Hi All,
Just stumbled upon this site, and I think I may become a regular visitor. My daily driver is out for extensive repairs, so the '87 Bronco which is used primarily to haul a horse trailer is now my daily steed.
I see now why heated and remote control mirrors were invented. But, on to the main questions:
First, I am the third owner of this Bronco. It was obsessively maintained by the previous two owners (one brothe sold it to another, then to me) and sadly, I have been a bit less vigilant in learning what I should know about this vehicle.
I have been reading up on parasitic draws, I have one, I don't bother this thread with that, I have some leads to follow.
Main issues now: what should the battery meter read at idle and at maximum draw (headlights, heater fan, radio)? With just the radio on, the in-dash meter is reading 13.5v, and with lights on, it dips to 12.0-12.5 v.
At idle, with a freshly charged battery I get 14.0 v. using the Schumacher battery charger/tester, but I may also be reading some static charge also,so I need to retest tonight.
This feels like a flakey alternator to me, but I don't know what correct outputs should be for this vehicle.
Second issue: There is a trailer brake installed. When I press on the brake, WITH THE POWER OFF AND THE KEY OUT OF THE IGNITION, the radio comes on. The radio is the standard Ford-branded radio, so I assume this was wired in correctly. Is this a "feature" of the Bronco, or is the trailer brake causing some wierdness? This is my thought, but again, I don't know all the features of this vehicle well enough to have an informed opinion.
Thx!!
Just stumbled upon this site, and I think I may become a regular visitor. My daily driver is out for extensive repairs, so the '87 Bronco which is used primarily to haul a horse trailer is now my daily steed.
I see now why heated and remote control mirrors were invented. But, on to the main questions:
First, I am the third owner of this Bronco. It was obsessively maintained by the previous two owners (one brothe sold it to another, then to me) and sadly, I have been a bit less vigilant in learning what I should know about this vehicle.
I have been reading up on parasitic draws, I have one, I don't bother this thread with that, I have some leads to follow.
Main issues now: what should the battery meter read at idle and at maximum draw (headlights, heater fan, radio)? With just the radio on, the in-dash meter is reading 13.5v, and with lights on, it dips to 12.0-12.5 v.
At idle, with a freshly charged battery I get 14.0 v. using the Schumacher battery charger/tester, but I may also be reading some static charge also,so I need to retest tonight.
This feels like a flakey alternator to me, but I don't know what correct outputs should be for this vehicle.
Second issue: There is a trailer brake installed. When I press on the brake, WITH THE POWER OFF AND THE KEY OUT OF THE IGNITION, the radio comes on. The radio is the standard Ford-branded radio, so I assume this was wired in correctly. Is this a "feature" of the Bronco, or is the trailer brake causing some wierdness? This is my thought, but again, I don't know all the features of this vehicle well enough to have an informed opinion.
Thx!!