Last week I picked up a 97 extended cab 4wd for $800 bucks. I was told it could not pass state inspection so I knew going into it that I would have to put some time into it. The first thing I wanted to attend to was the check engine light. It was giving me a code for the ECT sensor. I picked up a new sensor and found that the one in the truck was not attached and it was also leaking coolant from around the water pump area. I picked up a new water pump, belt and hoses. Now the truck had a new radiator in it, new upper and lower hoses and the water pump itself look fairly new. I drained the coolant to find it was pretty much rusty mud so I flushed it for a very long time to get the water to come out clean. Once I removed the AC and alt. bracket I realized the bypass hose was shot. Now you will notice a common trend here, the PO had a thing with doing everything 2/3rds of the way. Since I had everything taken apart I replaced water pump, thermostat, hoses and filled it with coolant and distilled water. The check engine light cleared so I was more comfortable with putting money into the truck. I went ahead and got it registered and took it out for drive to see what other issues it had and this is what I found:
1 rear axle was shot, sounded like an angry freight train.
2 It has some kind of short in the dash panel that cause the gauges to shut off.
3 Front brakes are gone on the passenger side.
4 Lots of play in the steering wheel.

 

Front brakes shouldn't be more than $150, pads, rotors and hardware.
Rear axle, just go to the junkyard and pull a full axle and replace it. Shouldn't be too much more than $150-200 for a Chrysler 8.25". Might as well do rear brakes while you're at it.

Since its a 97, no rack and pinion. So get a friend, and figure it out. These trucks aren't bad for steering components so get it up in the air and figure out the weak link.

 

The next thing I decided to tackle was the front brakes. It turns out that it had new rotors on it and the pads on the drivers side had very little wear on them. The passenger side rotor was shot and the outer pad was gone. I got a new rotor for it and pads. When I took off the caliper I found it only had one bolt holding it on. I added that to my junk yard list.
Yesterday I went to the junk yard and picked up a good axle for it along with a lot of little things it needed for inspection and found a good tailgate for it. They didn't have any 4wd models there and I noticed the 2wd models have there axles mounted on top of the leaf springs and the 4wds are mounted below aside form that they were the same. I found one in good shape with the correct gears and brought it home. I pulled the axle out of my truck, sat it up on jack stands next to the new axle so i could make sure that the perches were the only difference. Everything seemed good so I removed the perches from the new axle. I used a angle grinder with a cut off wheel and carefully cut the welds first along the sides of the perches then around the axle tube until they could be knocked off with a hammer. Once they were off I cleaned up the tubes grinding off any excess metal and welded up a few spots were i cut into the tube a bit. Next I rotated the axle to match the pinion angle of the axle from the truck. I then cleaned up the area where I would be welding the perches back on. I took great care to measure the location of the perches from the center and set the correct angle. This is one of those things you should check and recheck a few times before you start burning metal. When welding on the tubes you have to take caution not to overheat the metal and warp the tube. Just do a little welding on one and move over to the next one and repeat.
After I got everything back together I took it for a test drive and it drove great, well those issues were great I still have alot left to tackle.

I had a some really good pics on how to do this but it will not let me upload any. If anyone ever needs to do this message me and I can share my pics and answer any questions.

 

I had a set of resurfaced rotors from my other truck so I only need to get some pads, I think they were like 30 bucks. The axle came to $133 and its brakes and drums had recently been replaced, that was one of the reasons I got that one.
The steering turn out to be a very easy fix. The intermediate shaft was not tightened down to the input shaft of the steering gear box. It still has the original ball joints and tie rod ends on it so i'm sure something will be needing replaced up there. I didn't notice anything loose when I was replacing the brakes but I didn't really look all that hard.
I'm currently waiting for my carpet and new rear seats to come in so in the mean time I'm gonna take a look at that gauge cluster. I'm hoping cleaning the connectors and some dielectric grease will solve that problem or find a loose wire or pushed pin.

 

Makes you wonder just how a person could trash there Truck this bad especially because they are so easy to work on DIY style

Please post a bunch of Pic's of the Dakota that would be nice

 

I think the PO tried to "fix" things but only seemed to screw them up. I have learned that he liked to paint anything he worked on blue or silver so it's been real easy to find things I need to inspect. You should see the interior, the PO thought replacing the carpet with **** household carpet was a good idea, which its great if you want a stinky moldy mess. He also liked to use sheet rock screws to hold things together like the aftermarket radio, and brackets for some kind of tonneau cover. Oh and the sliding rear window was missing and replaced with plexi glass and sealed with white bath and tile caulking. He did go to the trouble to tint the plexi glass however. Seems to me that just getting a new window would be a lot less work and I wouldn't doubt if it costs less.

I just noticed a little bit ago that the brake light switch is going bad so that will be on monday's shopping list.

I wish I could post more pictures because words cannot explain the abortion of an attempt at body work and painting on the bed. Oh well its nothing some welding and the hammer and dolly won't fix. I'm sure in a week or so it should be as good as new providing nothing major comes up.

 

use photobucket for posting your pic's this forum only lets you post tiny small pic's and no more than 3 or 4 at that

http://photobucket.com/ free

 

I dont understand how people cant take care of their vehicles. Btw not many people know this but the rear sliding window is EASY to replace. It literately takes 2 min to get one out. All you do is pry the plastic channel out on the bottom of the window(the one the middle slides in) once up slide it out by pulling carefully on it(you can either pull it out from the pass or driver side) Once out you will be able to maneuver the window up then tilt it in towards the cab and you can pull it out. This is why if you ever have to break into your truck you break the middle window it is by far the easiest and cheapest window to replace.

 

Thanks for letting me know about the photo bucket, I'll try to set up an account tomorrow. The axle pics will be very useful to anyone can't find a 4wd rear axle and has to use a 2wd one. The whole reason I made this thread is to show you can pick up a older beat up truck and with about 1,500 bucks and some elbow grease you can turn it into a very nice dependable ride to be proud of.

I was really busy the last couple days so I didn't get too much done on the truck. I got it inspected and it failed, which i new it would but it give me a nice work list and it only costs a buck to get it reinspected. It needed some new ball joints, no surprise since it still had the factory ones on it. I got the drivers side replaced this evening and got the passenger side apart. I ran out of daylight and didn't feel like busting my knuckles in the dark. I didn't bother taking any pics of that since there is a few good how to videos on youtube.

I'll get started on some body work with how to pics tomorrow. Thats more my thing, that and I can't stand seeing cars and trucks with globs of bondo or spray bomb paint jobs when its just as easy and often cheaper to just do a base coat clear coat. I will also be showing off my $100 dollar portable paint booth since the truck is to big to fit in my garage.

 

Thanks for the advice on the window dodgeramguy.