Kinda feeling a bit like Merle Haggard today. First thing this morning, I found out my day off tomorrow is cancelled due to a scheduled protest. It seems one of our local educators felt it was a good lesson to teach her students that they have a voice, and encouraged a former student turned activist to put together an event. Up to this point, we hadn't been having any of these issues in town and our statistics are on par with the community we serve. We seldom have use-of-force arrests, yet here we are.
Second bit of news was the hospital is cutting the evening security shifts until further notice. This has been my bread and butter for getting things done with Ethyl and paying down credit card balances at the same time. Obviously I will continue to work on Ethyl, but acquiring parts will not come as quickly as I would like, (don't want to run those CCs back up. :deal) The hospital (understandably) doesn't feel the need for security during their evening shift changes as they occur in broad daylight during the summer months, rather than a dimly lit parking lot. IF they continue the morning shifts, I'll try to pick some of those up where I can, but competition for those slots will be fierce. Hopefully come September or October, things will begin to return to "normal". If so, I may just bankroll the extra funds to acquire goodies for next spring.
https://youtu.be/sIKUkcNeZfQ
I spoke with my transmission guy yesterday, about the possibility of paying him to swap the 46RH for the 46RE (before the bad news hit today). He was more inclined to wire up the 46RH to engage overdrive. He said he has done several like this and it isn't a difficult process. Now that the hospital money coming in is all but gone, I am inclined to go that route for now, and then swap in the 46RE at a later point.
Lastly, the alternator...like Yamarocket said, the PCM controls the rate of charge. I had picked up a computer from another donor truck of the proper vintage, (1996-1997 w/360 V8 & automatic transmission) before i bought the SCT tuner and custom tunes. Ethyl ran fine with the 1998 PCM, but it tries to control much more than the 1996-1997 unit and wants a digital dashboard. Anyway, the 1996 computer works fine, but I noticed the charging volts held around 9v at idle and then would jump to 13v off idle. I didn't give this much thought, since the e-fan to cool the engine comes on when the ignition key is turned. Last week, the voltmeter began showing 11-12v while driving in town and would oscillate rapidly between 13v and 15v at highway speed. It appears the voltage regulator that is built in to the PCM is going bad. The fix is to replace the PCM. I have a spare 1996-1997 PCM in the Ugly Truckling that I would prefer to save in the event of an all-out failure. Then I would have to match the SCT tuner to the new PCM. For the time being, I am going to mount an old school external regulator to the inner fender, by the PCM, and use it instead.
https://youtu.be/utXjxwPAcHk
I'm going to wire the new regulator through a relay that will power when the ignition key is ON, and route it through my voltage meter on my dash. The external regulator and pigtail ran about $30 at the parts store, so it's a cheap fix. As I understand it, in a stock Dodge truck, this setup would cause a battery light and possibly a Check Engine light, but since I don't have a CEL yet, and no battery light, these shouldn't be an issue.
-Joe