I believe they were internationals. I'm looking hard at a 98 dakota now. Mite pick it up Wednesday. It's ex cab 4wd with the 318. Needs a door and fender and a shock. He's asking $900. 134000 miles. The ford is $1800 and that's the absolute max I can afford so I'm thinking the dakota makes more sense.

 

134k isn't bad mileage on the Dakota for $900 and have you drove it??never take someone's word over the phone!!

 

Oh, I'll drive it before I buy it for sure. It's a couple hours away and I've been struggling to come up with a truck n trailer to haul it. On a good note, I found a guy on cl parting out a dakota. Said he would charge me $50 apiece for a door and fender so that pretty cool.

 

I've been looking at the Dakota's too, yeah, that mileage isnt bad, we have almost that much on our Durango but it's a 2002.

I found a 2000 Dakota 4 door for $2300, wish I had the $$$, that would have been a perfect work truck, and room for the kidos too!

 

That sounds like a great deal. My Dakota fell thru. Called the guy today to make arrangements to look at it tomorrow and he informed me that it started overheating and doesn't know why. So I'm gonna pass on it. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 

I always liked the look of the dakota. Not bad trucks with the 5.2 and 5-speed. My only gripe about them is 2001 and older have the blower motor and resistor in such a horrible spot. You have to remove the entire dash just to gain access to the resistor. Then to gain access to the blower motor, the heater box has to come off of the firewall.

Which means draining the coolant, and evac the AC. I have done a few of them.

 

Yuck that doesn't sound like any fun at all.

 

I replaced that blower motor resister on the wife's 2002 Durango last winter, I must of lucked out, just two 8 mm screws to get to it. Its still a pain tho, you got to stand on your head to see what your doing down there, lol.

 

Not at all.

ED, you did luck out as the 2002 and newer are a different design. Able to access the resistor and blower motor from the passenger side under dash.

The prior years have made me pull my hair out a time or two. hahaha

 

I forget what year of Dakota my dad had but it drove like a sport car. I was really surprised at how well it handled.

I was looking on ebay and there are several Toyota hot wheels on there. I eventually will get some. The BTTF truck is not an extended cab like it is supposed to be, but that wont really matter to me.

 

My old roommate had a 360 rt Dakota 2wd short box reg cab,black,yea it would get with the program.

 

My old roommate had a 94 ex cab with a 318 5 speed. Had k&n filter, dual exhaust, and a Mopar performance computer. It would annihilate the tires from a rolling stop in 2nd gear. We scratched 4th one time.

 

Oh, it was 4wd too lol.

 

That's what my bro-in-law had. Ex cab 318 (5.2l) with a 5 speed. Very fun to drive.

 

First time I drove it I was cruising up a fairly steep hill in 5th gear on a gravel road and it just started spinning out for no reason. I was like, damn this thing has balls. Lol.

 

Progress has been slow lately. Took the kiddos to a swap meet yesterday. Bought a few tools and a pair of like new tires for my car for $35. Pulled the truck in the shop today and added a 3/8" spacer under the drivers side leaf spring to level it out. Tried putting the front driveshaft in and it's maxed out with the truck sitting so I'll have to extend it somehow. I'll probably just find some tubing the right size and weld it in. Decided to go ahead and replace the front speakers. I bought some 4" kickers a few months back. They don't sound too bad. The rear speakers are blown so I will have to replace them at some point. The radio is pretty well shot so I'll have to replace it at some point also. Most likely I'll pull the jvc head unit out of my car and put the factory radio back in it. I'll be adding a subwoofer in the truck eventually also. I've got a couple laying around from my younger days.

Only pic I took of the day. Sorry it's not too exciting.

 

I love swap meets! Speakers is on my long list of things to do also. I still do not have any in the rear of my runner. Makes for some crappy music.

 

Nice score at the swap meet! I haven't been to one in a long time. Speakers are something I need to upgrade as well. I have a couple no-name brand speakers in the dash, and a Sony home stereo speaker in the back seat, not the best sound system I've owned, lol.

 

Thanks guys. I haven't been to a swap meet in years. Used to hit 4 or 5 a year before I got married. Speaking of which, my wife and I have been separated since last December and we can't seem to get things worked out so last week we decided to get a divorce. Honestly I'm glad cuz neither one of us is happy and haven't been for quite some time. I'm not gonna lie, it still sucks. Hopefully the process goes smoothly and neither one of us gets screwed over. I just want it to get over and move on. Anyway, enough of that nonsense. Back to yota talk. Pulled out the rear speakers on the truck tonight to see what size they were cuz they are definitely blown. Was kinda bummed about it when I pulled them out cuz I forgot way back in the day I had swapped the factory ones out for some fancy pants rockford fosgates. Oh well, I'll prolly just get another pair of kickers to match the front ones. They were pretty cheap on amazon if u remember correctly.

 

Sorry to hear about the divorce, hope everything works out for the best!

I'm surprised those fosgate speaker blew, seems like they were near industructable back n the day!

Look forward to seeing the new speakers/stereo installed!