It's Old, it's Ugly, and it Stinks!:
Before I begin, let me give you a bit of back story. I own a 5-acre lot in the Denver metro area and I've been doing a ton of work to the house that sits on that lot. Just about every weekend, I hitch up the trailer to my Isuzu Rodeo Sport and drag it down to the local lumber yard. When I want to make a quick run, though, lugging the trailer along becomes inconvenient. I've been looking for a pickup that I can use for those weekend runs but around here, everything is expensive. Even with 200k miles on the clock, finding a 4WD truck for under $4k is tough.
Toyota's and Nissan's hold their values too well, Rangers and S10's seem to be few and far between, and I didn't want a full size truck. The Dodge Dakota, on the other hand, seemed readily available and much less expensive than it's Japanese counterparts. I've always been a fan of the styling and I like that i can get it with a V8.
While running through my usual list of searches on Craigslist and eBay, I found this truck. It was close enough to pique my interest but the auction wasn't very thorough and the pictures blurry. I let the auction run its course. A few days later, it popped up again for a bit less. I asked the seller a few questions but didn't get enough info to feel it was worth the risk. That auction lapsed and it was reposted again. Finally, I asked the seller to include a Make Offer button and I sent along an offer for $400.
Here are the photos that were on the auction. These are the ONLY photos included. Yes, folks, I bought this truck based only on these photos.
I knew the truck was rough by what I could see in the auction photos. When I went to pick it up I discovered it was even worse. I talked with the guy while we waited for a tow truck to come get the Dakota. I then had it towed back to my workshop. The 30-some-odd tow set me back about $140.
So here we are. This is Jack. He's a 1999 Dodge Dokota SLT 4x4 with the 5.2 liter V8. He's had a rough life.
What Did I Get Myself into?:
Now that the truck is in my workshop and I've had a good look at it, here are some notes on what I got. First, cosmetics. Every panel on the truck has some sort of damage with the most notable areas being the damage to the front (hood, grille and bumper) and the passenger side (door and cab). There is also damage to the driver side cab corner including a tear and puncture. The box is really beat up, especially its bulkhead.
Miscellaneous items are missing including the wheel well liners, the fasteners for the cowls and the passenger side fender flare.
Up front, the headlights are yellowed and each has some broken mounts. The driver side headlamp fits poorly. The fog lights are gone though their torn brackets are still bolted to the bumper. The foglight wiring hangs down from beneath the radiator.
Taking a look at the suspension, it is tired and needs some maintenance. All of the rubber on the suspension is dry rotted. The passenger side axle boot is torn and the axle rusted. The passenger side front shock somehow disconnected itself from the lower control arm. I don't think either the axle or the control arm are salvageable.
Looking at the driver side of the truck, the rear wheel isn't centered in the wheel arch. A closer look shows that the axle block is shifted forward with its alignment pin sheared off and the u-bolts are bent rearward.
Before I talk about how it runs or how the interior looks, there is a little back story that I ought to mention. For an unknown reason, about a decade ago, the truck was parked in a field and left to sit. In that time, generation upon generation of mice moved in, pissing and crapping all over every last bit of interior. Those mice ate the seat foam, the carpet insulation and the wiring. Sometime in that span, rabbits crawled onto the engine and ate as much wiring as they could find.
The smell inside the cabin is nauseating. As I'd say when I was younger, it gives you the spits. It's the overpowering stench of years of mouse urine. On top of that, the previous owners smoked it in pretty heavily. So you're left with this smokey mouse urine smell which punches you in the face. Consider yourselves lucky that the internet isn't scratch-and-sniff.
Those little critters chewed and chewed and chewed. They ate all the wiring to the #2 and #4 fuel injectors. Still hungry, they then ate all the wiring to the intake air temp sensor. Insatiable, they continued to eat wiring. They devoured the wiring to the alternator, they chomped the wiring to the headlights, they even found the underhood light and lobbed it's electrical connections in half. No wiring, no circuit was safe. Now oddly enough, when I went to pick it up, the guy started it for me and it ran surprisingly well. Especially well given what was disconnected.
Here's what's left of the wiring to the injectors, intake air temperature sensor and alternator field coils:
The headlight harness was also chewed with the passenger side being much more damaged than the driver's side. I suspect this was due to the proximity to the airbox. Criters had used that airbox as a nesting site. In the headlight harness, there is a ground with 2 wires. I'm not sure what it grounds but it's completely gone. Of all the lights on the front corner, only one wire was left connected:
Same thing goes for the under hood light. Just about every wire has some sort of chew damage.
I was able to get the truck to start and idle. It sounds surprisingly good given the damaged to the wiring noted above. Unsurprisingly, the Check Engine light is on.
Additionally, the truck also has some notable mechanical problems. When running, the power steering pump whines loudly. When driving around the yard, the transmission pops out of gear when the throttle is pressed. And the radiator is nearly empty.
With all of these problems, you have to ask yourself: "Is it worth saving?" and that's a fair question. But honestly, what the hell else am I going to do?
So is there anything good going on with this truck? Well, first, it is the SLT model so it is well optioned. Now those options don't work because they've been chewed, but they are there. Second, it has a receiver hitch already installed. Third, the rear window is the sliding type window. And last, it has the wider wheels with 31x10.5 tires on them.