Hi all - thank you for entry into the forum, I just picked up a mopar that I could not walk away from - a one owner 118k mile, always garaged, no rust 1989 Dakota V6 long bed. The original owner is a neighbor and had to sell off some stuff to prepare for downsizing his life due to illness. He made me an offer I could not refuse so here I am.

After picking the truck up, the problems associated with age and previous owner repairs started to show themselves. The truck had a solid cylinder misfire, it ran rough and you could hear a puffing sounds out the tailpipe. Also, there was a lot of wet oily cardboard in the PO's garage showing that there she is leaking fluids as well. Oh and don't forget the hellacious hissing sound inside the cab.

A little easy diagnosis isolated the power brake booster was shot so I replaced it, and voila! the hissing stopped as well as the cylinder miss and tailpipe puffs! Talk about lucky! I fully expected to have to a dead cylinder. Now onto the leaks - a loose upper radiator hose clamp mixed with leaking valve cover gaskets seem to be the solution here too - more easy fixes! Time to get 'er smogged and registered. That turned up a couple more problems namely the truck failed the evap test and there is a spun bearing sound coming from the driveline. Thats my current dilemma and what prompted me to reach out here and get more acquainted with the truck.

Speaking of trucks, in my lifetime, this will be my second Dakota and my fourth Dodge truck. I don't have those any more but for the record I've had a 1986 D150 slant six work truck, a 1992 Dakota 5.2 club cab (bought that one new), and a 1995 Ram 1500 3.9 long bed. All had served me well and although I bought this thing to fix and flip, I'm really starting to like it.

AS the saying goes, pics or it didn't happen so here u are...






Anyhoo - that's my story. Looking forward to being a poster here.

Rob

 

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