A vehicle that old is going to have problems, some of them serious.
That's not necessarily true, I mean, it depends what you mean by serious I suppose, some things are serious in the sense they could leave you stranded but not serious from a fix standpoint.
Case in point my '97, so far I really haven't found much on it. True that rad had a slow leak, this I knew when I looked at it (despite dealer claiming no leak), and the tensioner was cocked at an angle and when I took it out it fell apart so I I had replaced that and put new belt and upper rad hose (lower looked new). Neither very hard to do or very expensive, just, rad work is messy.
Granted dealer had replaced wheel bearings and drums and rotors so big plus there. I get a drip of oil here/there so I suspect oil pan gasket but haven't scoped that out yet but it's not so much that you see the oil level changing so not worrying too much about it right now but I do want to track it down. Dealer had also replaced heater valve and upper MAF (it threw CEL on it when I tried it).
I think some of these old trucks were sitting around a while not being driven much and/or the person knew they were getting rid of it so they just let stuff go bad.
The main issue on old trucks is some parts will become hard to find. The truck doesn't know how old it is. Some things like rubber/plastic may degrade, don't see it on mine, but I have for sure seen it. To me the design is good, they have what they need and no more (example - new trucks have +/- buttons for cruise but you already have this feature in the older trucks without extra buttons), and way easier to work on (for a lot of things) than newer vehicles. OK, I also had to replace cruise buttons and left tailgate latch, but those seem to always be bad (had the same things on the '99). Again not expensive nor hard to do. Anyway, now I have a truck that everything works, no immediate issues as far as I know. I will have to get tires at some point. You didn't mention the miles on yours because that for sure is important, I have 125k so not bad considering the age.
But I was looking for a long time before I got it versus it sounds like you were kind of in a bind. Will I find other stuff wrong, it could happen, not seeing anything yet, but it wouldn't surprise me.
I know it's a real bummer when stuff seems to just self destruct but here's the thing, there probably is nothing that can't be fixed and make it reliable. Just go one thing at a time. Dome light - doesn't stop you from driving it, take out the bulb when you park or don't need it and chase it later. Black dust on wheels is brake dust, it will accumulate, but excessive in a short time to me would say the rotors are eating the pads so have the rotors turned (good luck) or just get new and put on. But you'll always have some dust that's just the pads wearing. Brakes not working is critical, and you already have advice on that. Pull the wheels and look at the drums and rotors and maybe swap out the wheel cylinders but it doesn't sound like it... you'll see if they leak or not, to me with the whole thing apart you might as well do them as they aren't expensive either. Use crowfoot wrench made specifically for the connectors.
Usually parts are the minor part of a job, labor is so high today that's what kills you, so unless you are rich you kind of have to assume you will do these things. And if you were rich, you would have got a '23 right? But of all old trucks to get, I think '97 is a really good year so if you can get past the bum-out part I think you can get it to the point where you feel confident in it.
Hood latch problem sounds like cable isn't springing back if it wasn't latching, again, should be easy fix. Might be the first thing, heh. Maybe just work it back/forth (the release), maybe lube... guys here would know. License plate lights, probably bulbs... good idea to do a walk-around on all your lights on a 'new' vehicle because you know they will stop you if they can.
The bucking or kicking I have no idea what that is but again people here know everything. Just describe one issue at a time starting with the most serious. If you're going to do the work, get a shop manual. If you are like, no, I'm not working on it, then get set for some big repair bills (labor) and consider getting rid of it, but somebody will probably take that truck and get it 100% working fine. I had a slew of stuff on the '99 and got through all of it, the '97 I was just lucky, well, not really luck since I knew what I was looking for and looked at quite a few before I got it, plus, we don't know what the future holds. But I don't drive lots and rarely go that far from home, if I were driving long distances or big commutes it might not be for me but on the other hand if all is up to snuff there's no reason for it to be much less reliable than a new truck and I'm in it, including fixes, for less than a decent down payment on a new truck. And I like it being classic (ok, antique).
Floor mat causing stuck throttle pedal is fairly common (at least, I've had it happen). They tend to work their way forward as you settle in, some have a hole to engage a pin so they don't do that, but I've taken to doing a quick visual as I'm getting in to make sure I have a good couple inches of clearance. If it happens in town not a super huge deal if you cut the ignition right away, but I can see that on the highway it would be totally dicey.
Things wear out... what you are dealing with, I think, isn't things suddenly breaking, they've been going bad for a while. You are essentially in shakedown mode, finding out what you need to do to make it good.
I am interested to find out what happens with the kick-back/tranny whatever, it doesn't sound familiar to me but then my experience is limited.
If you can't imagine what else can go wrong, take a look at a shop manual and after that you realize they are complicated with thousands of parts and in a way amazing they work at all. You just have to ask, what is preventing me from driving this truck and do those first, other stuff that is bothersome but not critical, leave for later.
Post pics of truck?
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