Hmm, sticker on the door says '76... Nah, probably goes by model year. Missing anyhow. I have to seriously doubt any inspector would ding it for a missing catalyst at this time.
I did see the fuses in the globebox. Nice. I did see that the gauges were all working, including ammeter. Couldn't see if the dash lights worked (high beam indicator did).
Nah, it comes with the dog dish hubcaps; I'll stick with those. Good to know though, in case I wind up with snow tires or the like (good chance, it's gonna live in NH).
Manual steering; not that bad (but I was on snow). My 2000 Saturn was manual steering too, as was a couple of previous vehicles (actually, my current Jetta is the first--of what, five--no six--without PS). Wheel sits on my lap. Might need pedal extensions.

The seller told me that he had just about sold the truck to someone else. He told the buyer that he really really oughta drive it first--he was putting the money down. Drives to the end of the driveway, comes back, says "harder than I remember--can't handle that anymore."
Drip rail does look like it needs to have the caulk chiseled out. There is a hole just above the drip rail, just above the door--this was a New England truck too. I'm guessing the water gets trapped in those areas, and does lots of damage--the hood is just about bare of paint, but the rust isn't that scaley stuff that flakes off.

Can't wait to have it in my yard, so I can really dig into it.

I have a 87 B350, 318,auto bought new in Kamloops it did not come with a cat, Walker lists part 40540 head pipe 1987 canadian model w/o converter.

I had posted above a '85 D350 was non-cat, which disagreess with Dans post as '84 being the last year for non-cat gas vehicles. Well I should have posted '84 but do to old age and a cloudy memory I didn't. I had an '84 D350 Crew cab, the last year for a cab with 4 regular doors for 19 years. It was 3 years old when I bought it, traded in my 17mpg slant six '84 D150 for it. The D350's 360, 4.10 gear and 12mpg forced me to trade it for a '91 D150 Club 318 and 17mpg.
I can't speak for a Canadian '87 D350.

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Slant Cecil

I guess it had to do with GVW - GVWR at 8500 lbs and above.

Having second thoughts now, now that I brought it home.

Steering was wicked loose on the road--can't feel it at a stop, but once moving it's a good quarter turn of play. Worse, I'm used to manual steering getting easier once moving--on tighter turns it was not getting easier, it felt much stiffer. Bad alignment?

Worse, though, when I stopped at my mechanic to get an inspection, he recognized the truck... and thought the rust was more than just skin deep. He's going to do a full inspection on Monday; I think I'll defer driving until then (getting snow now anyhow). I'm guessing $500 for a front end rebuild, if it's required; and maybe $500 for brakes? [I'm expecting brake lines and cylinders?] And of course, I still have to grind rust and fiberglass (I can do at least that much). I suspect that if it needs brakes, frontend and frame repair, I'm going to, err, not. [On the bright side, he thought the loose steering might be from a worn U-joint in the steering, not necessarily a bad box.]

I'd hate to pull the plug on this, but I'm starting to wonder if this was one of my better decisions. I think next time, if I buy something this old, either it needs to be currently on the road (so as to get a good driving feel *and* take to my mechanic for a proper inspection), or bought with the intention of having to fully go through it. At least if I get out now, it'll be a relatively cheap lesson.

*edit*

Sat down, figured out what's bugging me. I tried to get one vehicle to do two things: a secondary, and a project vehicle. This is a project vehicle that I ought not to think of having on the road until summer--unlike a secondary vehicle, which ought to be on the road at moment's notice. [Hey: my primary vehicle is a 7 year old, 241kmile VW.] I'm being too impatient for my own good.

There's 4 things that will give loose play in the steering wheel on your '77 D100.
1.Bad tie rod end/ idler arm/pitman arm
-replace bad parts
2.Torn rag joint
-replace rag joint
3.Worn pot coupler
-there is a rebuild kit available for it that replaces the internal pieces, if the housing is also worn it will need to be repaced, I think they are available
4.Worn steering box
-I don't know if there is a rebuild kit for them, I haven't found one, some of the slop can be removed with an adjustment, follow the adjustment instructions in the FSM, just don't tighten the cross shaft and call it done, the worm gear needs to be adjusted first to help prevent further wear

Odds are the steering slop is in the box. I advised to give it a test drive first and check steering slop. I had a pal with a MS W100, the box started to go at 50K miles. My '82 D150 has MS, it was all over the road when I bought it, a correct adjustment to the box helped but steering is hard when going slow. I may convert mine to PS, that probably would be your best solution if your box is bad. Swap appears to be easy. Hit the JY and grab everything from the rag joint to the pitman arm, along with the pump, bracket, hoses and maybe the pulley setup.

Let me warn you again about the electric. Make sure the connections going to and from the amp gauge are clean, not just appear clean, take them off and clean them, this includes any connections going thru the firewall. This really applies to all our old Mopars, it's just I've seen more dashes that melted down on the pre-'82 D100s than melted bulkhead connectors on cars. A solution to avoid corroded connections is to bypass the amp gauge by running a 8 or 10 gauge wire WITH a fusible link from the + post on the alternator to the + post on the starter relay, or possibly the battery. If Dan chimes in, he may have a better remedy than mine.

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Slant Cecil

Yeah, you did advise me, shame on me. In my defense, it wasn't road legal--out of inspection, out of registration. And not rural enough to get away with that.

I took a quick look, and it's not the rag joint. I think it's the box, as the inner flap about the box is torn (it's cardboard anyhow), I can spin it and see the pitman sit for the slop.

On the way to drop it off (at the mechanic, for the inspection) the clutch decided to drag too. Will know Monday afternoon what I'm going to do. On the good side, motor did not blow blue on a cold 15F start. It also doesn't have more than 35psi oil pressure--even cold--which makes me wonder about that bypass valve.

Thanks to all for the help. Either way I go on this, you guys rock on your knowledge. And if anyone is interested in a dilapidated truck in NH, shoot me a PM.

Just sorted through the receipts, for '82 through '08. I'm sure I'm missing some. This vehicle was hard on brakes and exhaust. Not quite every year for both items! I count the front calipers being replaced at least 5 times, plus a number of other brake repairs; looks like a complete exhaust system (more or less) every other year, until someone must have started using thicker wall tubing in '05, or it got less miles (we're talking about 100kmiles over this span). By comparasion, the spark plugs were only replaced twice.

Oddly enough, the PO used the Emission Control System manual as a place to record mpg from '81 to '87(?). I see from 13 to 18, but most are at 14-15mpg. When I drove it, it didn't seem to mind 35mph, top gear, going up a hill; so I think the rear is reasonably low geared.

Crud. My mechanic finally got over looking at it, and he thinks I should junk it out. A frames are shot, among other things. Wonder if I could strip enough off it to make it worthwhile.

And I just got the FSM yesterday!