watch all your suspension. The tracking bar in almost the width of the truck. Where it has a ball joint on the drivers side, it is mounted to the frame. There should be zero movement. There are some repair kits, or you just replace the track bar. If you go to, lukeslinks.com he offers several solutions, reasonably priced and a heck of a lot easier than changing out the bar. Good luck.

 

Well y'all let's just be thankfull I am alive after that trip to look at trucks today. Here's the report:<br><br>For the '96 3500 4x4 5-speed blue nice looking truck w/ 145k miles: I climbed underneath and found a really worn carrier bearing &gt;, no spare, a almost busted brake hose, a large dent/burnt spot in the fuel tank and I climbed out and found a cracked grill, missing dodge emblem :'(, missing trailer harness, missing mirror adjuster, etc... Then, we went for a test drive. Yikes!! The brake pedal went straight to the floor before barely stopping, the CTD lost power and started spewing smoke at around 2200rpm, the carrier bearing started rumbling, and the tranny would not up or down shift into 3rd gear . Being very disappointed, my wife and spied another truck. It was a...<br><br>'96 2500 4x4 5-speed green/grey w/ 152k miles: upon inspection it appeared to be a much more sound truck. Except :P :P, it needed 4 tires, a new rear bumper (unless you like the caved in look), a fuse box door, valve cover seals, a rear main/input shaft seal (something was leaking), roof light cluster, radio, fuel guage, etc... plus it wouldn't stay in 4-high range w/o help. We took it for a ride and it ran and drove great, so I saw potential. I went inside to talk some shop on the truck with the owner. He said take the truck somewhere and if it was more than a shifter adjustment on the t-case he would pay for it. The truck was marked at 14.5k and through some quick phone research I found that it high books for around 12k. I was prepared to go for around 12.5k to 13k considering the amount of repairs it needed. He said the lowest I can go is 14.3k and no less . I said the highest we'll go is 13k and he said, &quot;no-way man, it's not a piece of junk, I could put a few nickle and dime things on it and sell it for 15.9k, it's a CTD!&quot; I said thanks for your time, cya. <br><br>There was no way in hell I was going to shell out hard earned cash for some auction house truck that I was going to have to sink 2k into just to be reliable. So the search continues. I think we're off to look at a '94 3500 4x4 5-speed CTD for 11.9k tomorrow. What a way to &quot;spend&quot; the holidays, eh? Wish me luck y'all.<br><br>Chris 8)

 

Hey Chris<br>I was looking in about the same price range as you. I can't remember how many I drove before finally buying, but it took a couple months. The more trucks you look at, the more you'll know what's a good deal. I had one decent dealer tell me that 90% of the trucks he sees with 120K miles need front end and brake work. Try to keep in mind that the majority of these trucks have been used for hauling/pulling and will probably need some general wear and tear repairs. Set aside some money for &quot;surprises&quot;. I have a friend that sells used cars. He told me that they can typically come down $1500-$2000 from the asking price. Enjoy the hunt. Good luck!

 

Hey Berner, yeah this guy wouldn't budge a bit. When I went outside I saw the salesman I had been working with and he said, &quot;Did you work a deal??&quot; I said nope and the owner was behind me and he said laughingly to the salesman, &quot;He tried to offer me 13k Ha, ha, ha.&quot; Oh well, mark him off my list. The search continues. ;D<br>Chris