I am looking to buy a truck. It only has 47000 miles and seems to be having a lot of trouble. It is a 99 Dodge Dakota R/T Reg Cab.

The 2nd gear band is supposedly bad. It drives but sometime goes into waht would seem like nuetral and then barks the tires back into gear.

The truck was overheating so the guy put a water pump and bypass hose on it and it solved the problem of overheating. But he tested it with water and it got cold that night and popped the freeze plugs. I am afraid of other damage, but he says he had it check. I really dont know if i beleive him. There is no water in the oil at all and it starts right up but has to shut down since obviously it is not holding any coolant right now. I am leary since typically when the freeze plugs pop...so does the block. There is no way to tell either until it was fixed and the system put under pressure to see if it popped the block or has a bad headgasket.

The truck is a steal, but not if i am going to have to put a whole motor and transmission in it.

Please give me some advice and experience so i can make a good decision.

 

moe in wichita ks
get some brass freeze plugs put them in then get some j b weld and seal them in. use starting fluid to clean the plugs.