I was looking at a 97 dodge cummins with 200,000 miles and was wondering what kind of problems people are having with this year model it is a manual 5 speed 4x4 and what price is fair its not beat up no fith wheel setup thanks for any advice

 

Track bar bushings don't seem to last long. Vacuum lines tend to break. Cruise control is located under the battery and gets acid dripped on it. Mine has 145,000 miles on it and has had all the above taken care of. No problems with engine or drive train beyond typical maintainence items. It's a great truck.

 

284k on the clock

Starter died, heater grid relay died, couple of transmissions 5th gear in one the other just wore out 5 spd manual wore out one transfer case, KDP, a few track bars, replaced water pump (while kdp was being fixed it was good but that was the time)

I don't know if you call that a lot of trouble.

Good luck

 

Mine's only got a 126,500 on it, so far nothing major other than the fuel return line leaking.

 

i got 358k on my 96.
im the second owner.

so far since i've owned the truck i've had to buy a trackbar & alignment. now it drives like it has 50,000 miles.

anyways, the front axles on the 4x4's tend to be a piece of crap.
personally if you want to save $$, get the truck, take it to an alignment and ask them to check out the front end.... or align it.

They'll tell you what you need to fix before it can be aligned.

 

All of the above

are correct, vac lines, cruise control, trackbar, front end, etc..

Now about the trans, only the fifth gear nut failure is common on these. Not a hard fix, just if you get the truck, dont lug it in fifth gear under 1500 rpms, and u shouldnt have that problem. 188K later in mine, no failiure

Coworker has a 97 with 380K on it, no fifth gear nut failure at all, and only mod is turned starwheel. Other than routine maintanance nothing else has failed on the truck, minus a couple of starters and alternators, which is to be expected.

Dont be afraid of these trucks..

Rick

 

Looks like you are not afraid of them already. What they have said is all true. Just know that front brake rotors tend to warp and are costly to replace (a 1200 lb engine sitting on top of them) and the ball joints, upper & lower both sides run about $1800, installed. Same reason for ball joint replacement as brake rotors.

Good luck - take it to a mechainc first, and CARFAX it as well. Stories unsually have another side to them...

 

how much do you plan on buying it for?

i have a 97 2wd. it has 220,000 miles. ive replaced the water pump and the cutch. the trans. rattles in 5th gear, and it leaks oil out of some gaskets. make sure the kdp is taken care of. btw i love the 12valve engine and my next truck is going to have one in it.

 

thanks for the replies i bought it today now I got to make it faster

 

So how much did you give for it?????

 

my 97 ran awsome with the plate pushed foward,the timing bumped 16* and get a GSK best thing ever. then really go to town but thost are good places to start.

 

I gave 9500.00 for it it was actually an auto so im going to have to work that over. does moving the plate and the timing require special tools or normal tools and time? this is going to be my hobby truck so time to start dumping money in it. thanks for the replies

 

plate normal tools but timing you need a barring tool and timing set i know you can get them from snap on or watch ebay there are a few on there every once and a while

 

That was a pretty good price ya got on it!