Quote History Quoted:
Water pump are easy to change in general. Some cars make it a pain to get to, but trucks generally have plenty of room. I've done it on your Dakota's big brother, a Ram. I think the Dakota would be a snap to change.
Find out what size wrench you need for the fan. It WILL be a large size that you don't have. On the Ram, it was 36mm. Buy a whatever size open end wrench from Harbor Freight or somewhere for cheap and have it handy before you start taking stuff apart.
Get a manual. $20 from Autozone or Amazon. It will tell you step by step how to do it.
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LOL I love the logic on this site.
$300 to walk away from a disabled truck, and get a functional truck back that night. No blood loss, no special tools, no aggrevation
OR
$20+ dollars for a paper manual, special tools or tool rental (and associated cost of running them down), gasket or gasket sealer, and at the very minimum 2 hours of your time and hassle, plus lost coolant, plus bleeding the system.
So in a best case scenario, you gain $100-125 dollars, and that's counting your time and pain/aggrevation at $0.