Welcome to the Great White North

jared_bortel · October 4, 2008

So I had metioned to everyone that I had moved back home to Buffalo, NY. I'm now working on automobiles, professionally, for the first time in the "Rust Belt". Please bear with me as I explain my newfound love for road salt. On the plus side it totally destroys vehicles and sends a lot of work my way, on the other hand, I now have my own personally oxy-acetylene outfit. I have a new found respect for all of you in the snowbelt region now that flat rate has shown me the joy of northern wrenching. Turns out when you're working fast you tend to bust your knuckles, and believe it not that shit hurts with cold hands.

But the reason for my post is a warning to those who haven't seen it. I just finished having my ass kicked for about a day and a half by a truck with no SYNC or FICM_SYNC. My rpm pattern looked like a digital hall effect square wave going from 0 to 30 rpm, while the motor happily spun away at about 180. Even more confusing there was 380 ohms across the ckp sensor at the pcm and 379 across the sensor alone. checked Hz at the ckp and the pcm and had 179-180. Ok wtf? A/c voltage however, thank you hotline, was only at .06acv. Of course there is no published spec for this but what the hell. Replaced ckp and still had the same reading. Pull the sensor back out and checked trigger wheel with a boroscope, every thing fine. Checked wheel with a screwdriver no flopping around. Im out of ideas. I sleep on it and decide that I'll start over again and clean everything and retest. Well sure as shit I emery cloth the very mild surface rust on the block lube the sensor and put it in and .6vac. Throw it all together and down the she goes. Im amazed becuase I didn't take of much in 30 seconds with emery cloth, but apparently I took enough.

Just a heads up in case it ever helps someone.

Are there any other specific issues I should keep an eye out for as far as a snow belt corrosion concern?

Keith Browning · October 4, 2008

You are in good company. We have several topics where we discussed sync problems and using the IDS scope. I ran across a rusty block that pushed the CMP away fm the block and actually deformed---> see THIS TOPIC

Aaron · October 5, 2008

Yeah. 7.3 oil pans rot, real bad /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

I have seen ONE 6.0 pan just about rotted through. It's on a truck that does nothing but sit.

Alex Bruene · October 8, 2008

Speaking of rust-belt... or in this instance, no-rust-belt... One of our fleets just purchased 3 used F-450 boom trucks from Texas... I had to replace the EGR cooler and oil cooler on one of them... what a treat, I loosened the nuts on the turbo clamps, and they came free right away... every bolt came out... I didn't even have to clean the valley prior to removing the oil cooler... PROPS TO TEXAS!

GregKneupper · October 9, 2008

Yes, I have to admit that working here is great as far as rusted vehicles are concerned. I rarel see rusted vehicles.

Aaron · October 9, 2008

Yes, I have to admit that working here is great as far as rusted vehicles are concerned. I rarel see rusted vehicles.

Alright, that's enough out of you.

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I love southern vehicles man, I bought a Chevelle from Arizona a number of years ago, and the BRAKE LINES came undone from the wheel cylinders!

jimmy57 · October 9, 2008

We have flies, gnats, and mosquitoes.

Does that make us even for not having rust?

Keith Browning · October 9, 2008

No. Here in NJ even the windows rust... and our state BIRD is the mosquito!

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Tony302600 · October 9, 2008

Yes, I have to admit that working here is great as far as rusted vehicles are concerned. I rarel see rusted vehicles.

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Tony302600 · October 9, 2008

No. Here in NJ even the windows rust... and our state BIRD is the mosquito!

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Thats funny

Brad Clayton · October 10, 2008

Quote:

I love southern vehicles man, I bought a Chevelle from Arizona a number of years ago, and the BRAKE LINES came undone from the wheel cylinders!

When I lived in South Carolina, people would go to junk yards and buy rotors off scrapped cars! I got a set of fuel lines for my Ranger out of a junk yard. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

It's funny because people would pay me good money to remove every speck of oil from under there vehicle if it had a leak, and here in Vermont they pay good money to have their entire car coated in frickin oil. It's a crazy world we live in.

Tony302600 · October 10, 2008

We had a guy start working here from new mexico, he hated it cuz the rust. Plus, people kept cars longer there because they wouldn't rust. E.G. people would buy motors and trans' to keep their car's going.

And we also had a 94 explorer from nevada not one lick of rust on it. Had 290K. Makes me wanna move.

GregH · October 11, 2008

Down here in the southeast it's the same story. Hardly any rust, unless the owner fails to rinse the mud off the vehicle, and it holds moisture against it...

The Mustang I'm working on (RE: "Old C4 - need some help") is the same story. I've got the tranny together and working properly, now I'm al up in the brakes. No rust, brake lines come free with no problem. I haven't had to replace a fastener or extract a broken bolt yet.

In fact, the hot wrench at work has been out of oxygen for about a month now - and no one has noticed...

Unfortunatly, we have other problems. No onw has any money around here, so everyone just wants the absolute minimum done to their vehicles to get them back on the road.... That can be frustrating at times...

LARRY BRUDZYNSKI · October 12, 2008

Let's see I live in metro Detroit, work in Detroit and our largest salt mine is under Detroit. What do you think they put on the roads around here. Tons and tons of salt, in the spring it takes at least the first couple of weeks worth of spring showers just to get the shit off of the roads.

Pretty interesting reading though....

http://www.saltinstitute.org/mich-1.html