Buying a Chevrolet Truck (1989 - 1998) - What should I look for when buying

[Matt4x4]

I am buying a chevy truck 89 to 98. 4x4, ext cab, automatic.
What should I look for when looking at these trucks. What are some of the problem areas.
Price range $1500 min. to $2500 max.

I am going to auctions and looking at bargainfinder (buysell.com) and autotrader mags & dot ca. And of course cja & 4wheeler those are the only forum sites I know of. If you have any other good forums to look at can you please list them.


Thanks

[Fredduck]

Check the bottom of the rockers under the ext cab windows, they rot out after time.

[cLAY]

We have a bunch of these in our fleet at work and they seem to develop head gasket and intake manifold gasket problems when the mileage starts to get up there. Door handles and hood release handles are always breaking off but that maybe an operator thing and are pretty easy to replace.

There is a fitting at the back of the manifold for coolant(heater line) that tends to leak. Its a goofy quick disconnect fitting similar to a fuel line. I usually unscrew it from the manifold and crank in a pipe fitting and use just a regular hose.

Front diff has a CAD system like the early Jeeps but its electric instead of vacuum. When it fails it leaves you without 4wd. I modified ours to stay in the locked up position. I did notice some minor vibes on the highway from having it locked in all the time but so far its been fine(3 years).

Some trucks have more power to them than others. Our shop truck is a dog but we have others that are similarly outfited that move pretty good. I've never bothered to look but I'm guessing its a difference of axle gearing.

Cats have plugged up from the excessive idling we do and are replaced with straight pipe. A couple have holes in the floor boards from where the driver's right heel rests. There is a big wiring loom that runs under the driver's side door trim that is prone to rotting out, the runway deicer we use may have contributed to this though. Carboned up throttle bodies give rough idle, again though we idle excessively.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[hps4evr]

ive seen plenty fuel pumps give up, the later versions with vortec magic need at least 56psi. anythng less and they run poopy. the front axle disconnect is a major bummer in winter. push the button all you want in winter and it still does nothing. ive seen them stuck on ice in a parking spot. front driveshafts broken in the slip joint, seems the splines wear out. and the usual for GMs, if it contains a fluid, it will leak that fluid. they have IFS, which some may like, but i figure IFS is for retired folk and those with vaginas. the older versions had nasty gauge clusters. and generally speaking they have very bland looks. but, if you get a Z71 it might have the light duty 14 bolt. im sure there is more issues though.

[Matt4x4]

Thanks for the great information, I will keep that in mind while looking around for a chev truck.

Regal Auction last night (Wed) had a few nice trucks there, but I never bothered getting a bid number so I could not bid on them.

I will be attending the sale on Saturday at Regal.

The funniest thing is, every time I go there I see the same 3 or 4 dealers in the crowd. Those dealers, ring auctioneers and ring helpers are in kahoots with each other.  If you look at their website, take a look at the $1000 prize they give away at each auction (only if you buy a car) they have a few names that pop up more then 5 times. I counted one guy made $15k+. Something smells funny.

[cLAY]

Yep there are some shady things that go on at auctions. I have seen "plants" in the crowd that bid against you to drive up the prices. Pretty fishy when the other guys you are bidding against drop out and suddenly someone else jumps in and takes it up another $2000. I jumped out at that point at let him have it. The next auction I saw the exact same truck for sale in the auction and buddy bidding on it again. 

My sister bought her Grand Cherokee there. Unfortunatly I wasn't with her. When she got it home she asked me to look at it as it felt like the tranny was slipping off the line. Turned out it was missing the front driveshaft and the si8pping was from the AWD(np249) t-case slipping then locking up.

Bought a new shaft and put it on and found out why it was off. The gears in the front diff were toast. So we got a new axle from Jeep Stuff and installed it, got the diff with the same gear ratio as the old one. After installing the new one the front diff banged when driving it. After checking everything 10 times I found the problem, front and rear gear ratios were mismatched, 3.73 front and 3.55 rear. Had I known BEFORE replacing the diff I would have got a ratio to match the back but it was too late, it was already installed.

Fortunatly in my pile of crap I just happened to have a set of D35 3,73 gears. Thatwas the most difficult gear setup I've ever done and it still has a drone on the highway.

That thing was such a pain in the arse... I get steamed just thinking about it.