Hi, gang. Lemme tell you a little about me, and then about my soon to be purchase.

My name is Tim, and I'm in Wichita. Originally from Houston, TX, and just went through my first bout of winter weather (snow.....lots) with my current car, a '98 Ford Taurus. Of course, I quickly realized that the Taurus just won't traverse a lot of snow.......so I went pickup shopping.

I found a '98 Dakota Sport, short and wide, with 5.2L, 4WD, and manual transmission. It has 110,000 miles on it, is immaculate inside and out, and of course, has a ton of power. I've been reading the forum here for a couple of days, trying to gather some information on the truck, and learned a few things along the way. When I go to presumably seal the deal, I now know to check the ball joints good, and look down the ait induction to see if the intake gasket is leaking. I can't however, find out about these.

The clutch. It does it's whole thing with about two inches of travel, and the rest of the way to the floor is simply dead air. Is this normal, or indicative of the need for a new clutch?

The engine makes a very slight ticking noise when the accelerator is pressed, sounds to me like a passenger side exhaust manifold leak, very slight. Is this a common thing, or do they just make that noise? Some other fullsize Dodges I have been in have made the exact same sound, and I was never fully certain.

The front hubs. One fellow I know told me that the hubs are notorious for failing. Fact or fiction?

Anything else I should know? I'm very mechanically inclined, and do a massive amount of work on my Mitsubishi Starion, but I'm hoping that I can count on this to run when I hit the key. Maintenance is always followed to the letter around here, but whatever shortfalls I may be looking would be nice to know beforehand. I did download the FSM, and have been paging through it, and trying to get acquainted with the truck, before I decide if I want it. The truck will only be used for light hauling of Starion parts, (LOL) driving to work, and dealing with inclement winter weather. I work only a few miles away, so it likely won't rack up major mileage, until I drive it on a trip back to Houston, or go to see friends in Missouri.

Thanks in advance, guys and girls!

Tim

 

Honestly I haven't really heard anyone here bitch about having their hubs go out. Not really sure what you mean either, are you talking about the bearings failing? I haven't ever really looked into it, but it seems to me that the hubs don't lock or unlock, they're full time engaged and just the t-case shifts out of 4wd. I know old vacuum and spring hubs fail to operate when they get gummed up, but iirc we don't have them.

 

Well, I suppose, failure defined as failing to lock in and engage.

I'm not very "up" on modern 4WD technology, I still think of getting out of the truck, and twisting the dials on the front hubs to lock in hubs on old 4x4's, LOL.

Tim