computer savvy techs

[Brad Clayton]

I've been reading alot about guys manipulating they're equipment full on to they're advantage. I think it's cool to go one step or more beyond what is available. I also think that some of these guys could probably make a whole lot more money with less backache (dolor de espalda) in the computer industry rather than wrenching.

 

It seems that the tech world is passing me by. I'm at the point to where I need to get with the program or get out. I now no what it felt like for the old timers that had to deal with fuel injection for the first time when the carb. ran fine for a 100 years.

 

I started out with the idi that had no PCM at all and a evtm that consisted of one page and four wires to look at on said page. Now I gotta deal with the 6.4L. "Excuse me could you stop the world from spinning so I could get off?"

 

Any advise from the guys out there that over came this hurdle? Or I would be curious to hear from some guys that jumped right on the computer band wagon and embrace it with open arms.

[Jim Warman]

The alternator was still a pretty new device when I got in to this stuff.... electronic ignition was still a few years away, IIRC.... But we were well on to that slippery slope to technological overload....

 

 

But the difficulty is relative.... a carburettor might sound or look simple to the unfamiliar.... it ain't, in all reality and many adjustments had to be fine tuned either by gut feeling or experience.... and adjustments there are - choke pull down, choke break, choke pull off, choke thermostat, fast idle, base idle, solenoid idle, idle mixture... and it didn't take much in the way of missed adjustments to turn a carb into a monster in the right (or would that be "wrong ") kind of weather...

 

Making it this far shows that you have a healthy dose of problem solving and logic progression skills... IMHO, these are two of the most important tools in our toolboxes... Add in a measure of electrical (notice I said "electrical" rather than electronic) savvy.... The laws of electricity don't change.... never have, never will... Get 'em staight in your head and you will have the world by the tail... Probably Kirschoffs law is the most important for us....

 

Don't worry too much about what is going on inside a module.... all we really need to know is that a particular group of inputs should have some particular output... We can test a sensor and it's wiring and, for the most part, we can test actuators and their circuits... but we can't do it with an ohmmeter.... and that is important to remember.... Read the PPT test step to understand what they want checked/tested and perform a test appropriate to the information needed (usually a load test, BTW - and I'm starting to find that a garden hose is a handy device, too, as we are starting to see some poorly made wiring that can pass enough stray current to screw up it's neighbours).

 

I'm forever telling our guys that they need to spend some time "playing with their toys". If someone wants to learn the VMM, I'm more than happy to devote part of an evening or two (with some appropriate beverages supplied after the event)... taking time to show them the waveform library and showing them how to save and name any waveforms they might like to keep, as a bonus... If circumstance allows, install a "bug" in a vehicle and see what the result is... in sensor and actuator activity, waveforms, driveability.

 

The same goes for a voltmeter... the most under-used, misunderstood tool we have.... If a guy needs, print off the diagram for the affected circuit to help visualize what we expect for a voltage drop across any particular part of a circuit.

 

I "build" all of my own desktop PCs.... It's easy... pick a tower and power supply, pick a mobo, disc drives... make a few decisions... on board sound and video? - cards? This hardly prepares me for a job in IT... but it helps to simplify the truck in my bay.

 

While the 6.4 is high tech to the Nth degree.... it still works on some very basic principles.... and BASICS is the thing to keep in mind....

 

Ever watch a tech chasing lean mixture codes? Had one of our top guys faced with an early 90s Ranger... runs like a bag of crap... lean mixture codes.... he's setting off on a break out box adventure... but I managed to talk him in to a compression test.... done deal - two bad holes. Or the guy checking fuel pressure in the bay instead of on the road.... And that list can go on and on if we don't consider exactly what it is we really want to test...

 

It ain't rocket science... but many of us try very hard to turn it into rocket science.... We roll up our sleeves and wade right in - when the first thing we need to do is gain some knowledge of how something is supposed to work (every section in the WSM has a "description and operation" subsection.... every PPT in the PC/ED has an introduction). I'll hazard a guess that we'll see a lot of agreement if I say that the "very, very good" techs will head straight for either of these very soon after opening the hood.

 

OASIS and Hotline are underused.... but we don't have to follow Hotlines suggestions to the letter.... listen to what the engineer or tech is saying... let it trickle down through your mind and see if it sparks any ideas from your own experience... And there is a wealth of other info.... fleet.ford.com - motorcraft.com - SVB bulletins - (one of my fave's) broadcast messages.... Someone on the Canadian message board once took exception to me saying something about a tech not reading BCMs... "Yeah? What if you don't read them?" - I could only reply "Why not?".

 

I am not trying to make a decision for you... But, the fact that you are here on DTS shows that you care about what you do. I have no idea of how many years or how many dollars you have invested in this trade... but I imagine it to be, at the very least, "significant". I'm a grade 8 drop-out.... the hardest thing I've ever done was to train myself how to learn... I constantly ask "why?"... why am I doing some particular task or test... why does <this> happen? What else is going to happen along with <this>?

 

The investment in personal time can be imposing (there's a better word, but I can't think of it right now)... but we mnust remember that we are discussing our own particular futures. I can't see myself doing anything other than what I am right now... But lifestyles (and careers) are like a pair of boots.... what is comfortable for me, may be painful for another.

 

You had to know that your post would get the old man back into <windy mode=ON>.... What happens from here is going to depend on you... are you going to expend effort into learning something else? Or are you going to expend effort in to understanding this particular craft a little better?

 

If pay or working conditions is a stumbling block, consider a new store or even a new region.... I spent my youth as an "army brat"... moving has never been a hard decsion to make when push comes to shove.... There are jobs out there begging for a tech that has reached the point where he realizes he needs to make some sort of change... this could be "that" job... the one that takes you from $20/hour to $30+/hour.... from "handmaid" to "mover and shaker".

 

I'm not really sure if my DP likes me or not.... but he loves what I do and he loves how our customers react to it.

 

!!WHEW!!

[Keith Browning]

Brad, one good piece of advice I can give you is that "getting up to speed" is not going to happen overnight and you need to approach this with patience. If you have been avoiding computers and high tech systems because you are not computer savvy you have to change you attitude toward technology. For most people, simply jumping in and using computers is the best way to learn. You will learn by making mistakes, you will learn by asking people for help, you will learn by getting training but mostly, you will learn by doing. Sense a theme here?

 

Computers and the diagnostic equipment we use have reached a level of user friendly interfaces that you almost can get away with not being very computer savvy. If you can learn the systems on the vehicles and understand the data the tools are giving you, that is really all you need to know. Use the manuals religiously but as always, think about what the book is asking you to do and why. Lastly, don't be fooled by by some guys that look like they are breaking technological barriers and making grand achievements in their ability to fix cars. Most of them are just screwing around but sometimes, that is how new ideas are born.

[DwayneGorniak]

I have had few people ask me why i am not in the cumputer business. And my answer is that I can barely make sense of suck, squeeze, bang and blow these days let alone make sense of pumping the world through little glass pipes via the internet.

 

I have said it for years now: " Grab hold of technology, embrace it, give it a big old Hug and hang on tight because it is going to wrap itself around you and never go away".

Like Jim said, the basics of electrical still apply. There is just a shit load more to work with. What was that Henry Ford said? There is never a job too big if you break it down into small jobs? Something like that, I think.

One of the things I have done over the years when it comes to technology is to read any little article I can get my hands on or now more than ever pops up on my home page. And no one of us will ever know it all. Try not to clutter your brain with information overload and try to take the common sense approach and know where to find information when you need it. That has been my favourite approach all thes years. What I mean by that is: don't try to remember what every single dtc definition is in your head. Remember how to interpret what that dtc means when you are reading the definition on the laptop. Your brain only has so much space to store useless shit. And you can't buy a bigger hard drive for it. So store the important shit in your brain and let technolgy around you store the rest. And use your technology around you as your library resources. And store your brain with the information on how to find it.

It has worked for me. Oh yeah and defrag and flush your hard drive with a case of beer once in awhile.

 

Hope I made some sense Brad.

[Brad Clayton]

Excellent advise by all. I think I am going to hunker down and put my best foot forward and start doing some homework. Who knows maybe I'll set a good example for my two boys in high school.

 

It would be tough to follow another avenue (and expect the pay I make now) other than wrenching and I do have a ton invested in this career.

 

I'm glad I got you guys for a support group, I can't stand to hear negative people, you know the ones who have their arms crossed and are shaking their heads no before you even ask a question.

[Aaron_Johnson]

flmmaz,

 

Grandpa Jim and Dwayne both have really good points. I am not sure how old Dwayne is but both are very good techs from what I have seen. I will try to give you a point of view from a younger more computer friendly generation lol.

 

As long as I can remember I had computers in school. I even started on the Apple IIe back in the day. All through HS and Uni everything was done on computers. We didn't have any choice but learn them as we went. The same thing goes for electronic systems on cars and trucks. We were forced into learning it because by the time I went to trade school EEC V was already out. Outside of teching our Holley 390cfm racing carbs at the track, I have never touched a carb.

 

On the diesel side...IDI? (I think I read about those once lol) I have to dig out the book everytime I get one of those. Some other dinosaurs I have worked on that come to mind are B-block Cats, 2 stroke Detroits, and old Cummins (PT,L-10,big cam). Let me tell you, without the older boys helping me I would have been in big trouble.

 

I think my main point is that us younger guys have just as much to learn from the older guys about the basics as the older guys do from us about computers. The problem bieng is us younger guys think we know it all, and the older guys for the most part don't like taking advise from the younger guys. That might not be true in all cases, but I've seen it more often than not. Just my 2 cents anyhow.

 

Cheers

[DwayneGorniak]

Welcome to the site Aaron. I hope to hear more from you on this site. You can express yourself freely and never be taken out by that god foresaken censorbitch.

 

Anyway, I'm 34 years old and I have enough grey hair that makes me look 50. I came into this trade at the perfect time if there is such a thing. I took my apprenticeship in Saskatchewan or as I prefer to call it: The overgrown reserve of "Sack-to-chewan".

I was taught in the "Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology" (SIAST) during the last year of carburetors and the first year of Fuel injection. Therefore I was very fortunate to learn both. Being from that big shithole of a province I saw alot of carburetors. I was one of the only couple of guys in the dealership in Regina (Percival Ford) that knew carburetors. And I got experienced in both technologies. It was also at the time when I got to learn about IDI's and then eventually the all new at that time 7.3L DI Turbo diesels.

 

So my point is that I was raised in this trade by a bunch of aging well experienced techs that taught me alot and a time when technology was was rapidly changing and still is. I have always been gratefull for that and I will always respect them for that. And to this day I try my darndest to help and teach any apprentice or even older tech if need be, and I still learn from them all as well. I never ever pretend to know it all. And I will never ever know it all. The day I quit learning is the day they will put me in an oak box and throw me six feet into the earth.

 

And therefore, Thanks to Keith we have a really cool site here that alot of us can communicate on and learn from eachother without that damn censorbitch.

[Jim Warman]

Hey, Aaron... welcome aboard.... gettin' to be like old home week around here...Say "Hi" to Focus-Boy for me...

[Aaron_Johnson]

Thanks Dwayne and Jim, good to be here finally! Seems like a good site so far, and will probably consume many hours of surfing.

[snw blue by you]

Yup, what they said.

 

I know my stuff and I know it well, however I don't know it all.

 

Thats why there are books, manuals, web courses, and classrooms.

 

There are lots of sources of info available to you to help you down this path, its just a matter of utilizing them.

 

One of the first things I do in the morning is sit at my box go to PTS and read while I have my coffee. There is lots there to help.

Although it requires you to spend your own time, Jim made an excellent point about bugging a vehicle and seeing what happens, this can be a huge eye opener and well worth the time spent.

 

As said by others, it is far to late for me to turn back now, so I have embraced my destiny and continue to try and accell at it.

[Jim Warman]

Just an afterthought... and I've likely said it before.... just like a concert pianist continues to practice, practice, practice... so should we to perfect our skills and knowledge. Even now, some of the innocent questions asked by apprentices are food for thought and have lead to an even better understanding of some things on my part.