- First Name
- Brian
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
- Threads
- 20
- Messages
- 2,902
- Reaction score
- 6,827
- Location
- Wisconsin USA
- Vehicle(s)
- 1990 Bronco eddie bauer
- Your Bronco Model
- Badlands
So, to be clear on the chain of events, you never moved the shifter? If you were still in 1st you would not have restarted the engine by dumping the clutch anyway...even on old non electronic vehicles. You would have had to shift to reverse, then dump the clutch. However, if you had dropped the clutch, and put both feet on the brake, you would certainly have stopped the vehicle, or at least slowed it to a very slow crawl? I am not criticizing your actions...I get it! In the moment, you were focused on restarting the engine, which requires the clutch to be fully depressed...ergo you never released the clutch pedal, and gravity (harsh mistress that she is), continued to accelerate the vehicle. My point being if you had been able to restart the engine, it woulda all worked out...whether that was the "technically right" way to do it or not! And I continue to be baffled as to why this is not possible on a 6g Bronco! I personally would like an explanation from somebody as to why?Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I think a lot of these were very helpful in trying to figure some things out. I just want to make clear what happened to answer some questions, maybe this will help in the future, maybe not, hopefully with these experiences, despite being painful, maybe we can learn.
Sequence of events.
First off, let me just say what was weird. I have done this hill twice before and I have stalled before, both in 4L and 4H and never had this happen. Now maybe something was different, maybe not, like maybe the incline at stall was higher, but I'm pretty sure I stalled earlier in the day on a 39 degree hill (this one was upper 20's/low 30's), and I was in 4L with both lockers on and the sway bar DC, "full war package" so to speak.
-Went up, there is a rock that is difficult to traverse, but had before.
-I was trying to get another better angle.
-I did shift from C to 1st to get more wheel speed versus engine rpm. I'm not a "send it" kind of guy, I usually like slow and steady, but sometimes momentum can be your friend, even if it often is not. Please pay little attention to the scraping sounds, I have enough skid plates to armor a WW2 battleship.
-I think maybe I didn't feather the clutch just right in 1st and that's when I stalled. Not positive, but seems likely, it happened pretty quickly.
-I think at that point it stalled and I may have lost all vacuum pressure for the brakes and the engine would not start.
-I rolled back with the clutch pushed in and the foot on the brake, so using both feet for the brake and clutch, but unlike every single other time I've ever had to auto-start the vehicle, it simply did not this time, so the issue wasn't a direct brake failure to be clear. There was no power to the brakes and I could not manually push hard enough to engage the brakes.
-At this point the Bronco rolls back without me being able to stop it. Also at this point, I am stunned because it won't restart and am in WTH mode. Passenger side hits a rock, that's the pop up in the video, which does two things, destroys the bumper and thankfully actually slows it down...a little.
-The rest of the way, I am trying to restart, so I am pressing again, both clutch and brake in. Aftermath was kind of funny people yelling brakes, sorry silver lining joke, because I already knew to do that.
-I probably hit the smaller tree at I would guess was 10-15mph. I think the tree or rather the tree hitting the spare tire saved the body and hardtop. And because it was tight, I lost the driver mirror to incidental contact as I rolled down the hill.
So here are some questions/thoughts. As I read the comments, maybe there was nothing wrong with the Bronco, maybe it did what it was supposed to do, like it doesn't start in certain situations. So, I thought maybe I just reacted too slow and I'm all to blame for this. And I should have popped the clutch and jumped started the manual transmission vehicle to regain power brakes. But I saw some folks mention that you can't roll start a 6G Bronco, funny enough after reading that, I called me kids out to help me push and try and it does not, WTH Ford, that's one of the advantages of a manual, a dead battery will never stop you...sort of.
So, it seems I could not have started it again, therefore never giving me brake power back.
So, could I have put it in gear and popped the clutch and it may have just stopped there on the hill? I mean, I guess what I'm saying is, what is the fix if you lose brake power and can't pop the clutch to restart?
I think about the new Defender commerical where they back up to the ledge and stop, well what happens when you do that in a Bronco and it stalls? Am I just supposed to jump out quickly before I go over the edge, geez. Obviously extreme example, but nonetheless possible based on events two days ago.
OH ONE LAST THING, IT DID HAVE A SERVICE VEHICLE SOON LIGHT ON AND SAID 4X4 DISABLED AFTER THE ACCIDENT. At this time, I needed 4X4 to at least get out of the park, so I turned the vehicle off, locked it, unlocked it, restarted it and the service vehicle soon light was gone and 4X4 was enabled again. I wanted to keep the codes in there but I wasn't going to keep the vehicle on until Monday morning taking it to Ford, plus they didn't occur until AFTER the accident.
My hope is this clear up some questions that people have had.
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