hello everyone i am new to the fourm here, be honest i have always owned a ford. now i was looking for a car/truck for my family to get around with, and i came a cross a 1987 dodge power wagon that runs and drives great, the guy was asking 900.00 but i got for 600.00, now it is only 2 wheel drive 318 engine the tranny shifts real smooth, some rust not to bad,

now the problems is it is leaking oil pretty bad in my book but it looks to be coming from the back of the motor, he did say it need valve covers.

radio does not work it is factory radio

and the heads lights will cut off and come back on when driving at night he said possible the dimmer switch bad ?

driver seat is broke stays reclined.

and fuel gauge does not work.

does anyone know where to start looking on these problem with this truck? i am sure someone has had some of the same problems

or some that i might need to look for. it is a nice looking truck i hope 600 was not to much for it ?

thank you for your help

 

I had one for 6 years, I loved it

oil leak: have a look, can you see it coming out of the valve covers at the back? is it running down from there, check the back of the intake manifold for oil leaks, also the oil pressure sender is right there beside the distributor so it could be coming from there.......if its not leaking from the top of the engine the only other places are the rear crank seal and oil pan gasket

Radio: pull it out, have a look behind, if nothing obvious, chuck it out and put an inexpensive aftermarket one in, you will get better tuning and cd/mp3 ability

headlights: yes the floor dimmer is probably no good, replace as they are cheap

drivers seat: reclined? the seats should not recline? you might have to look at an auto wrecker for another seat

fuel guage: most likely the sender in the tank, the tank has to come out to test

I hope this helps, regular maintenance this truck should last you along time, I had mine for 6 years and it never broke down on me, parts are cheap too.

 

cool thanks for the info that does help me a lot, for have never messed with a dodge at all so i am in new waters, i will check the back up there for the oil leak i did not know the sending unit was there, when it cools down some out here i will take a closer look temps in the upper 90's and low 100's i not messing with to much LOL

 

Ya, maybe in the fall it will be cool enough there!

I forgot to tell you is that at the base of the distributor where is goes into the engine block there is an (or should be) o-ring, it might be leaking there also.
and on your floor dimmer, they can get wet and rust, the rain will drip in there, so check the harness that your dimmer switch plugs into as well.

Good luck and any other questions that come up just ask!