Marty86

So I have found a 97 2500, 4x4, 5spd, tan leather, ext. cab. Its all stock, save for tires, and has about 139k on it. From the sounds of it, its in pretty good condition. New paint, and even undercoating.

My question is this, I've read what I should be looking at from searching: front suspension, how the clutch feels, any rust. But here is what I need to know, what and where is the code for the rear end? I want to make sure it has 3.54 gears, not 4.10, because I'll be doing mainly daily driving with this thing.

Anyhelp would be appreciated! And if you have anymore advice let me know! Thanks!

patdaly

Codes are under the hood, printed. It will say 3.5 or 4.1, also tells if it has 4WALB or 2, all the other good stuff.

At this point, unless you are paying a premium, or it is really beat, the rest of the stuff can be figured as maintenance items with 139K on the clock.

C2O

that or drive it around of you are close to 2200 at 65 you got the 4.10

Marty86

Great, I'll remember that. Found some more information about it, its two owner, the current owner bought it in 98 w/ 20k on the clock! I am going to pounce on this if the funding comes through and the test drive goes well.

logskidder

If it has fresh paint and undercoating you may want to look it over very well.Be sure you can see the factory spot welds on the bottom door skins and rockers.

Marty86

Why would I want to make sure I could see the spot welds? What else did you need?

bcfast

Skidder is impliing that if the spot welds are NOT visible, they're covered over with bondo as the door bottoms were replaced from rust or an accident. For me, fresh paint is a red flag. And fresh paint coupled with fresh undercoating is a DOUBLE red flag. Sometimes, things are too good to be true...please be careful.

logskidder

To be sure its not full of putty.

strokerace

The new paint and undercoating could either mean they are trying to hide something or they just took care of it. I know a guy who is retired and all he does is work on his truck and camper, his truck is spotless and he coated the underside and repainted it recently. He keeps it so clean that you could literally eat off the underside of it. You'll just have to look at it closely and see if they are hiding something, just because a truck is nice and shiny doenst mean its clean though. just look it over good. good luck

trksrfun

the truck i have now was/is undercoated and its nice helps pretect everything but it makes alot of the bolts more of the pain to take off cause of that coating thats on the threads. just my .02

Marty86

I am definately going to be checking it out, because thus far it sounds great. Its been a Texas truck from what he says, but I will be going over it with a fine tooth comb. I previously had a Ford Ranger with a rusted undercarriage, so I don't plan on making that mistake twice.

Marty86

Update, I went out to see the truck...a hour drive to Rowlett, but it might be worth it! The truck was extremely clean inside and out. I DID see the spotwelds as you said I should be able to see, I took pictures if anyone wishes to see to make sure I'm see correctly. The only rust on the truck is around the old exhaust, and around the support for the rear driveshaft (surface apparently). It has a small oil leak, and looks like might need some steering bushings soon.

Supposedly going to get to drive it on Wednesday (guy is out of town). So I'm going to go ahead and apply for financing I think, and then talk with him. The price seems to be at Blue Book value, so I can dig it. Wish me luck!

MikeR

Well yeah, fresh paint right before it was put up for sale could be a red flag.

Or this truck could have been like my 95, and had flakey paint coming off. I repainted my entire 95, no red flags there. Maybe the guy wanted it to look good, 'cause they seriously look like heck with sheets of missing paint.

And oddly enough, the clearcoat on my 98 is bubbling, and needs a repaint too.

Marty86

Well...I drove all the way out there for nothing. A guy had come earlier that day is is buying the truck. *sigh* Thanks for the help guys.

logskidder

Man that stinks......keep looking