well i have just paid off my mustang and now need a truck to pull my jeep with i have been looking into a cummins or PSD and i was wondering what i should watch out for when looking at these trucks.
i have heard the 7.3 is the best one to get thats in my buget (not 20k) what about trannys any one to stay away from?
any help would be great as im new to the diesel world but deff not to cars in general.
Personally I would go with a 6 speed and I have 418,000 on my 2001 4x4 dually 6speed starts everyday and travels at least 300 miles a day, dont have much good to tell u bout a dodge though
go with a PSD, if you want dodge perks go check out thier forum but ur not gonna hear much good on them around here... my family has run PSDs for many years. i just sold a 96 model with 420,988 miles and it ran perfect, i literaly sold it 2 days after i put the sign on it. as of right now i have my beloved 02 (123,xxxmiles) as seen in my sig, at my disposal i have an early 99 (277,xxxmiles), an 01 (154,xxxmiles)w/ a 6speed (badassness), 04 dually 154,xxx) and then my dads newish 08 (38,xxxmiles) i love the PSD and it shows... we have never had any major issues with these trucks and they are abused... cept for my 02. shes a baby. haha go with the PSD sir, its the right decision.
There's perks to a Dodge? :hehe:
In the $12k price range you should be able to find a nice used PSD. I suggest giving it a thorough once over (brakes, ball joints, shocks, tires, etc) and also checking for PSD specific problems- look for fluid puddled in the engine valley (should be none), inspect the turbo on the intake side for signs of dusting (fins on the turbo wheel should be straight and smooth), check to verify that there is no fuel or oil in the coolant overflow bottle, and see if you can get the service records or history. Good service goes a long ways to keeping any rig healthy and happy.
Get one with a manual in it. You will thank yourself in the long run. The CPS are bad, but they have issued a factory recall on those. Also keep an eye out for faulty door lock actuators. I think I nailed the 3 biggest problems that powerstroke owners face. Oh yeah......check the back of the engine around the turbo and make sure your up pipes are sealed. also when it comes to that. Check the turbo pedistal for oil leak/seapage, and the fuel drain on the back of the fuel filter housing. If you find a truck that you really like, may be worth your time to have a contribution test ran on it. If all those things check out you will be a very happy PSD owner for years to come
:icon_ford:
hehe i got a eearly 99 crew cab duallie long bed with 6 speed and automatic maybe nice but i would never givaway that peace of mind of driving stick knowing that it wont burnout on you and you in total controll of your gears ! Go with psd avoid 03 6 liter engine
Aha how exactly do you fix actuators with alum foil i got 2 badc ones in my rear doors ?
:icon_ford:
had a early 99 with 220XXX ran great, Late 99 dully with 240000 still runs great, now for sale, and now have a new to me 02 with 190000 and runs excillent also. as far as the trans go i have had auto's in all three of mine and pull a 3 car wedge (13K) weekly 450+ mi and a 27K dozier 10 times a year all with a auto and no problems. the last late 99 i bought with 179K on it and i had to put a trans in it around 320K. for me i will spend $1700 every 150Kmi to not to have to shuck gears.
what about that alum foil fix for the accuators??? come on now i gotta to know i bet i replace 30 a year in all the ford trucks i sell. i have 6 that need fixing right now!!
Here you go. This was copied/pasted from another site, I don't take credit for it nor know who originally wrote it:
WARNING: The following is long winded, but if you want your PDL's to work again WITHOUT spending any $$ read on.
I finally got tired of my non-working PDL's and decided to tear into my truck and find/fix the problem. There has been many discussions about possible issues and I have concluded that the majority of us are seeing actuator motor problems and not relays, switches etc. Ill start by saying the problem I have had is that when I hit the switch, the locks attempt to move and after repeated attempts, the signal appears to get weaker and weaker until nothing....I assumed relay or switch.....NOT THE CASE!
First I started by testing the signal at the harness plug to the actuator. Perfect. No issues here. Next I completely removed the actuator/lock mechanism and bench tested them with 12V..Here lies the problem. The actuator acted the same as when in the truck. First I did a thorough cleaning of all of the mechanism so it works freely and still had the same results. Here's where it get's tricky. These things are built so that they are NOT serviceable. I had already decided that they were going to need to be replaced, so I decided to break them open for closer inspection. It comes apart relatively easily, but appears that It cannot be put back together once apart. I drilled out two small rivets and then pried the case apart. As you pry the case apart you'll notice these small little plastic rods protrude up through the case cover. These rods are then "mushroomed" with heat through the upper case and then sealed with some kind of silicone. When you pry apart the case the "mushroom" head breaks off and the rod remains. You can dig out the silicone and mushroom head with a pick. It comes out very easy. Inside you will find a very small motor and some gear mechanism. I believed the problem at first to be worn brushes or dirty commutator contacts in the motor itself. You'll have to bend two little metal tabs out and pull off the brush housing on the back of the motor. I cleanded the gunk off the brushes and took 1500 grit to the commutator contacts and reassembled the motor. The motor worked, but if you applied even a slight amount of resistance on the armature, it would stop the motor. It should have been WAY stronger than this. I was stumped until I looked a little closer at the inside of the plastic brush housing. Inside you'll find a small, thin rectangular (thermal resistor relay, dodad, thingamabob??) pardon my ingnorance, but I'm not sure what to call it. All I know is that this little part is what keeps you from burning up the motor, should you continue to press the switch once the lock has been actuated. It appears that this thing wears out over time and will not allow enough signal to get through to the motor to make it work. THE FIX. I am cheap. Since I had done so much work up to this point, I decided that I would go a little further and try to make it work without spending the $$. I have better things to spend my money on than actuators. I took a small piece of aluminum foil and wrapped the "thing" voila! Perfectly working motor! I sat there and operated the thing for 10 minutes including one or two times stopping the armature and holding down the switch to see what would happen. The motor builds heat, but not much. Not enough to worry about. Now that I had a good working motor I decided I would try and reassemble the unit. The problem is you cannot glue the unit together as there is a rubber gasket around the perimiter of the case and if you tried to glue the rods into the case, you would not have enough pressure on the two halves of the case to keep the gears in place (these things actually apply a great deal of torque on the case) What I decided to do is completely break off the plastic rods flush with the bottom side of the case and then drill out the bottom case and screw it together. This worked perfectly. You'll need screws that are the same diameter as the holes in the top of the case to keep it from "wandering". Also the screws should not protrude through the back of the unit as some of the mechanism has some pretty close tolerances and a screw sticking through the back would not allow some of the mechanism to work (this can be remedied with a decent set of wire dikes or a hacksaw). I know all of this is hard to picture, but if you do decide to try this fix, you'll see what I am describing here. The locks are back in and working flawlessly.
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