I am thinking the end may be near for my old 1997 F250 Light Duty. I took it into a shop for some clunks and growling from the drivetrain, figuring it might be something like U joints and/or motor mounts. The shop called and said it needs a new transfer case and that the rear bearing is completely shot. They say you can grab the driveshaft and rattle it quite a bit.
I had taken into a shop for similar symptoms several years ago. It was U joints but the shop at the time found the transfer case to be mostly full of water. They said the bearings were really howling until they changed the fluid, then it seemed fine. They warned me this likely shortened the life of the unit but couldn’t justify replacement on a truck of this age and condition. They said it could run for years and that something else might fail before it ever became a problem.
The current shop is going to lookup the price for both a new/reman unit as well as a used unit that appears to have tight bearings from external inspection but have suggested this might be the time to move this truck along.
The truck came to me with 279,xxx miles on the odometer like 13 years ago. That number has never changed so I have no idea how many miles are actually on the thing. It came to me in rough rusted condition and that certainly has not gotten any better. I have spent some money on this thing that I didn’t plan to do during the pandemic when used car prices were so high as that was more cost-effective than replacing the truck. The front-end, at least two tires, and clutch were all replaced at this time. I have also tried to keep up on the basic mechanics so many other parts are new.
Besides the overall very rough and rusty condition, I do feel that the engine may be loosing compression. It fires right up and runs well down the road, no matter if it is hot or freezing cold outside. I have noticed it beginning to creep and roll in gear. You can tell that the cylinders are uniformly down on compression as it will never hit a good cylinder and stop rolling. It just pauses and then keeps on moving. I have been careful where I park and put it in low-range and use a wheel chock if I am concerned about it rolling. There is also some oil consumption and smell but nothing terrible. I might not need to add any oil between changes or it might need a quart. I figure the engine could run a few more years in this state or drop a valve, have a timing chain break, or some other catastrophic failure. I see no reason this would happen as the engine sounds great when running, except for lifter tick at times on startup.
I kinda like having such an old beatup truck for certain things. You don’t care to use it for dirty jobs since a new dent or scratch will not be something you care about. I throw junk, firewood, lumber, or whatever in the bed and don’t care.
I figure that if I can get a good used transfer case for $1000 installed, it might not be a bad idea. I would be happy with another 2-3 years out of the truck. At that time I figure the engine will be even worse as far as the compression is concerned. I know it might be a gamble and this could make me more likely to dump more money into if it needs work in the near future.
Any opinions? This has been a great old truck for my uses but know it is getting old and eventually won’t be worth it. Also, what should something like this bring if it runs and I put it up for sale? A buddy said any truck that runs with 4WD is worth AT LEAST $1500 even in poor condition.
