What did YOU do today?

[alwaysFlOoReD]

some guy idled his bigass f150 into me.

my truck has been suddenly not been starting randomly during drives after being prked off for 15min or 1 min. cant be low voltage. just clicks once when key/ignition/starter cranked. then i pop the hood and shake the cables a bit and it starts. cable connections are tight and clean. any ideas?

Bad cables. Could be corroded behind insulation. I had one truck that the cable by the starter was hanging by just a couple threads. Eventually they burned thru. Luckily I was a block away from a parts place.

 

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

IDK about from home depot, but a local gravel supplier will happily sell you half a bag or so. Might be worth asking.

they wont sell bagged rock and i dont want to drop 1000lb of rock directly into the bed of my 2.5l and drive 45miles of shittty farm road asphalt

 

[Li'l Work Truck]

took in 66lbs of aluminum can deposit to the scrap yd then left with 4 spools i sell for $10ea.
then some guy idled his bigass f150 into the back of my trailer.
then drove gravel home 60 miles, large strap came loose 20miles in.

my truck has been suddenly not been starting randomly during drives after being prked off for 15min or 1 min. cant be low voltage. just clicks once when key/ignition/starter cranked. then i pop the hood and shake the cables a bit and it starts. cable connections are tight and clean. any ideas?

*edit*
replacement positive battery terminal end attachment bolts were snug, not tight

oh, and yesterday my gf was feeling upset/sick so i built her a shelf.... and then i spent the second half of the day sick.

I don't remember who it was that said their ground cables failed inside the casing, but that might be what you're running into. He said the cables crunched when he bent them.

 

[superj]

Went to lukenbach and drank some beer while listening to people play music and sing.


It was a nice way to spend an hour or two in the warm sun

 

[JoshT]

New (reman) starter installed on the F-250. IT LIVES! Swapped from the traditional 3 bolt can starter to the 2 bolt NDenso (geared) starter. That new starter spins it over WAY better, but boy was that thing a bitch to install. Slightly different terminal layout for one. Bigger issue is the thing weighs 1.5 to 2 times as much as the original style. It was worth it for the way it spins the engine over though, and should be quicker/easier to get started after sitting. If I'd done that a few years ago maybe I'd have used it more and be keeping the truck.

 

[scotts90ranger]

took in 66lbs of aluminum can deposit to the scrap yd then left with 4 spools i sell for $10ea.
then some guy idled his bigass f150 into the back of my trailer.
then drove gravel home 60 miles, large strap came loose 20miles in.

my truck has been suddenly not been starting randomly during drives after being prked off for 15min or 1 min. cant be low voltage. just clicks once when key/ignition/starter cranked. then i pop the hood and shake the cables a bit and it starts. cable connections are tight and clean. any ideas?

*edit*
replacement positive battery terminal end attachment bolts were snug, not tight

oh, and yesterday my gf was feeling upset/sick so i built her a shelf.... and then i spent the second half of the day sick.

You don't have one of those janky cable ends that just clamps onto bare wire on one of the cables do you? those things BLOW ASS and will definitely leave you stranded... it's definitely the easy button when the janky sheet brass post clamps break that is the only thing they put on cars now... If you have one of those quick repair ends clean out any and all corrosion that's built up in the wad of loose strands with baking soda and a wire brush then take some solder and a propane torch and get it all soldered up so it's solid then it's safe to use those ends until you get to replacing it... I did that to my explorer like 9 years ago and somehow it's still working, keep meaning to fix it less bad... on my '90 Ranger I crimped on a copper lug and used a marine adapter, on my '97 Ranger I kept the 6mm threaded portion of the stock sheet metal thing and bolted that to one of those repair clamps, it works fine...

 

[pacstud]

Did the transmission filter/fluid on wife's new (to us) Mazda 3. I don't know who did it before, but they really chose to use a lot, lot of RTV. So I ended up spending an extra couple hours getting that all cleaned, cripes. Everything else went easy.

Back to the Ranger tomorrow. My fuel pressure kit arrived so I can see the status there.

 

[sgtsandman]

Other than clearing snow, I shoved the utility trailer into the garage and parked both trucks in the driveway, leaving room for the Escape to pull in behind. Both trucks have been plugged in and the windshields covered to make it easier to clean off the snow later since it is supposed to snow most of the night.

 

[Sharky]

last hunt of 2025 & the boys did it again