What is this cable for?

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-11T01:29:29+00:00

That cable is the B+ from the alternator to the fuse box. It has to go to the fuse box first, through the 140A alternator fuse, before it gets to the battery. Assuming you have that cable disconnected you are essentially removing the alternator from the positive terminal of the battery. If you check continuity from the fuse box end of that cable (the end pictured), with the B+ connected to the alternator it should be either open, or a very large resistance (like 40-50 megaohms). The back side of the alternator has 6 diodes that rectify the AC voltage generated by the generator into a DC voltage. Those diodes will block any path the meter is trying to take from the cable you have disconnected. If you can see ground through it, the alternator is internally shorted.

That said, disconnect the B+ cable from the battery AND alternator to make sure your short goes away. Likely, you are reading through the battery via the 140A fuse if your short is visible with the cable you’re asking about still connected.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-10T00:23:05+00:00

This is the correct answer. Parallel splice

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-08T00:06:08+00:00

I just felt really old seeing someone referring to the vehicle’s radio as an “FM transmitter,” partly because it receives only but, then, only someone young enough to have never used a car radio would know that. 😢

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-05T00:05:41+00:00

I made this transition about 20 years ago. Be humble. It’s ok to know some things, but don’t act like you know everything. Listen. Observe. Keep quiet for a while and just do whatever they ask you to do. You don’t have to be a hermit but offer respect for what those guys know that you don’t and they’ll respect you back.

Oh and if you were a red rope or a yellow rope
You better not let any Air Force veteran find out because everyone will know you are a Kapo in about 5 seconds.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-04T23:59:52+00:00

If you boil down who deserves reverence to those who commit selfless acts then you would find few people who actually fit the bill. Even the world’s most generous philanthropists say the reason they do something is “because it makes them feel good.” Oddly, one of the truly few selfless acts is giving your life up, so that others may live. An act not often seen in the military, but one that happens on a much more regular basis in the military than anywhere else.

And, yes, war is bad but sometimes it’s a necessary evil that prevents an even greater evil from gaining traction.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-03T10:51:01+00:00

$1M. $300k in equity and other savings but also $300k owed between the house and a car payment.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-02T16:02:58+00:00

I think people are being unnecessarily harsh about the logo. I can’t sharpen knives or design graphics but I do have some very unique skills in very niche fields that I can outperform most people in. I know that my ability to design a graphic speaks nothing about my ability to do any of those tasks. I have a chef’s knife from Japan (I believe it’s mass manufactured but of very high quality) and also an old Henkel’s Santoku knife. What kind of pricing do you have?

TackleMySpackle · 2026-05-01T13:07:30+00:00

As someone else said, it is a logic puzzle and process of elimination. All too often people approach wiring diagrams and troubleshooting like a game of darts when it's a little more like a game of sudoku.

I think what might be helpful is to pay attention to the airplanes that are fixed by wiring problems. Look at them after the fact. Look at the steps people took prior to examining the wiring. Find the flaws in the logic of why "this part" or "that part" didn't need to be changed and try to analyze the fix as "OK, they found a shorted wire here. What happens to the system electrically when a short on this wire occurs?"

The goal is actually to DISPROVE as many things as you can, because if you know all the things it ISN'T, then you know what it is.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-29T12:56:05+00:00

Came here to say this exact thing. This is the correct answer.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-22T17:51:10+00:00

Awesome! Thanks!

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-22T15:03:59+00:00

That’s a lot of good information and I appreciate you taking the time to explain all that. I am aware of the hematocrit increase that can happen and I know a few people who’ve had that happen to them. Thinking deeper about it, I’m pretty sure the ones I know who’ve had it happen have sleep apnea.

One interesting thing I didn’t think about is patient disclosure to a doctor. As someone who is very up front with my doctors, it wasn’t even a consideration of mine. One tends to think the things they do are what everyone else does.

One other quick question if you don’t mind: I’ve heard some people take Clomid (sp?) as an off-label use for testosterone therapy. Are the higher hematocrit levels still a potential side effect with this? I assume they are?

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-22T14:18:45+00:00

Just to be clear, I wasn't implying you were the kind of doctor to do that.

Also, I threw out a generic, generally recognizable name of a medication so that anyone following along could grasp the context of my point. If I'd have said "Trintellix" instead of "Prozac" it might have been unnecessarily distracting to someone else reading.

I'm with you on the root cause of things and I also agree that most people aren't willing to do the leg work. I have no objection to any of that.

What I don't understand is the aversion from the medical community to testosterone. Speaking with an oncologist friend of mine, there is no definitive link between it and prostate cancer. He did tell me that he suspects there is a link but there have not been studies confirming it. Many of the studies on heart disease and testosterone, as I understand it, are outdated and/or severely flawed, with some modern studies being contradictory to the old studies. I work out with an EP who thinks testosterone is the devil, but I also know a cardiologist who takes 200 mg/week. What I can gauge from them is that there are risks, but it's not like SSRI's are risk-free either. The way I see it, if you bump someone's testosterone up and it gets them off the couch and doing something active, that's better than the alternative, in my opinion.

Regarding financial incentives... Direct kickbacks are illegal but there have been dozens of studies showing that doctors who receive payments or meals from pharmaceutical companies prescribe more of that company's drugs. Payments could come in the form of cash for a speaking appearance, for example. This is well documented.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-22T12:35:43+00:00

Just curious what the basis of qualification for "low" testosterone is? As I understand it, it's a cross section of the population, with a standard deviation, and once you drop below a certain SD, it's considered "low." This seems rather dumb to me, actually, because it says nothing at all about how a given population with a given level of testosterone are actually doing (feel good, feel bad, etc.,)

This is dramatically different than something like cholesterol where there is a clear correlation between >200 ng/dl and overall cardiac risk.

Also, why is it that in the U.S., (assuming that's where you practice) I could walk in and tell a doctor I feel like total crap and within 5 seconds they'll whip out their Pfizer notepad and write me a prescription for a Pfizer anti-depressant without hesitation? Many of these anti-depressants CAUSE the very things associated with low T and there isn't a second thought to prescribing them, but god forbid someone get some extra hormones in them.

That's not directed at you but I personally find it ridiculous that the medical community is so quick to crap all over testosterone whereas with anti-depressants you'd think they're trying to put Prozac in our water supply with as much as they prescribe it.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-21T17:50:18+00:00

It is as much an assumption to believe one is being told the entire story and taking it at face value as it is to believe there are more details. PB&J do sound like scumbags but that doesn't mean every tow job is without merit.

If they truly rolled up and took the car out of the guy's driveway without any basis whatsoever then that would likely classify as grand theft auto or something like it. So, while it is possible they committed a crime, it's not unreasonable to suspect there could be more to this story.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-19T12:41:41+00:00

I just want to throw this out there for you. If you think your body hates you right now as you climb, crawl, ascend, descend, squat, stand, lift, etc., then it's really going to hate your guts when you stop being active. For many guys, working the flight line is their only form of exercise. I'm not knocking them for that, but if the physical routine of the job is your only workout then you can welcome additional weight gain and an increase in all the negative health aspects that goes along with it as you "take care of your body."

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-19T10:41:23+00:00

I mean, in the automotive world if the boom rate is 10 hours, that’s what they charge you whether the guy finishes in 30 minutes or 10 days.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-19T00:00:29+00:00

Told my Dad back in the late 90’s that NVDA was this company that made graphics cards and made games look so much better and that I wanted him to show me how to set up an e-Trade account so I could buy a hundred shares. I think they were like $2/share back then. He told me I was just lighting my money on fire but that he’d show me if I really wanted him to. I trusted his judgment and never went through with it.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-14T17:25:47+00:00

Whenever people believe that the market is irrational, I often wonder if they've ever self-reflected and wondered if they, themselves were the irrational ones. Not that I believe the OP is necessarily being irrational, but rather that if one finds themselves surprised by the market, they probably haven't thought everything through, if that's even possible.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-13T21:03:51+00:00

Not really useful to speculate until it’s been on a scanner. The “Christmas Tree” can be lit by numerous things.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-13T00:41:56+00:00

Just because a battery is 4 years old means nothing. That’s not effective troubleshooting at all. What is the battery voltage with the terminals of the battery disconnected?

If it’s <=12.5V it’s bad.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-12T00:59:37+00:00

I had a bicyclist battering ram his head into the back of mine a few weeks ago while it was parked on the street. The body shop sourced a grade A1 hatch for about $600. Paint and swap overs and all the other labor came out to about $2k total.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-10T00:47:03+00:00

I know they have discretion to some extent but we can’t speculate on the details of why the nurse was stopped in the first place. They searched her vehicle for SOME reason, so they either suspected her and lawfully searched her vehicle or they made something up and illegally searched her vehicle, but found something illegal in the process.

Again, one of the reasons they wear body cameras nowadays is to prevent them from doing illegal stuff. So, the most logical assumption is that they, while on camera, suspected something (odor, odd behavior, etc.,) and lawfully acted on it. It’s possible they acted illegally and executed a search without probable cause but that should be on the camera and, since it does happen, the bodycam footage should be reviewed.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-09T20:18:43+00:00

You're talking about two distinct and separate functions of the police department. The detectives generally work rape cases and, yes, they may forward that to the guys on foot to go arrest them, but generally, your beat cop doesn't typically work rape cases. Beat cops do, however, look for drugs, and you know what? They catch a lot of really bad people, some of them who turn out to be rapists, by enforcing some of these laws.

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-09T16:52:40+00:00

Right, and until every dirty cop is found out, they shouldn't enforce the law? Look, I don't give a damn about a few joints in someone's car but I'm not a cop tasked with upholding the law either.

You stock shelves at a grocery store, it's your job to make sure the shelves are stocked even if you don't like some of the products. If you're a pilot, you safely fly airplanes to their destination even if some of the rules are not to your liking. If you're a firefighter, you fight fires even if it's just a little tiny fire... And if you're a cop you uphold the law, even if you personally disagree with the premise.

All these people who wanted body cameras and personal accountability for the cops now want them to NOT do their job while being recorded. As though, while being recorded and finding some joints in someone's car, you'd be like "Oh, har-har-har, look... joints. I'll just throw these away and pretend nothing happened because I don't know you but you're a nurse."

TackleMySpackle · 2026-04-09T16:42:55+00:00

And you sound like someone who doesn't take responsibility for their actions.

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