I found a 95 with 85k miles on it. Looks fun. Cheap price. Basically if it can tow my boat the 1 mile to the boat ramp was thinking of buying it for that and getting me a car for in the city. I know they have maintenance problems but are they mostly related to initial manufacturing issues? If you get it overhauled do the problems go away?

 

No matter how many miles, you are still talking about a 26 year old vehicle so there will be some wear or parts just plain falling apart. These trucks are well known to have problems and even after fixing every little component, they still can have 'issues'. That is part of the challenge and fun of having one of these relics! Once you start, it is hard to quit. My first one had 135K miles when I got it, and 285K when it bought the farm. (after 7 years) and that was due to my son beating the crap out of it and running it out of oil. My latest one I got with 135K miles and currently had 177K miles (almost 3 years) and I have numerous times said I was going to scrap it. Well I am still driving it...

 

I overhauled both of my trucks after purchase (bearings, cams, lifters, timing parts, oil pumps, etc), and both have been very reliable, but it took a good bit of learning. I think at this point, if I bought an old truck I would probably replace all the hoses, clean up the throttle, pcv, and idle parts, replace the fan clutch, plugs and wires and O2 sensors, all fluids, go through the checklist in the Maintenance Manual, tighten any loose exhaust joints, check the brakes, maybe work on the front hubs and drive shafts, then drive it a while before cracking the engine open. The cams and lifters were pretty well worn out at 145 and 181 K miles, but depends somewhat on how well they were treated by the previous owner.

These trucks are super solid and respond well to a little TLC. All the parts you need are still available, believe me, I know .

 

I think you need to do a compression test and leak down test to determine what you have to deal with first