The Pitstop

Q: Truck stalled while driving with low oil, no longer starts

12:01 AM

@Zaid B- for effort.

1 hour later…

Jason C

1:28 AM

I have a f250 XLT 1971. I was driving it down the highway and I realized I needed oil badly. I told my wife "we gotta get oil first thing tomorrow" and she said okay. 5 minutes later, 10 minutes from my house, the engine started to make a weird noise, and smoke started to come out from the engine...

Ouch. sadtrombone.com

@J.Musser Whoa. Come here often?

6 hours later…

Zaid

7:58 AM

@BobCross I soliloquy you not

2 hours later…

Nick C

9:28 AM

@BobCross Bob is hot. Bob is grumpy. Therefore all hot people are grumpy?

We had hot here last week

2 hours later…

11:20 AM

The heat isn't making me grumpy. The heat is making me stupid. That and people keep stealing the keyboards back and typing bugs. :-p

1 hour later…

12:26 PM

If I start trotting out phrases like "burden of proof", then you'll know that I'm getting grumpy. Oh wait, that just happened. Grump grump.

I do get crabby when people try to argue about reality. "But but theoretically something something not real thing..." Sorry, dude, proof by existence always wins.

12:41 PM

@NickC and you just stuck my brain into the propositional calculus Wikipedia pages (also known as symbolic logic when I took the class). I lost about twenty minutes in there. Thanks for that.... ;-)

Although, now that I think of it, it would be fun to tell @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 that mathematical and propositional calculus are the same thing. That would make his class exciting!

Nick C

1:03 PM

`I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'
`But,' says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
`Oh dear,' says God, `I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly disappears in a puff of logic.
`Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

1:48 PM

Another priest said,"Is it true you've said you'll believe in any god whose existence can be proved by logical debate?"

"Yes."

Vimes had a feeling about the immediate future and took a few steps away from Dorfl.

"But the gods plainly do exist," said a priest.

"It Is Not Evident."

A bolt of lightning lanced down through the clouds and hit Dorfl's helmet. There was a sheet of flame and then a trickling noise. Dorfl's molten armour formed puddles around his white-hot feet.

"I Don't Call That Much Of An Argument," said Dorfl calmly, from somewhere in the clouds of smoke.

5 hours later…

Guest

6:36 PM

Hi I'm new here can I'm wondering can someone help me out... I made a question an a guest not realizing I couldn't comment like that so I made an account with a throw away email not realizing it was needed for the username. I'm still logged in but I can't log out now since I don't know the email. I also can't figure out how to comment. Sorry for the confusion.

Zaid

6:50 PM

@Guest welcome! I think one of our mods can merge accounts

@BobCross could you oblige?

@@MoveMoreCommentsLinkToTop could you merge the accounts?

Guest

i just have the 1 question I asked as a guest then made an account called "Guest" so o could respond on my original question. I just can't log out as I don't know the email I used. So not sure what to do.

Zaid

Don't worry about it, you're not the first one to walk down this road

7:24 PM

Sorry can't do it from here. Hopefully after I get home.

8:01 PM

Meh. I cry FOUL! When a car's engine is running, power to operate the radio, CD player, headlights and windshield wipers comes from the:

BATTERY. Despite the swimsuit pics and other HSW detrius, I can prove it. The electrons flow from the battery negative terminal through the "accesories" and back to battery positive. They also flow from B- through the alternator diodes and across D+ back to B+. Are you suggesting it "knows" which "A-style" electrons came from the alternator, and are used for accesories, and which are "B-stlye" electrons used only for starting?!? Bob isn't the only one hot and grumpy...

1 hour later…

9:10 PM

Actually, that's also easy to prove. Disconnect the lead from the alternator, car continues to work. Radio continues to ... not be turned on because I listen to podcasts all the time....

9:54 PM

@Bob Cross, yes... although that's not the entire answer, because you can disconnect the battery too, and the accessories will still work (albeit with some nasty residual AC that the battery capacitorizes when connected) But that further proves that it's a system, and the HSW quiz is flawed. I'm so angry I had to invent a word!

10:21 PM

@dlu - DUDE! You're a UNIX guy? I spent about 8 years of my life as a UNIX SysAd. That was before I went to work for the government. I wish I could get back into it, actually ... just no opportunity where I work and I'm getting really close to where I can throw paperwork at the problem and retire (under 5 years), lol! Doesn't mean I'll retire from life, just not going to be working for the man anymore.

10:38 PM

@SteveRacer - You are spot on there Steve Racer. I let it slide a lot of times, though, because it just isn't worth the hassle of trying to explain it.

11:02 PM

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 [sigh] This is the problem with being a retentive cynic. In this day and age, it's just too hard to keep up...

@SteveRacer - I used to be anal retentive ... now I've come down off that a little and I'm just anal.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 One might think that after 5 decades I would have lightened up a bit as well. But I can't help that these things trigger an emotional response--the same one I get when somebody asks what I do, I reply "Validation Engineer for visual pharmaceutical inspection systems" ... and they reply, "Oh. I thought you were a mechanic"

ROFL! Nice

You and I must be popping along at about the same age.

51 here.

Close enough. I'm too old to study Calculus again.

Haha, no doubt about it ... I'm just hoping to pass the stupid class ... doesn't count against my GPA, I just need to pass it.

It's a Prereq for the MSE I'll be starting in Sept.

11:14 PM

There isn't enough separation in public perception between the guy that changes your oil, and the Group Leader A tech at a Mercedes dealer that automatically gets handed all the intermittent drivability problems. ASE used to promote some of that as its charter, but now has sadly failed in that regard becoming nothing more than a profit enterprise. Best of luck with your MS. When you graduate, I'll send a post that reads "Oh, I thought you were a mechanic!"

@SteveRacer - And I'll have no issue with you calling me that ... wrenching is my first love. Used to be there'd be an absolutely beautiful woman driving a nice car and be looking that way ... the wife would know I was looking at the car and not the woman. She's a little more jealous now, lol.

I'm just doing this MSE for two different reasons: work is paying for it; gives me something to work with when I decide to leave the government.

I figured out a long time ago I'm a good mechanic. But I'm not a fast mechanic ... I couldn't get enough done to make enough money to support myself. Was easy in the Army ... you weren't working on trucks on the book rate ... you got paid what you got paid every month, lol.

11:32 PM

Competent is better than fast. And it's no wonder most of the guys that hang out in Pitstop are much more than mechanics. If you can troubleshoot a very complex electro-mechanical system, there's nothing that says you have to work on cars. Those skills work the same for a Corvette, a NAS server, a space shuttle, or a pinball machine. A woman is the only system that I, personally, have never been able to troubleshoot effectively, even given an infinite amount of tools and time...