Well, its one of my favorite chassis, of course I knew nothing about it until I aquired one recently and I do still love it.

The problems-

-Power steering leaks, looks to be an easy fix, just have to tighten a connection
-Oil pressure guage did sparaticaly go from 40ish to 0 then up & down & up, as it turns out it was just a loose plug...
-A/C condenser needs replaced
-every once in a while ill go out in the a.m. to goto work and my truck wont want to turn over easily, almost like it has to build up the amperage to get the starter goin, then it wont idle, it starts and then dies if i dont press on the gas to rev it up and 2 minutes later i can shut down & start fine. I blame this on a crappy battery from carstar (previous owners), one of them ones you pour water in every once in a while
-Sounds like driver side wheel bearing is out, humming is audible at 35mph and goes away if I turn left but does not dissappear if i turn right
-rack & pinion need a good look at and maintenence done
-the previous dum dums torqued the living bejeezus out of all the lugnuts.... ive practically stripped one lug, didnt try to break 2 others incase the same happened, and could only barely get 3 lugs off the wheel so i stopped right there and will take it to a shop where they have more air pressure and better tools then my super garage..
-and now for the real bummer.... After changing the oil and spark plugs my plan was to check out the rear diff and transfer case because i knew there was a leak there and about 50% of the time you can hear a *tink* when switching from reverse to any other gear. Well to my dismay I found more then a leak but also a crack going around about 1/3rd of the case on the side facing the rear wheels. But of course this is bad but i like to think positive.. I have been trying to research if there was a 4x4 t-case with 2wd option instead of the 4x4 full time. the only thing i found whilst googling and searching was a swap done on a gen 1 dakota that had 4hi 4lo neutral and 2wd.

Soo, i basically just need to know if there is a bolt in transfer case I can pick up for my 00 dakota 4.7l CC that has 2wd, 4hi & 4lo (i also want to switch from auto to manual in the future if that matters) or if im going to have to pick up another NP242 case

But all in all, the motor feels very strong, the interior is pretty clean, of course the exterior has a few dents and dings along with the clear coat stripping all in all I think this will be my truck for a very long time esp if I can find the t-case I want.

Thanks for any ideas & info on the transfer case swap, please tell me someone knows of a way to get 2wd incorperated in the 4x4 setup of this truck, adios

 

Im not sure if you would have to do anything other than cut a hole in the floor for the shifter but the imput shaft might need to be changed or something. Not familiar with the newer electronic cases.

As for it not starting fast check the connections on the batt are clean. My truck would do the same since I had a bad terminal. If they are clean and tight take the batt to get it tested. I like the duralast yellow tops.

Jack the truck up and grab the wheel at 12 and 6 and push and pull and see if the bearing is bad.

If the lugs are that tight shop will try to air them off but if not they will have no choice but to break the studs off. Thats all I would do it get a 1.2 breaker bar with a cheater pipe on it and pry on those bad boys till they snap. Then pound out the old studs and put new ones on.

 

not sure about a 2000, buy my 04 had a switch on the dash - 2wd - 4wd - 4lo - This was behind a 4.7 4sp auto.

So I know they can be found & they fit the dakota.

Replace the battery & clean all the connections.

 

Well if you have a mechanical shifter for you transfer case you can get the np231, I know that has what your looking for the 4x4 options cause that is what is in my truck but it is the mechanical shifting

 

Well an update on my situation here. About a month in a half ago I was cruising down the highway and i lost about 75% of my power. I was on my way to something very important and carefully finished driving to my destination. On my way back i noticed i had no power, engine revved up fine and I could get up to speed but had to accelerate at around 1500rpm's all the way to speed. I had thought the transfercase finally went out, untill I went out this morning to start the truck to get all the juices going again. I noticed when i revved up and let go the truck would start idling rough for a little bit and then get smooth. Then after a minute i got an idea after i noticed it wouldnt rev past 2500ish. So i went full throttle, got up to 2500 and thats as high as it got and the longer I held it at full throttle, the rev's just slowly went down sinking to 1600 before I let go and shut the truck off as I have no diagnostic tools or any tools at all at my home to work on the problem.

So whats next? Well im going to get it to my shop and check fuel pressure and replace the fuel filter in hopes that it has been one of these two things all along. I dont thing it is a fuel injector issue or distributor problem as it didnt seem to miss at full throttle.

Any other thoughts?

 

I think you can safely rule out the distributor. It sounds like a fuel pressure problem to me, but the only way to tell for sure is with a fuel pressure gauge.

 

Thats what I was thinking would be the main culpret. Hopefully ill have some time this week to tow it to the shop I work at and hook up our pressure guage to it and see what comes up. Ill also be checking the fuel pump voltage to rule out an electrical issue and change the fuel filter as I havent done so yet.

 

The filter is in the tank with the pump.

 

hmm well nice to now know that thanks.

 

Okay, well here is an update on my situation. I installed a new fuel pump early this morning and it didnt help a thing. The truck will start but idles rough and dies if and throttle is givin. With the truck off and the key on the 'on' position if i press the schraeder valve the fuel pressure doesnt keep. My next step i guess is to pull the fuel line out and see if its clogged.

Now just one question. there is a black box type thing in front of the fuel tank, pretty much under the drivers seat but mounted underneath the truck, what is this? and could it be the culpret?