I must REALLY like this damn truck........

[sixnine]

........okay, I really do. But why does it seem like unless you spend tons of dough on these old trucks your're constantly having problems and needing to fix something? I know, I know, they're 30+ years old. I'm just rambling because I'm frustrated. This morning I was taking my daughter to the baby sitters in my '69 and it died at a light. A VERY BUSY light. The good thing was, my wife wasn't too far behind us. I got her to push me to a parking lot. The bad thing is, she's never pushed another vehicle, and now the front bumper on her 2001 Ford (sorry guys) Expedition is about an inch lower than it should be and her front license plate and mounting bracket are laying on the back seat. I don't want to even think how much it will cost to fix it. I'm surprised the air bag didn't go off. Anyway, right before my truck died it seemed like the alternator went out. I didn't have any lights on, but the motor has an H.E.I on it and the blower fan was on. It's done this once before. It was at night and I had lights on. The alternator just seemed to quit charging and the lights started to dim real bad and it started running real rough. I limped home (no red lights this time) and killed the truck in the driveway. I tried to start it again to see what it would do, and the battery was dead. I charged the battery overnight, put it back on the truck and it cranked right up. I've been driving it ever since and haven't had a problem. Until this morning. I thought if an alternator quit charging, it was dead. Can an alternator run off and on like that? I'm at work now and won't be able to look at it 'till this evening, any ideas to help trouble shoot?
Sorry for the long post guys. Hope I didn't bore the hell out of ya.
sixnine