Squirrels Got Me Good

[JAG1]

32 minutes ago, Doubletrouble said:

 Those jeeps are soooo overpriced. I haul new ones from the plant in Toledo Ohio. I see the sticker price and thank God I have a truck I love and plan on keeping it for a long time. I'll deal with the high fuel prices for a while if I have to.

Me too! $4.09 a gallon for diesel now. Last time we saw this it was as high as $4.55 a gallon and everyone got scared and the economy nose dived not too long after. This time these price increases may be more affordable being 13/14 years later now but, who knows?

[LorenS]

38 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

$4.09 a gallon for diesel now.

It just rose to $3.39/gal here this week, but I went by Sam's Club today and it was only $2.89.  Makes me wonder what they leave out to be 50 cents/gallon cheaper.  Maybe they just haven't received the higher price tanker truck yet, or it isn't blended (colder weather finally blew in, lows in single digits).

[Doubletrouble]

30 minutes ago, LorenS said:

It just rose to $3.39/gal here this week, but I went by Sam's Club today and it was only $2.89.  Makes me wonder what they leave out to be 50 cents/gallon cheaper.  Maybe they just haven't received the higher price tanker truck yet, or it isn't blended (colder weather finally blew in, lows in single digits).

 Sam's club buys it in bulk for future delivery. Locking in the price for X amount of gallons. It'll catch up once that pre paid amount is gone and they move on to the next batch so to speak.

 Around here it's been bouncing between $3.39 and $3.55 at gas stations that carry diesel. The truck stops are closer to $4/gallon. It used to be cheaper at the truck stops but not anymore.

[wil440]

40 minutes ago, LorenS said:

It just rose to $3.39/gal here this week, but I went by Sam's Club today and it was only $2.89.  Makes me wonder what they leave out to be 50 cents/gallon cheaper.  Maybe they just haven't received the higher price tanker truck yet, or it isn't blended (colder weather finally blew in, lows in single digits).

Might get 2 litres here for $3.39

We're at £1.49 ish a litre for diesel

[LorenS]

2 minutes ago, wil440 said:

We're at £1.49 ish a litre for diesel

I went to England in 1999 for a university competition, and we were all blown away by the cost of fuel considering it was per liter!
Made us understand why we saw so many Minis.  I drank way too much Blackthorn while there.  Well, we drank too much in general, but I suppose that was expected since so many of us could finally buy booze legally!  After stumbling around Birmingham by myself one afternoon on a personal pub crawl, I finally made it back to the dorms in which we were staying.  Great times!

[Doubletrouble]

9 minutes ago, wil440 said:

Might get 2 litres here for $3.39

We're at £1.49 ish a litre for diesel

 That's around $5.64 a gallon. Wow

[wil440]

5 minutes ago, LorenS said:

I went to England in 1999 for a university competition, and we were all blown away by the cost of fuel considering it was per liter!
Made us understand why we saw so many Minis.  I drank way too much Blackthorn while there.  Well, we drank too much in general, but I suppose that was expected since so many of us could finally buy booze legally!  After stumbling around Birmingham by myself one afternoon on a personal pub crawl, I finally made it back to the dorms in which we were staying.  Great times!

Blackthorn cider, not the best cider but you  could still never  drink too much of it, Henry Westons @7,5% is a good cider, you can get cider here up to 15% abv

Birmingham is only 20 miles away from me I'm a bit further up the M42

[JAG1]

Wil440, what's minimum wage over there?

[wil440]

9 minutes ago, Doubletrouble said:

 That's around $5.64 a gallon. Wow

I'm pretty sure your $5.64 should be in £ as £1.50 is $2.04

Our gallons are bigger at 4.5 ltrs so it's £6.75 or $9.17

5 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

Wil440, what's minimum wage over there?

£9.50 per hr or $12.91

3.78 litres to a US gallon so thats £5.67 per US gallon or $7.70

[JAG1]

20 minutes ago, wil440 said:

I'm pretty sure your $5.64 should be in £ as £1.50 is $2.04

Our gallons are bigger at 4.5 ltrs so it's £6.75 or $9.17

£9.50 per hr or $12.91

3.78 litres to a US gallon so thats £5.67 per US gallon or $7.70

Wow that's expensive. Guess we should be thankful here.

[Doubletrouble]

11 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

Wow that's expensive. Guess we should be thankful here.

 I was more thankful 2 years ago. Just sayin 

[IBMobile]

Just went to the cheapest station here and put 4.85 gallons in a 5-gallon container @4.499/gal.  There went $22.00.  I looked at 12 gas stations in my area. San Marcos/Escondido, CA, and found the average price @ @4.729/gal with the low of $4.499 and high of 4.999.

[JAG1]

I wonder how long the economy can hold up. I read about many younger generation homeowners already hold down two jobs to make their house payments.

[IBMobile]

Years ago, the rule of thumb was one weeks wages or 25% of a family income went to pay for housing.  Now it takes 33% of income to do the same thing.

[LorenS]

Had some success yesterday disassembling the connectors and getting a few terminals out. It helped to be able to look at the harness my dad had, though of course my luck dictated that it only had the "wrong" side of the plugs. For the life of me I still can't figure out HOW the terminals are supposed to come out, for the connector with the brown piece. Taking the brown piece out was very easy after seeing it in good light, but knowing how to remove the metal terminal from the plastic part (at least after 21 years) has eluded me, even after removing several - it just "happened" while poking and prodding with the removal tools. It seems obvious after disassembly and studying it, until you try to do it on the next one.

[Mopar1973Man]

Typically the locking tab is either part of the plastic of the plug which it looks in this case. Other times there will be a spring tab that holds the terminal in place.

[LorenS]

The connector with the white latch mechanism wasn't too bad. The the other one is nearly impossible. Not sure if it's due to the plastic getting stiff with age and heat, or what. There is a plastic tab to move, but some just don't want to budge. I've tried pushing the terminal in to make sure it's fully seated and the tab wasn't already jambed, but that only worked on one. I have several more to go.

 

They are similar looking to a metri-pack 280 series 2, but I question whether they really are. Hopefully the good NAPA man can help me, but not sure he works Sundays.

[wil440]

This is the very reason I redo every electrical connector with  deutsch and as @Silverwolf2691 said DT series. is because they are weathertight but come apart  really easy with no silly tools other than a hook and a small flat blade screwdriver and I mean small like a clockmakers screwdriver, the hook pulls out the lock on one side of the connector, small screwdriver releases the lock tang for each terminal, all parts reusable except maybe the terminals

I have every terminal release tool known to man all junk and I always end up chopping the rubbish out and going to deutsch

I will say I have zero experience with any other system of connectors

[LorenS]

On 1/9/2022 at 11:08 AM, wil440 said:

every terminal release tool known to man all junk

I know for certain the ones I have fit that description! I was incredibly slow today at work, so had some time throughout the day to investigate these connectors. The closest I came was of course some Alibaba B.S. with no description of what brand they were ripping off so I could buy legitimate. It there weren't so many wires I'd replace with better plugs, but at this point I think I'll just hardwire the SOBs - crimp connectors and solder, with heat shrink tubing. Treat it like I'm on the side of the road and be done with it. Not sure why I'd ever need the plugs anyway, unless it was to replace yet another portion of the harness - and I'll do the same then!

Edited January 11, 2022 by LorenS

[Mopar1973Man]

Might give Auto Computer Specialist a call and see if they can get those connectors for you.