1997 Ford F-250 HD 7.3 Crew Cab Short Bed 4x4

1997 Ford F-250 XLT Description

If you have searched and found my auction you already know about Ford's legendary 7.3 diesel and it's half million mile service reputation, impeccable reliability, tremendous power potential, non emissions no restriction situation, and I guess also worth mentioning.........ease of repair/service. Seems everyone and his/her brother are looking for these crew cab short bed four wheel drive diesels these days.
I have owned this truck for almost 7 years after searching for 6 months to buy what I considered the "right" one. I found it at a Ford dealership after the original purchaser with his advanced lack of mobility was forced to trade it on a small car for ease of entry and exit. The truck has never lived anywhere except Florida....no northern rust here. I was very excited to find this truck so I hope if your looking at this auction after searching for your "right" you are as excited as I was when I found it!
The truck was all original when I bought it with a fantastic low mileage of 78, 500 miles. It was all stock with an exceptional interior and bone dry valley of the 7.3. After I purchased the truck within about a year it started dropping the cruise control and the transmission going into limp mode for no apparent reason. I changed several items with genuine Ford parts including the speed sensor ring in the differential, vehicle speed sensor, manual lever position switch, all with no change. I had decided to deal with this problem and not worry about it until one day I was reading and discovered what I thought could be the problem. I swapped the speedometer with one that I had and my problem was cured. Between the time I took the original speedometer out and when I replaced the original (after I found someone to repair it) I accumulated about 27,500 miles. The truck now has about 119,000 original miles with 91,000 showing on the odometer. When I bought it from the dealer it had a 100% accident free Car Fax with an obvious mileage entry mistake made at a state emissions inspection agency years ago......an extra 3 was entered in the mileage so it went from 9,000 miles one year to 133,000 miles the next......I feel it was a blatant error. In 2010 when I bought it the mileage was 78,000 which I feel was very accurate. Also I see on this this "free" Auto Check thru ebay it had a minor accident.....again I have never seen this before .......it truly must have been very minor.
Looking at the pictures you can see how clean this truck is. The paint is all original with the exception of the tail gate and the drivers side top of the bed. It shows some minor cracking from a previous dent repair prior to my ownership.I will try and list all I have done to the truck since I have owned it:

• Dana 60 Solid Front Axle (F350) with F350 "S" code springs, track bar, and dual cardan F350 C/V shaft and 4407 transfer case yoke...all new brakes when installed, new axle seals and bearings, Warn Premium locking hubs and seals.
• Ford F350 single rear wheel rear leaf springs
• New Motor Craft fuel filter housing.
• New fuel lift pump. (this year)
• New Motor Craft Vacuum pump
• New Motor Craft glow plugs/relay.
• New valve cover gaskets/wiring harness
• New Pro Thane polyurethane body mount bushings (last year) (originals were deteriorating).
• New front fuel tank. (this year)
• New front sending unit (this year)
• New Spicer solid universal joints (3), carrier bearing, drive shaft balance (this year)
• New Riff Raff Diesel air intake boots
• New Riff Raff Diesel turbo inlet boot
• RDS 51 gallon fuel tank/ tool box which feeds into front fuel tank
• New Suncoast billet triple disc torque converter. (last year)
• New Pro Built E4OD with all of the latest modifications including 6 pinion steel planetaries (last year)
• New Mishimoto aluminum radiator (last year)
• New Diesel Site 20 micron external transmission filter (last year)
• New external transmission cooler (last year)
• 4407 transfer case new bearings and seals (last year)
• New Ford finned aluminum differential cover
• Autometer mechanical exhaust temperature gauge
• Autometer transmission temperature gauge
• Firestone air bags with on board compressor and in cab gauge / control
• 1 1/2" diameter D.O.M tubing 66" traction bars with heim joint ends (to control axle wrap while towing)
• Tekonsha trailer brake controller
• Pioneer 12 disc cd changer behind the rear seat modulated through the oem premium radio
• 3" Diamond Eye stainless steel down pipe
• 4" Magna Flow stainless exhaust (with muffler) and a polished 5" tip turned down
• Donaldson 6637 air filter with blue pre cleaner
• Two new batteries within the last three years
• New Autozone gold starter with the last 3 years

The factory premium cd player radio works as new and the cd player works as well. It has a Pioneer 12 disc changer behind the back seat with a remote control up close to the driver, the air conditioner will freeze you out, and the heater will run you out in the winter. Everything works on this truck and I would not hesitate to drive it to California tomorrow. It has 4 brand new Firestone Trans Force 235R /85 16" tires put on in early June. The factory Alcoa rims look almost like new and it has all genuine Ford hubcaps including one rear that I bought a month ago when the tire place broke the clips of one of my original ones.
I have had covers on the seats as long as I have owned it however the drivers side seat cover is showing some wear. I will give these covers to the new owner maybe they can be used for patterns for new ones to be made. If you look at the pictures the seats are really nice......it has never been a "work" truck.
It has factory key less entry with Ford key fobs.....I have two sets of keys and remotes. It also has a factory rear sliding window....all of the windows are tinted.
I have the factory exhaust that I removed in one piece from the down pipe back and I also have the factory air cleaner box that if the winning bidder would like I will give them.
I bought this truck with never having any intentions in selling it....so money was never spared for accessories or repair.......no short cuts taken what so ever. The only reason I am selling this truck now is our family bought a camper that I feel is too heavy to for this truck to pull and I do not want to possibly damage the truck by over loading it. Please look at all of the pictures and realize that even though this truck is 20 years old........it still draws crowds and conversations anytime a bunch of truck people are around.....though it may not be perfect it is mighty close to it.
I encourage you to ask any questions you feel are needed as I will try and answer them to the best of my ability. I am going to run this as a 7 day auction with a reserve price that I feel this truck is worthy of. Please do not ask my reserve as I feel this is not pertinent to what you should bid on the truck......bid what you feel the truck is worth to you and what you feel is financially right for your situation. Banks will not finance these trucks so you will have to have your money pre arranged prior to bidding. My feedback rating since 1999 shows I am a straight shooter in selling and buying......I have no intentions of that changing so bid with confidence. Thanks and please contact me with any questions. I have the truck listed elsewhere so the possibility of it ending early is there. If you would like to discuss the truck further please contact me through ebay.
If you have 10 or less positive feedback please contact me prior to bidding or your bid will be cancelled. Pickup and or delivery arrangements are the sole responsibility of the winning bidder. I will help all I can on my end. A PayPal non refundable deposit of $500.00 will be required within 24 hours upon winning my auction. Delivery could be an option within a 300 mile radius of my zip code for an agreed upon fee which will be prepaid and would be non refundable.

On Jul-28-17 at 20:24:42 PDT, seller added the following information:

I forgot to mention the truck has the C5 axle code which designates it as 4.10 gearing in the front and rear axle........the gear ratio you want if you intend on towing much of a trailer at all.

On Jul-29-17 at 03:08:18 PDT, seller added the following information:

Also about the truck all of the body lines are straight and even just like it came from the factory. I use Rotella 15w40 oil in it with Motorcraft 1995 filters only. The oil has been changed since I have owned it every 3500-4000 miles. It uses no oil between changes and as you would guess with this low mileage has no blow by. When I replaced the glow plugs and valve cover gaskets the insides of the heads and valvetrain look as new with zero amounts of sludge or contamination. Last year when I did the transmission and radiator I also installed a new Motorcraft thermostat along with flushing the cooling system and installing new long life antifreeze. At the time I did the Dana 60 solid axle swap on the front end I naturally replaced all of the ball joints and tie rod ends with Moog components. I have been asked about the headliner, yes it also is nice with zero drops or tears. The windshield has two very minor checks almost unnoticeable.....if they ever started traveling I was going to have it replaced but they have stayed exactly the same. When the truck has ever sat out in the sun I have a sun shield for it that I place on the inside of the windshield. When stored the truck either stays in a garage or under a carport exclusively. Yes the headlights have been changed because my Wife and oldest son bought these for me for a Christmas present. They do clean up the front appearance. Please keep asking questions as you feel necessary and I will answer them to the best of my ability..........Thank You

On Aug-01-17 at 15:40:39 PDT, seller added the following information:

I have been asked by a bunch of people concerning in depth details about the paint and body. The truck is twenty years old but is almost perfect......not quite but close. The cab has two small dings or depressions one on each side behind the rear doors almost undetectable with it being white paint. These two places have no paint defects at all.....in fact I had intentions of finding a paintless dent repair guy to work these out almost like the hail chaser people. The bed has had a dent repaired prior to my ownership on the driver side next to the tail light lens. As a matter of fact the Ford dealer I bought it from did the repair and replaced the lens with a genuine Ford lens. The paint at the body line has a slight crack. It is what appears the paint shrunk and cracked. I am just putting this information out for the individuals that have asked. The paint still shines and feels smooth as glass just like a new truck......no oxidation or clear coat issues......amazing for 20 years old..Thank You for all of the questions!