Lately I've had to do some work on my '72 Ford Ranch Wagon. About a month ago, the tail gate glass shattered spontaneously. It happens with tempered glass. You go out and find a broken window for no good cause. This is the second tail gate glass that I've replaced in that car in the nearly 30 years I've owned it. The tail gate is subject to a lot of slamming and banging, I guess the glass can only take so much stress on the mounting points. Years ago, I scrapped out two '71 wagons and one other '72; the two years are about alike. I kept all three tail gate glass windows from those cars. Now I've used two and have only one left.
The failure of this glass I know is spontaneous because it's stored in an enclosed space. The glass when installed is always properly adjusted as to fit into the opening and function raising and lowering (it's electric). I know it's in right because if it isn't, it won't keep out water. I has to fit just so against the weatherstrips.
Anyway, this car has been kind of in dry dock for the past month due to the broken glass. A couple of days ago when we had a brief period of clear weather, I backed it out of storage to replace the glass. It fired up with some cranking of the starter motor and multiple pumps on the accelerator pedal. I let it warm up for about 15 minutes. After I installed the new glass, I took it for a test drive of about six miles, then returned it to storage. Last night, I was thinking I ought to hook it up to the battery charger to make sure it had a full charge.
This morning, I went out and set up the charger. I thought I'd look at the battery case to see what the date was. I like to keep these numbers in mind so I'll know when to expect one to need replacement. Well, time got away from me on this one. The case has a date of 7-09. Isn't that about ten and a half years?? It still spins the starter at normal rpm, obviously it sat for a month without charging and had no trouble cranking over a cold engine for a while. I've never had a car battery last this long.
The factory battery in my 2004 Crown Victoria was dated 5-04. It lasted until 5-14, when without warning it just internally shorted and left me stuck in a gas station. Maybe I ought to change the station wagon battery just on the basis of age alone, and forget squeezing the last nickel out of it and risking getting stuck somewhere again.
In Winter, I don't drive the old wagon much anyway. In cold, humid weather, the heater and defroster work fine for the front seat area. But the farther back you go inside the station wagon "tunnel;" the heavier the condensation on the window glass gets. Sometimes the windows never get fully clear in the course of a drive.
The failure of this glass I know is spontaneous because it's stored in an enclosed space. The glass when installed is always properly adjusted as to fit into the opening and function raising and lowering (it's electric). I know it's in right because if it isn't, it won't keep out water. I has to fit just so against the weatherstrips.
Anyway, this car has been kind of in dry dock for the past month due to the broken glass. A couple of days ago when we had a brief period of clear weather, I backed it out of storage to replace the glass. It fired up with some cranking of the starter motor and multiple pumps on the accelerator pedal. I let it warm up for about 15 minutes. After I installed the new glass, I took it for a test drive of about six miles, then returned it to storage. Last night, I was thinking I ought to hook it up to the battery charger to make sure it had a full charge.
This morning, I went out and set up the charger. I thought I'd look at the battery case to see what the date was. I like to keep these numbers in mind so I'll know when to expect one to need replacement. Well, time got away from me on this one. The case has a date of 7-09. Isn't that about ten and a half years?? It still spins the starter at normal rpm, obviously it sat for a month without charging and had no trouble cranking over a cold engine for a while. I've never had a car battery last this long.
The factory battery in my 2004 Crown Victoria was dated 5-04. It lasted until 5-14, when without warning it just internally shorted and left me stuck in a gas station. Maybe I ought to change the station wagon battery just on the basis of age alone, and forget squeezing the last nickel out of it and risking getting stuck somewhere again.
In Winter, I don't drive the old wagon much anyway. In cold, humid weather, the heater and defroster work fine for the front seat area. But the farther back you go inside the station wagon "tunnel;" the heavier the condensation on the window glass gets. Sometimes the windows never get fully clear in the course of a drive.
Can I stop rambling now? 
