Jack, a handsome man, walked into a sports bar around 9:58 pm. He sat down next to this blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV as the 10:00 news came on. The news crew was covering a story of a man on a ledge of a large building preparing to jump.
The blonde looked at Jack and said, “Do you think he’ll jump?”
Jack says, “You know what, I bet he will.” The blonde replied, “Well, I bet he won’t.” Jack placed $30 on the bar and said, “You’re on!”
Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy did a swan dive off of the building, falling to his death. The blonde was very upset and handed her $30 to Jack, saying, “Fair’s fair… Here’s your money.”
Jack replied, “I can’t take your money, I saw this earlier on the 5 o’clock news and knew he would jump.”
The blonde replies, “I did too; but I didn’t think he’d do it again.”
Jack took the money.
Hello Kevin .
I have never sold any eggs but I have given a lot away 
I can say the same thing about my maple syrup 
Garry C
hello friends.
I have a mechanic problem I could use some help on. Does anyone know anything about Freightliners?
2005 m2 106 straight truck
mercedes engine, smart shift (paddle shift) transmission
drive down the road in either shift mode, speedo quits, gear indicator lamp changes or goes off or reads wrong, transmission is stuck in the current gear.
sometimes it can be put into neutral (while rolling) and then will “reboot” and work again.
occassionally it will be stuck in current gear until you come to a stop and the truck will stall because it won’t come out of gear.
Seems as if the transmission computer is loosing power. ???
also, gear indicator lamp is wacky. sometimes it will not display anything, other times just dashes, other times the wrong gear is indicated…while driving or while sitting at idle.
when it demonstrates the problem two things will happen.
- the trans problem will demonstrate as described above. or if sitting at idle, the gear indicator lamp will go dark .
when that happens it also will - the bulkhead module will not pass on the ignition switch starter solenoid signal. The start voltage is present at the module…going in, but does not get switched out through the module.
It seems that maybe the transmission problem is telling the bulkhead module to not send start signal to solenoid…perhaps because it doesn’t know that it is in neutral? not sure. I do not think it is a safety cutoff…atleast not from the engine. Engine will continue to run or can be started by bypassing the bulkhead module. Also, an oil pressure cutoff or coolant temp cutoff would kill fuel volume or injector pulse, not the starter solenoid circuit.
Have checked endless numbers of connections and ground wires, visually inspected the inside of the bulkhead module looking for something cooked, all known fuses and fusible links are good,
If anyone has a hack to share, or remembers a particular trick…We were trying to find (hoping) to find a circuit breaker that powers the trans computer. It seems to be related to temperature. I think freightliner breakers trip at 170 degrees. and then reset when they cool off. But can not find any.
Need to get this fixed. any info is appreciated. correct info is REALLY appreciated.
thanks, Billy
I found this thread which has some possible issues and fixes or at least things to look at.
It MIGHT be called witch hazel on that side of the pond, given that witch hazel isn’t native to Europe, and it is a gnarly, twisted looking plant, which looks like some witch cast a spell on it. 
It is probably related to Storsjöodjuret
I don’t have a solution, but I admire the problem! 
Besides the power supply wires problem, there is always the poor ground circuit to check for. I sold a pickup too cheap because it had speed sensor /brake light switch /shift position indicator mechanical switch intermittent problems. Stupid computer thinks it is in the wrong gear, not in park, in reverse, still moving, stopped when it should be moving, something like that. Sorry, that’s the best I got.
I did read all of SeanO’s found thread topic on this. A sad too familiar story for me early 90’s until retiring in 2007. Time after time, long extensive point by point inspections, testing and peripheral sensors replacing . . . only then a new or Reman Electronic Controller Module.
Half of the time that had been the problem, and so that was the cure.
Half of the time on the factory Reman’s your original problem was solved but you picked up from that replacement module, a new problem.
Not good odds at all. But whatcha’ gonna’ do?
Before you write it off BillyN. look the whole vehicle over for recently added on anything that touches into the electrical wiring systems. Even a pure mechanical add on can long new screws and bolts pierce or abrade into the factory harnesses.
Suspect any and all recently black tape up intrusions into the wiring harness and sensor plug ends. You have to un-tape and inspect for badly repaired damages from intrusions. Such a problem I’d found, that I personally switched to a brown colored over-taping on my own works.
So later with a new problem (Chrysler/Dodge/Jeeps of the American big three have the more troublesome harness electrical systems) I would not be-inspecting my old works.
Currently now still winter it is my now coming up on three years Covid bought laptop giving me intermittent fits. Sometime the internal Lithium-Ion battery is now self-discharging? Or a ghost program keeping alive draining that now aged battery.
As bad. The charge socket has been cord snagged tweaked too often by running past kids and big dogs. Have to twist and reposition to get a full circuits contact.
THEN worst: the 45 watt charger module is either internally failing, or confused by the aged battery state just not charge at all sometimes.
Hasn’t helped at all swapping chargers with the wife’s laptop. In fact, her’s is acting up worse than mine - she’s now stealing my charger time!
So . . . the easy solution of course is a new ~$500 system for me. And a bit higher priced, new system for her.
Not on their new-tech battery topics here on the DOW to not offend: THIS is why I’ve come to hate and not trust, the new rechargeable batteries systems. Too damn aging go-tweaky. Too damn forcing systems replacements. Too damn forcing to deep-dive into charging schemes algorithms.
Opps. Out of non-user replaceable battery power, again. Gotta’ go.
S.U.
Steve, I recently bought a used Lenovo Thinkpad on eBay for 180 dollars.
The battery life isn’t spectacular but I remember when early 00s laptops were an optimistic 4 hour life per charge.
These ThinkPads are formerly corporate used, then warranty expired replaced. Bought by the pallets and resold.
Powerful enough I can run my processor intensive Slicer programs.
Here’s the exact type I got.
They’ve gone up to 200 dollars but that’s still not bad.
Reset to a clean run of Windows 10 if I recall correctly.
OPT OUT of the Microsoft crap, don’t register anything it will save you the headache
@Marcus, is this what you drive every day? Where do you find the time for your family and woodgassing? I took my wife with me today, but she says never again 
What a waste of time, we spend almost 7 hours in the car today. Did a little job and paid a friend a visit. We had a good time, but man I thought I was almost in Danmark and it apears we were just halfway Rindert’s roots. We had a good time, but imagine you have to drive this every day. Normally I work max 45 min from home…go where the client wants you to go.
For 35 years I drove a 1 1/2 hour drive to work and worked a 12 hour shift on top of that then back home again. In the winter months it might be a few minutes longer in time. You just do what you gotta do to make a living.
Bob
I like driving, but three hours a day? Even if I get paid for it, and they do, it is a waste of time.
I wish my job was closer. I drive 25 miles now, which takes me roughly 50 minutes to get there. Luckily it’s close to the interstate so I’m going 65mph/100km/h most of the way.
Well if you get paid for it you have to say how much is it worth to do it, then just do it. I was blessed by my work and retired at 56 years old with 35 years at the same job. I continue to work until I was 65 years old at my other fun job at a ski/snowboading resort as a instructor. Driving to work now is right here where I live. It is really nice not having to make long drives like that any more. I did drive the distance to the moon and back a few times. Completly wore out a few vehicles doing it too.
Bob
Replace the battery. I think mine was 20-30 dollars, and about 15min to replace. Google for your model number and ifixit, or youtube will usually pop up a video or directions on how to replace it. Mine was down to 30m of charge time after about 4 years and it was mostly plugged in. The battery was considered non user replaceable, and your kids could probably do it.
You can probably get a whole new charger for 10-15 bucks off ebay or amazon. You can go bigger if you want just make sure the connector is right. It might be the easiest thing to do and given your wife’s is bad as well. Buying one with a good cable, will isolate the problem further. The wires are thin on the charger, and they break. It is normal.
If the connector on the computer is broken, sometimes the solder just needs to be reflowed. You can also replace the connector but it can be hard to get to. i would try the battery and a charger first though.
The thread brought up a ‘bad connector’. I would spray electrical contact cleaner on the connections. Given that is like 5+ dollars a can, you can use 99% isopropyl alcohol and it does about the same thing. The less % of alcohol, the more water it contains and it takes longer to dry to get the water out of it. You can get away with 90% if that is all you can get. Sometimes dirt or corrosion gets into the connectors, and they don’t make good contact.
If you think the connector is bad, you can usually get the pin out of the connectors and crimp new pins on the wire, but you need a crimper and have to identify the connector to figure out what pins you need and how to get it out… I use a piece of tiny spring that had a long straight piece from an old printer rather then a pin removal tool. I would guess most of the times an auto mechanic would have the both the pins and crimper. The crimpers aren’t super expensive for the cheap ones, but they do take a little practice. IE practice on something NOT the harness first. I screwed up the first 10 connectors when I crimped stuff for the 3d printer. You need a good wire stripper as well. I use the cheapo scissor type, but those take practice as well to not cut the wire because they will cut through the wire
Sometimes you can catch a partially broken wire with the multimeter by measuring the resistance on the wire. You can have continuity but the resistance is higher then it should be.
I personally would suspect a partially broken wire or a bad sensor.
How about this old man driving a 300 cubic inch Chevy motor 462 miles per hour!
Thanks for the tips SeanO.
All very valid.
All things I have done in the past. On vehicles. On power equipment’s and the like. One, two previous laptops. And will do again.
A can do that on my own stuff handily. The Wife’s stuff. No. Not anymore. She objects to my use of even crystal clear 100-mile tape, and use of ny-wraps. Not everything should be glued-tite with super-glue or two part epoxy I try to tell her.
About time for me to make the switch rotation to a different one of the big-three systems anyhow.
Just have to use the money I’d earmarked to try again setting up a longer lived TEG generator Wood-for-heat station. Walk-away batch burns evolve down to too intense of char glow heat. (SteveU make the charger modals fall-way self-distancing when overheat is sensed, says my left brain.)
CodyT. I did get 7 full years out of an 2 year old recondition Apple laptop. Then new google Chromebooks -yeach!! Then just went public computer time and left-the-problems to them.
Then COVID shutouts.
So had to settle quick in that 2020 early Spring for what I could get. Yep. I am just plain sick and tired of Microsoft now. They, and them; predominate too much the shift in politics and economics in my state. They and spin-off companies are #1 reason why our real estate and homes here have now become unaffordable to the young, 1st home, born and raised here buyers.
We actually do vote a lot with our purchases and service needs $'s paid out.
S.U.
You can quickly the battery done if she runs to the store. Then when she gets back say amazon delivered this new charger for you. She will just think the new charger fixed it, and never notice you replaced the battery. There is no glue involved, no duct tape needed. It is usually about 15 screws and figuring out the trick to get the case apart without breaking it which is covered in the how-to videos.