Re: What's wrong with Chevy/GMC diesel pickups?

Posted by jdemaris on January 12, 2006 at 10:30:52 from (66.218.13.73):

In Reply to: Re: What's wrong with Chevy/GMC diesel pickups? posted by Mike M on January 12, 2006 at 07:16:13:

Sounds like my 69 W200 Dodge Power Wagon. Absolutely the worst truck I've ever owned or driven - but I still have it. The doors literally fell off at 30K miles, springs fell apart, Dana 44 front axle kept falling apart, transfer case broke a shaft, intermidiate driveshaft was constantly falling apart, I've replaced the entire frame twice, 318 engine needed a valve job at 60K miles, etc. etc. Best thing that ever happend to it was in 1979 when a State trooper crashed into me and knocked the cab right off the truck (with me in it). I then replaced it with a 71 GMC cab which is still on it.
I've heard similar bad reports like you have described with G.M. and the Ford IH engines but I don't know what to attribute it all to. I'm sure in certain cases - someone at the factory has a "bad day" and a crap engine leaves the factory. I worked on the Ford assembly line in the early 70s and we had many "bad days." I have seen many diesels, though, in trucks and tractors that started out with a small simple problem, and eventually got ruined by people working on them that had little to no experience or mechanical skill. I'm constantly looking at used trucks on Ebay and it's pretty amazing how many Ford and Chevy diesel trucks there are for sale - with 150K miles and on their 2nd or 3rd engines - makes you wonder what the real story is.
I don't like working on trucks per sé, especially if it means combatting bad engineering. So, NO, I don't own Chevy's because I love fixing them. I started out buying G.M. diesels thanks to what I regard as an unearned bad reputation that made them cheap to buy. Back in the early 80s, I beleived a lot of the bad stuff I was hearing and starting buying spare engines whenever I had the chance. Well - at present - I've got six "extra" engines and I've never had to use one yet. And now, the Chevys aren't cheap anymore. In fact, I guess none of them are.
And, just for the record, I'm not a close-minded Chevy fan. If I was, I wouldn't own any Fords. Also - I still have my 94 Chevy AWD Astrovan - and not counting my Dodge Power Wagon, this van is the worst piece of crap I've ever laid eyes on. This thing breaks downs sitting in the driveway without even being used and has some amazingly bad engineering in the AWD system and the CPI fuel-injection system. We bought it years ago as a spare "backup" vehicle - it was a big mistake.

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