I picked up a 1997 1500 5.2, auto with 130,000 miles a few days ago with a few issues. Haven't really had time to really get into it start tracking except for pull a few random plugs. I was stunned to see that the few that I pulled were PERFECT. It has some odd smoking habits and runs rough, as if a plug or two is fouled. I was certain that I would see some oil on all of the plugs, thinking that the plenum gasket had blown..There is some residue in the manifold but not alot. I did find that 2 plug wires were crossed and it smoothed it out a bit but not 100% It runs rough enough that I don't use overdrive due to it shaking my teeth out if I do. I'll find the miss in a few days when I have time, could be anything at this point...

Truck is a Canadian version...Gauges are odd. Unsure what the readings are but they fall in the middle with the oil pressure and temp

 

Pick up an elcheapo mechanical pressure gauge, and screw that in in place of the sending unit for the dash gauge, see what your oil pressure REALLY is. If it is still low, the seller was either lying, or, trying to tell you that you NEED a new oil pump. (the gasket in the back seat is might suspicious) Did he have receipts for any of the work??

If the plug wires are fairly cheap, look up the plug wire routing TSB in the faq section here.

Go to the dealer, and get a PCV valve, replace the aftermarket piece of crap that's in there now. Probably eliminate a lot of your smoking issues.

Get the engine running right before worrying about how the trans shifts.

Definitely keep us posted.

 

edited

 

the oil pressure and temperature are metric scale, telling me that your truck was originally manufactured for sale in canada.

however, the larger/primary numbers on the speedo are MPH, while the smaller numbers are KM. this suggests that the speedo gauge (or face plate maybe) has been swapped out.

i bought a toyota corolla at an auction once. it looked fine, ran fine. i didn't notice until driving home that the speedo was in KM...

 

But can you just change the speedo and not the whole cluster?

 

metric oil pressure. Pressure: 0-14 Kg/Cm2

those silly canadians....

http://www.4wheelparts.com/Performan...ign=CJ_ProdCat

 

probably. it should be just a component of the whole assembly, and probably cable driven. i swapped out just the speedo on my old 88 caravan when the odometer quit registering.

 

another possibility is that that your original cluster failed, and someone swapped in a metric cluster, but then reinstalled your U.S. speedo.

i don't know how far back carfax reports go, but if they went back to 97 it might tell where it was originally sold. not that it really matters.

if you wanted to, you could buy a 97 U.S. cluster on ebay for little to nothing. just be sure and match Gas vs Diesel, Tach or No Tach, and Auto vs Manual. I think those are the only variations. look carefully for anything else.

 

Wonder do you still have the canadian daytime running lights?

 

example. if you watch and wait you can find better pricing. i got one for $40.

note that the speedo contains the odometer mileage.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1994-...Q5fAccessories