yesterday I took my family on a about a 200 mile adventure, first to Sam Rayburn Lake then Toledo Bend. Little did I know my alternator was going out. After a fun trek in and about the rocks and "rapids" below the dam sure enough we all get in the Bronco and its dead.

I did not want to stop the sightseeing so after getting a jumpstart I took them up to above the dam and a real pretty lookout. Not wanting to turn the truck off we were parking on a grade I applied the emergency brake because I have a standard, and of course no "Park" with its parking pawl.

We went up to the lookout and took some pics. We all got back into the truck and took off.

While driving we could spell something burning but I didn't have enough battery or alternator to get the back window up and I thought it was the exhaust.

About 60 miles later I noticed the emergency brake was still on.

After I replace the alternator I'm gonna pull the back wheels and drums and take a look. I might change the 90W in the rear end.

Lesson learned. I'm so used to automatics and had never used the emergency brake.

 

it happens...

me and my dad go back and forth about e-brake usage. I personally use it all the time, so its normal for me to check it even with automatics.

 

That's funny because I used to have the same argument with my dad. He never used his e-brake through the first two or three cars he owned until one day he was parked on steep grade and one of the weakened teeth (made so by the weight of a mid-80's Oldsmobile Delta 88 resting on it repeatedly) in the parking ring failed and the car went rolling down the hill... didn't stop until it had sheared off about half the rest of the teeth. As a result, he HAD to use the e-brake or spend the $$$ to tear down the automatic and replace the parking pawl/ring. If you think about it, ALL of the weight of the vehicle rests on a tiny little tooth of metal in the transmission if you don't use the brake to help hold it in place. A manual transmission left in the lowest gear when parked actually has more holding power than the parking pawl in an automatic.

 

I don't resent you young whipper snappers' comments...I represent them...and only set the parking brake about once a year to see if the rears are adjusted. I recently observed my 80 y/o sister was left foot braking with her automatic. She said she had always done that.

 

the morning after I posted this I took the truck to this alternator place in town. they rebuild starters and alternators for all types of automotive and industrial type stuff.

he told me to pop the hood and first thing he noticed was I had the alternator hooked up wrong. there are two threaded bolts coming out the back of the housing and I had hooked the field? to one of them. doh.

then he unplugged my regulator and jumped it and looked at his meter and told me the alternator was okay but the regulator was toast.
so I replaced that. I'm still a little paranoid because the electrical demand of this old Bronco is so small that you can charge the battery and think you are okay because it will last for a while and keep starting w/o charging. Now that I think its fixed I wish I had an idiot light because the needle on the dash gauge barely moves towards the +

As for the rear axle I'm pissed that I drove my truck like that. I later looked at mapquest and found that I drove more like 90 miles.
the drum on one side was glazed and the other side looked alright but I had just spent about a hundred bucks fixing an axle seal, and that was with me R&R the axle, I paid to have the retainer pressed on and off. so of course I was having a cow thinking about the axle heating up and screwing up my new seal.

speaking of parking pawls, there is an incident that happened about twenty years ago that makes me very cautious when having driven wheels jacked up and moving. me and a friend had my 74 Nova's rear end up on jack stands and put it in gear to check something. when we decided we were satisfied with whatever we were looking at, he put it in park. Of course the wheels were still moving. We listened to it ratchet down for what at the time seemed like an agonizingly loooonnnng time. How or why the end of the parking pawl with the pin was not ripped from the case or cracked the case is beyond me.

so when you are by yourself and checking a front wheel drive, or rear wheel drive, or whatever, and putting the driveline in motion to check caliper noise etc, do yourself a favor and check to see or hit the brakes that the wheels are not moving before you put it in park or reverse etc.