looking at buying a 97 psd

[scheid6996]

What do ya think

its a 97 psd, cc 4x4 with like 130,000 mi, its a hella clean truck, but it has an auto, what are some things i should look for on this truck, things that could be good or bad, and what to watch out for, its all stock and seems to run great. any info would be much appresheated,
thanks
chris

 

[BigRed96]

http://pages.prodigy.net/stevebaz/_import/pages.prodigy.net/stevebaz/index3.html

Steve Baz's Diesel bible, scoll down to tips for buying a used Powerstroke. Timmy

 

[geonc]

YUP Read that first!

 

[Cowboy_Customs]

hehehe, good question for me to answer! Im very intense on doing full cavity searches on used, and new, trucks. other then inspecting every nook and cranny of that thing, TEST DRIVE, TEST DRIVE, TEST DRIVE!!! I'll give ya lil story why,
once upon a summers day in northern PA...
anyway, a buddy and I went to check out a 96 PSD SC 250 Auto. well when we got there, it was purrin away (he phoned ahead to the dealer, BAD IDEA. now we couldnt see how she started up, and ran for the first few, that kinda clued me in on this guy), well he jumped in the driver seat and off we went, no problems, nuthin, nice n tight. (on a 2 lane hardtop that went in damn near a straight line for 5 miles!) well I made him find a back road n let me in the driver seat :Sly I got er goin again n beat'n on er ( i got tired of his chicken $*it, it aint my truck, driving) well, I tested every system on that truck, high speed quick steering, and get up n go power, then I gave er the "holy $*it!!!" brake to the floor test, WELL, all sortsa bells n whistles were goin off! It pulled so hard to the right for 40 MPH I damn near put it in a ditch, along with lights goin off in the dash. But it never sqealed a tire, the ABS worked perfectly, but on slight, and normal braking it stopped just fine.
needless to say, after the dealer said he doesnt see anything wrong and isnt going to fix anything, by buddy didnt buy it!

Anyway, what im trying to say is make sure you give it a GOOD test drive, I worked for a local car dealer that buys from auctions, so I learned over the years how to test things, and some that you wouldnt ever find out on yer standard 5 mile highway test run. Take what ever you drive for atleast 20 miles or 20 minutes, on-highway, and backroads. then form your own opinion.
good luck, I hope this helps!

:draw

 

[rigdog43]

I HAD A 97 4 DOOR 4X4 AND LOVED THAT TRUCK. 200K+ THE ONLY TROUBLE I HAD WAS, I KEEPED LOOSING THE POWER STEERING CAP 'THAT STUPID PLASTIC BUSHING ON THE CLUTCH PEDAL AND THAT KNEE BREAKING CLUTCH THAT YOU NEED A PORTA-POWER TO PUSH IN. I TRADED IT FOR AN 04 6.0
. THE NEW TRUCK IS A GOOD ONE. RIDES GOOD ON THE HWY AND WORKS LIKE A TRACTOR IN THE FIELD, BUT THAT 7.3 WAS ALOT MORE DEPENDABLE
AND NORMAL PEOPLE COULD STILL WORK ON IT IFYOU HAD TO (VERY RARE)
GOOD LUCK ;p

 

[pafixitman]

Just knowing what to look for it the biggest thing. My truck had all records with it. It was also running when I test drove it and took it home. Next morning (February) it would not start. My first post at TDS was for glow plugs! 7 out of 8 were not working. All Beru's and came out though.

My DD, '98 Chrysler Concorde, I got dirt cheap from the same dealer a couple weeks later. I could not for the life of me figure out why...until the oil pressure light came on! A friend is a 20 year Chrysler tech and knew exactly what was wrong - they even had a TSB on the problem. Faulty connector on the sender.

In both cases had the problem happened before purchase I probably would have walked away. Too dumb to know any better at the time. Heck, I never mentioned cavitation to my wife until I had owned the truck for a year!

 

[scheid6996]

right on, thankz guys