What can you folks tell me about this Ram? It's a '97, 5.9, 4wd. The body looks straight with some surface rust and a couple of dings. Drives straight. Has some kind of clunk at low speeds over bumps from the front. I can feel it in my feet when going over the bumps. I asked the dealer to look into that. It has 97k miles. Asking $8900. Anything else I should look out for? 4WD shifts in and out ok, no weird noises. Tranny doesn't clunk or shift hard, fluid doesn't smell burnt. Same with the oil but I suppose they change it right away. Right now, I think if they can fix that front end problem, I'll pull the trigger. I just want to know what else to look for in this year. Thanks.

 

Major cause of front end "clunk" that you can feel in your feet is the front shocks being loose. The lower bolts are supposed to be torqued to 100 lb/ft ... IIRC. That's a lot. They have a tendency to loosen up if not torqued ... well ... even if they ARE torqued.

 

sounds expensive to me, how much shopping around have you done and is it 1500, 2500?

 

I would go to kbb.com and find blue book value before you go any farther. Also make sure steering components/ balljoints are good. You dont want lots of slopw in steering.

 

blue book for that would be around 6500 to probly 7000, i have a 97 5.9l 4wd and i have performed blue book searches, thats hella expensive if you ask me

 

They called me today and said they had their mechanic look it over and didn't find anything. He said I could take it to my mechanic if I wanted. I told him no, I'll pass. Oh well, back to looking. Thanks for the replies.

 

I got my 97 4x4 318 with 97k on it 2 years ago for $8500. That price is a bit steep.

 

I bought my 97 2500 ext cab 4x4 5.9L in Mar 06 with 120K miles for $5K for my daughter. A good deal but about two weeks ago I had to rebuild the tranny. I changed the fliud and filter when I first bought it because of the automatic tranny whoas I hear about. I also bought a 98 2500 ext cab 4x4 5.9L with 130K miles in July 06 for $6K. So $9700 seem way high, but the miles are lower. My tranny guy says problems usually show up around 120K -150K, but I still love my dodge trucks. A complete tranny rebuild is a bit pricy but these are one tough truck. I have a 96 1500 ext cab 4x4 5.2L with standard tranny, my farm truck. I plow, tow, anything I can think of and it keeps going. Good luck in the hunt...

 

It's a 1500. They're asking $8900. I called them back up today and said I want my mechanic to look at it. I'm going to try to have it happen tomorrow afternoon. Overall, it seems like a very solid truck except for that noise. What I "plan" to do tomorrow is to call them up and say I'll take the truck for 7k if my mechanic gives it a green light. If they don't want to move off the 8900, I'll move on. No sense wasting time for either of us if they won't move. I'm a no-go for the $8900 anyway after checking NADA. The rust and dings are about the norm for around here. Rust is real bad up here and this one isnt' to bad.

 

Here's an update if anyone's following this. Brought it to my mechanic and he found worn d/s wheel bearings, d/s sway bar end sloppy (my noise) and the biggy, lower intake pan gasket blown out. He said to listen for spark knock while driving. We went for the ride and he found that. He showed me the test he does to verify it. The dealer went to 6950 + tax, etc before I took it in. I brought back the list and he said he'd have the service manager look at it today (Saturday). I'm looking at $1000 in repairs if I go with it. Either they fix those problems, drop the price by at least a grand, or I walk. What a soap opera.