bill-d-c

I just retired after 30+ years on the Wichita Fire Department. About a month before my retirement, me and my crew made an unknown medical call on a homeless person. When we arrived, he was on his cell phone. I told my crew that very same thing, I might truley be the only person in America without a cell phone.
Bill

DJ Turbo.

And name him george lol

DJ Turbo.

I currently drive daily a chevy cavalier 2001 520,000 kilometers on er and only once or twice has that thing failed me and I have maybe a grand into it since ive had it got it from the origional owner at 400,000 and it has had full ams-oil snythetic in it since new and that thing never misses a beat and as for these trucks minus the body lol dodge messed that one up but compare a 6.2 or 6.5 or 7.3 of the same vintage and check and see if any of them are still driving regularly at 1 million k's not likely so our trucks rule!

maybe368

Welcome to the retired FF club, I'm a 9 year veteran...Mark

bill-d-c

Yes they do! Like I've said before, when mine is hittin' on all 6, it's an absolute blast to drive. Last week I replaced the tranny mounts (viberation at idle in gear), and the carrier bearing. Didn't want to drive it until both were taken care of and it ended up being several days. Man, I was going through withdrawlals. Great trucks to drive and I love hearing that 12V rattle down the road.
Bill

bill-d-c

Thank you Mark. No career like it, as you well know.
Bill

JQmile

Let me see......

radiator cap
New battery
Voltage regulator
welded up cracked crossmember (or rather, someone who can weld did)
trans mount
vacuum pump
cracked IP gear
broke coil spring

....that's all I can think of right now, although I am sure there's more. I'm still waiting for the "replace entire engine" repair, but so far so good.

It also needs a radiator and a few other things replaced that I am procrastinating on, but it has never left me stranded other than when my radiator cap was bad (of all things).

thrashingcows

MAn when I got my crewcab the basic cummins conversion & NV4500 was done and it was drivable. But it took me another 6-8 months to finally get it close enough to my standards to even put it on the road.

I had to do...

Upper control arms, BJ's and busings,
tie rods and sleeves,
power steering box
brakes and bearings all the way around, and new flex brake lines
new u-joints and 2 piece drive shaft shortened and balanced
axle serviced
Ve pump rebuilt
KDP done
exhaust
new tires
gauges..pyro/boost/tach
new output shaft seal on NV4500, and flush and clean inside case, new fluids.
new battery
fuel pre-heater
changed out my Non-IC vacuum pump/PS set-up for a IC set-up

...and a ton of cosmetics.

I've been driving it now for just over a year and have done a ton more to it.


This is the price we all pay for driving vintage iron. I some times get frustrated...then I think about that big truck payment I'm not making and feel so much better about things.

T210DRVR

I guess I've been lucky. I bought my '93 2WD from the daughter of an elderly man that had owned it since new. I bought it four years ago with 129,000 miles. In the four years and 35,000 miles since I bought her I've replaced the battery and one taillight. Oh, yeah I've changed the oil every 5,000 and serviced the tranny and diff once. The tires are starting to get a little thin so I may have to break down and buy a set soon. That's it!

The A/C sometimes doesn't cycle properly but I don't need it often here in Oregon. The steering shaft is a bit sloppy, but she starts every time and has never left me stranded. One trip I took was 1500 miles pulling a box trailer weighing 10,000 lbs. I could have taken my '99 or my '07 CTD but took my old '93 because she always gets there and doesn't burn much fuel. .

cougar

I've put a lot of work and money into my 91. It is coming up on 300K and I consider what I've had to do as routine maintenance for the mileage.
I've put a lot of work and money into my 92 as well. BUT, it only had 145K when I bought it and consider everything I had to do to it was from neglect and non-use by the previous owner.
Would I dump either one due to the maintenance costs? NO!
Because maintenance would cost as much or more on a newer truck. Then consider the cost of a newer truck.

lovemysan

I bought my truck because I needed a work truck for 8 months and thought it would be reliable. It has been totally reliable. I replaced the strut rod bushings and fixed the totally mixed up brakes(i have working ABS..oooooh!). I could at this point fix a list much longer than yours but I don't care. It gets hot when loaded, alternator sometimes doesn't charge requiring me to whack it back to life, battery died, floor is rusty, roof is rusty, its slowly eating the front tires, the exhaust tip fell off and the sidepipe cooked right rear tire, etc.. But the important stuff works and its safe to drive thats really all I care about. With the wind noise, straight pipe, horrid tires, and automatic 70mph is an assault on the senses. Needless to say we save the long trips for the good car.

Exekiel69

If We are still on topic let Me put it this way, I'm a FORD guy, and when a friend asked Me to help Him find a good work truck My advise was "get a dodge cummins" and by that I meant a 1st gen. We are almost done with all the repairs and upgrades to the truck (92 w250 auto)to make it road worthy and about $2000 in parts since My work for Him is free on this project, I consider it a good deal for a reliable work truck.

jbawden

Little things come up here and there - rattles, leaks, minor annoyances, but at the end of the day when I'm far from civilization (which I often am when looking for a place to ride motorcycles off road) I'd prefer to be in a first gen because odds are I can MacGyver something up to get me out if I have problems. Few vehicles lend themselves to simple road side repairs like these trucks.

Every once in a while I'll get discouraged because it's like a conveyor belt of issues that come up, but I think that is mostly due to my high standards and a lack of a proper work space to keep up with things.

NJTman

How reliable ?


Well, I started the truck up @ 5:30 am, drove 3 hours to a junkyard in PA, walked around for about 2 hours, started the truck back up and drove 3 hours home..


I'd say... it's pretty reliable.

1STGENFARMBOY

I need to throw this in this thread Bill, my truck has been looking like i was going to have to rebuild the trans (sliping into gear and gaining RPM holding a constant speed on the hwy, so yesterday i bought a filter and fluid and did the band adjustment and turned up the preshure on the trans pump, now it feels like i have a new rebuilt trans, NO and i mean NO other diesel truck and 99.79 % of all other cars can you do this compleat of a service on the trans, not to mention the hole truck, and for next to basicly no money.

just thought i would throw that out there.

Dar