Jim Warman

Digging deep into areas of the memory bank that haven't been accessed for quite some time, I worked for a L/M dealer in the early 70s. At that time, many shops would opted for boring one cylinder oversize. Ford would not allow us to put any rebuilt pieces in a new car back then. It makes us want to grit our teeth these days, but it was accepted industry practice at the time... Disclaimer... from my foggy memory, it was a practice that was adopted early in the era of the automobile... By the early 70s, automotive machine shops were gaining ground and boring bars (the old ones that bolt to the deck of the block) were being foresaken in favour of rebuilt assemblies. It took many years for rebuilt starters, generators and such to become accepted by many customers. Sorry for the hijack, guys...

No... but I'm pretty sure we had to fax them my Hotline contact to get approval.

I know of one guy that brags something like 9 hours for these gaskets.... Dwayne may have met him at school.... He lifts the manifold a little and supports it somehow... He can be heard saying "roll them in like a donut...".

"Back in the day....", everything got repaired rather than replaced... If some guy lunch his engine and all you could save was a handful of oil pan bolts... you'd take those bolts and build a brand new engine around them... Needed bushings or field coils for a starter... order 'em up and fix it. Yeah, replacing assemblies makes life easier and quicker.... but there's a lot of "art" being lost. I'm waiting for a head for a 6.4.... and I'm surprised that they aren't having me just replace the valves.

Hmmmmph.... driving a Fiesta would be a lot like boinking a fat chick... Feels pretty good until someone you know sees you doing it.... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

I think I already stuck my foot in my mouth.... so, for a change, I believe I'm just going to STFU.

<GROAN>.... I'm not sure of where you work, your status and all that kind of stuff.... This is one of those times that stepping back from the truck and saying "I'm sorry... I take too much pride in my work to do that....". We have the ability and the impetus to control, to a point, what we deliver to our customers. I, for one, am not about to give anyone the opportunity to impinge the quality of my work. Your reputation and integrity are the things that will separate you from all of the hacks that are far too easy for a customer to find. These are assets we should not squander. There's a LOT of techs out there making substandard wages.... They do this by choice... primarily for the choices they make (Hey..... sailor.... wanna get lucky?). As individuals, we have the ability to rise above that conception. It may be the customers truck, but it is "my" repair... and I am not about to do anything I feel uncomfortable with... because my reputation and integrity hang in the balance. One of the major components missing in this new world is pride in our accomplishments.... we should take pride in what we do and we should avoid doing those things we can't take pride in....

Right down to the "Tech Time" videos on line.... Most every page has a copyright notice at the bottom... and nearly everything you look at has the copyright owned by someone else...

I don't do it often... but when I do "serve" lunch - it might be ribs... ribs done MY way.... You can have less teeth than the front row at a Willy Nelson concert and still chew my ribs.... Or it might be burgers... FRESH beef patties seasoned and stuffed in the middle with peppers, mushrooms and cheese.... Maybe a nice Greek salad.... finely crumbled feta cheese and home made dressing.... Steamed king crab with my special compound butter to dip it in... How about deep fried turkey or smoked beer butt chicken? The best part about my job? Being able to complain about how much income tax I pay.....And meaning it.... I put $7G in my RRSP last year. If you're willing to work and willing to learn..... We can't find people... My boss is pinning all of "my" hopes on Mexicans... Jeez... the devil is making me take this next step.... I'm the lowest paid journeyman tech in our shop.... I only made $103,000 last year. We don't sell flushes.... You will be expected to actually fix those things yuou work on. You will be expected to learn and improve. Training dollars are never an issue. I don't know about you... one of my "impulse" buys was $20G.. I can do that. This blatant attempt at luring people north is brought to you by a man that can be your best friend..... or your worst nightmare....

I'm having to get prior approval on some really odd stuff, lately.... We have a 4R75 with significant metal in the pan and rancid fluid. We have to tear it down because the work order states that the truck will still move.... Needs a case, converter, OTA, valve body, solenoids... not to mention half the stack wont come apart. I get the feeling that something is afoot in the warranty department.... and it prolly ain't gonna be pretty.

When we laast left our "hero"... He was staring at the power distribution cells counting how many devices fuse F2.27 protects... How in Yahwehs name are we to decide where to go? Stick a 30 amp fuse or maybe a straight jumper in and see what melts? Hmmm, not a good idea when we look at the routing of some harnesses... But if we look close at what the diagrams are trying to tell us.... F2.27 feeds three separate connectors on the back of the CJB. Drop the CJB and disconnect those three connectors... IIRC C270A, C270H and C270J... Just for shits and giggles, we ohm test the circuits to ground.... We aren't looking for anything specific... we are looking for something "odd". In this case, the odd one was the branch from C270A. I came back as less than 1.5 ohms while the other two came in at ~ 12ish ohms. If you feel you need more proof, install a new fuse and insert the connectors one at a time... The cab of this truck had already been filled with some pretty rancid smoke once.... I didn't press the matter. C270A feeds stuff in the instrument panel... flasher relay, shift interlock and PAM module.... The wire itself, doesn't look like it's been hot - so we can infer that it is likely a fried component. We can resist the urge to go looking for a chaffe on all that sharp stuff under the dash for now... So... let's look at our diagram again and see what else it can tell us.... And we find C300 behind the right hand kick panel feeding the PAM module. Unplug that and resistance on this branch climbs to about 14ish ohms.... AHA!!!! Removing the PAM reveals that it has suffered at the hands of a leaking windshield. Now... I realize that using an ohmmeter for this repair seems to fly in the face of what I've been saying about voltmeters. But, for something like a short to ground, the voltmeter isn't really the appropriate tool.... and picking the appropriate tool is an important decision. But this particular story isn't about the voltmeter... it's about using the wiring diagrams effectively. Total time on this repair.... including replacing that friggin' module (but excluding the windshield reseal).... less than 2.0. If I was on flat rate, that would put me back on something with gain time that much quicker....

Larry... according to the Town of Slave Lake, I've been working on stuff for five years now (when my permit was issued). As of tonight, the diningroom floor is done.... One wall to finish and it will time for trim. The f@chshow went like a f@ckshow.... I have a Service Manager putting on coveralls.... How the f@ck are you going to steer the boat of you are busy paddling????? This bothers me... The more SMs we go through, the closer they will be to asking me to fill the position... Read my lips.... "I am NOT a service manager". I am a "dink"... I have reached my goal in life and I refuse to change.... But now you gone and done it.... We'll come back to this repair tomorrow.... tonight, I file my kids income tax return on the net... I figured that I'd given guys enough info for a scenario....

I forgot to mention.... suck it up, Princess... It really doesn't get any better... Lifes a bitch... and then you die... If someone is paying you to do something... do the very best you have. Anything else will make you one of "them".

Larry.... I am a 3000 year old Army brat. How else can I respond.... If you have an article flitting around in your mind.... PM me... I'll help if I can. Joshua.... My hat is off to your customer. There are too many times I see an "NPF" finish to an RO.... Damned hard to get paid for those.... and customers start to look at us like we don't really care.... There's a sidebar coming here.... There are times when a customer absolutely needs to be involved in the repair process.... There will be information that we need to gather to verify the concern... and, in all honesty, that is all you are trying to do. I'll try all manner of tactics to verify whatever it is... it may be a "feature" or it may be something we can deal with.... Added bonus... this procedure can bring a "bonding" effect.... When a customer "bonds" to you, they will forgive your peccadillos... as long as you continue to care and "try". The "sidebar"... Appearances can be everything. I have no idea of how "close" anyone is expected to get to a customer.... But - if you say you are going to "do something"... DO IT!!!! If you tell a customer that you are going to contact engineering (luke warm line) and get back to them.... Contact engineering. If they tell you something you didn't want to hear, call the customer... repeat what you got in plain English... and pass the blame to where it belongs. More sidebar... if you are unsure of something... admit it... don't try to BS your way through it... Integrity is hard to gain, easy to lose and nearly impossible to regain. If you are unsure of something.... tell your customer... do what it takes to become sure.... and call them back.... Go the extra mile.... without being pompous, make sure your customer knows "who's dah man". Don't name call and don't desparage... these will come back to haunt you.

Tony... you ain't kidding.... In spite of the TSB that says you can't put illuminated running boards on a Job 1 08.... they had me do one anyway... Hook up the lights so that they do what you want and they will work perfectly.... once. The SJB makes note of the over-amp condition and will refuse to turn that circuit on a second time. Clear the code and the lamps will work perfectly...... once. Larry, used PROPERLY, the voltmeter is going to be one of the most important tools in the box for a long, long time.

Larry... one of my rules is that we don't do anything to a customers vehicle that we wouldn't want done to our own... After all. it's not about you or me or the guy in the next bay... It's always been about the customer... Without him, we can pack up our toys and go home.... I don't get to road test many after they are fixed... certainly, for the more discerning customers or those that are on a repeat visit, I am involved... But most everything I get to drive is "pre-repair". One of my biggest problems? Improperly verified concerns.... Before I get carried away on another digression.... Vehicles that are very dirty... I like to send them to the wash bay before we have guys leaning over the fender. Nothing worse than grinding dirt into a guys paint. There's plenty of hand cleaner and roll towels in the washroom and there's a roll of plastic seat covers beside the door to the back 40... There's no excuse for giving a customer back a truck dirtier than he brought it. Shit happens... when it does, we make it right. Jeff... keep up the good work. Being introduced to new people with "This is MY mechanic..." ain't so bad....

I have an 07 F350 sitting on one of my back burners... A host of electrical problems are plaguing this thing... no 4X4, no turn signals, can't remember what else.... For some reason, they keep giving electrical to apprentices when we are busy..... too busy to spend several days having someone furble around with errant electrons. Again, when I say "good ground" - I mean battery negative post.. and when I say B+, I mean battery positive post..... "convenient sources" aren't reliable. Step one, naturally, is going to be to test all the fuses. All of them because the manuals never have misprints, right? Step two is going to be looking at the wiring diagrams. And this has two reasons. First, if we didn't find any blown fuses in step one, we are now going to see if any fuses are missing.... Giggle if you want, you will not believe how many guys get hung because a customer stole a fuse from another location to get is phone/Ipod/whatever working and "forgot" to mention it.... and the number of hours spent by a tech testing circuits that simply aren't powering up. The second reason for going to the manual, is to see what the circuit does. For "my" truck, the apprentice found F2.27 open. For some reason, he'd decided to go to the vacuum pump before checking fuses.... He disconnected the plug and probed the power side with a test light to find no power.... And here's where attention to details is going to help.... After he found no power at the vacuum pump plug, he decided to check the fuses. Finding the blown fuse, he replaced it, turned the key back on and remembered that he'd left the pump connector unplugged. The pump ran for a couple of seconds and stopped. Not a big deal, but it kept him from seeing where all the smoke that filled the cab was coming from. It took a while for the fuse to blow... long enough to smell really bad (and yes, the fuse was correctly sized). So... how are we going to attack this? We know that F2.27 blows pretty quick.... So we're going to go to section 13 in the wiring diagrams and see what this puppy protects. To make life easier, we know that the vacuum pump is one of the affected components. Let's go to the vac pump in the manual and look at the fuse. Just below the fuse, there is a little arrow pointing to a link to page 13-15. If we click on that, it takes us to the power distribution section. And this shows us everything that fuse protects.... Just to add some drama... and because it is very late, my floor still isn't finished and tomorrow is going to be a f#ckshow.... we'll leave you in suspense. And this will give you all an opportunity to consider the next step.....

Robert... it isn't just a dealer thing or a tech thing... It's a society thing and we are seeing this sort of crap everywhere we go in our lives. And it is there in ways we rarely if ever consider (ever tried to make one or two crappy little packets of ketchup hide the taste of fries cooked in old oil?).... The fact of the matter is that there's a whole lot of people on the face of this planet that just plain don't give a f@ck.... No consideration... no respect... and they have abdicated any sign of responsibility. One really sad note is that if one of "those" guys loaned a tool to a workmate, I'll bet he'd scream blue bloody murder if the tool came back soiled. The question must be asked... how on earth did the truck get back to you if things were "bad"? An uncaring tech and an equally uncaring porter or SA would have to be involved... and I can't say that there is no chance of it happening. Yesterday, an apprentice installed a Mobile Ease in an 08 F350.... Today, I jump through hoops to make the customer happy after her heater no longer worked (improperly installed electrical connector). Take a wild guess how many times a day I have to ask "Where's your seatcover?"..... "Where's your OASIS report?".... "What did the manual say to do?".... And you can carry that into any walk of life.... When was the last time you saw a "professional truck driver" drive like a professional rather than a Hollywood stunt man? When was the last time your fast food looked like the picture? When was the last time anyone went to Circuit City and found a salesweasel that knew what he was talking about? It's not an industry thing.... it's a people thing .... and WE let it get that way... we even asked for it. Every time we utter "Boy, that sounds like a lot of money..." and try to drive the price down... someone will find a way to make cheaper "profitable". And that includes hiring uncaring people and paying them just enough to keep them angry. Anything that involves people makes an diesels electronic operating system look simple by comparison.... And the people we are "growing" today are not like the people we grew thirty years ago.... Don't get me wrong... there's some really good ones... Look around us here on DTS... But out there.... in the wild....

I'm no longer a 6.4 cab removal "virgin".... I have a right hand side head sitting on the bench and the block, piston and rod look good (dammit). But the pattern on the piston looks neat. Pics if I can find my camera (renovations, doncha know). While parts of the job are nearly ignorant... it went not too bad. Cylinder head is two weeks away... We'll see how good the old guys memory is....

If I did that, you'd expect us to teach you the "secret handshake".... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif There are several different ways to use a voltmeter... one way will find the probelm... the other ones generally lead us astray. Three properly performed volt drops will identify whether the concern is power, ground or load. Two or three more will nearly have the concern fall into your lap. FWIW, (not sure how others feel on the subject) I don't like to overlay circuits. If one wire in a harness is hurtin' chances are that others are close behind..

Well, now.... I managed to screw that one up - and nobody noticed? Of course the preconditions must be met for the PCM to DE-energize the solenoid... Sorry for any confusion.

Joey... I HAVE to remember that one....

There's the "Who's Online" box.... Usually, there's at least one "invisible" user... and several "anonymous" users... I don't know if Keith can check or not... but if one of these guys is that little bastuhd "Not Me" from my shop.... can you tell him to turn off his trouble light if he's not using it and to coil up his air hose? Yes... I'm still trying to find ways to keep from getting back on my hands and knees....

What is lost on some is the balance of the car... For ground pounding torque, a V8 is the way to go.... For the "twisty bits", a healthy 4 cylinder is the way to go. A car that scoots around corners as if it were on rails is a refreshing change from having to man-handle a car with a heavy front weight bias... A tap of the brakes can be enough to set the front end of the car for the corner - after that, the only limit is the tires. Of course... we could all chip in and buy Grampy a Bugatti Veyron.....

I feel for you, Mike.... In the past, I've been scorned for buying stuff for the shop.... but it is easier to gain forgiveness than it is permission. My latest SM is an ex-tech and he feels the way to a better bonus is better productivity... Having the tools for the job and (more importantly) using them. We both know that it can get gnarly when a tech "plays" with a tool... with no intention of learning how to use it properly (the scope and DMM come to mind real quick)... effectively wasting time until he breaks something. Then he can call the tool a useless POS and the powers that be wont fix it.... Even though they're rpicey, I keep one spare VCM to laptop cable and I reinforced the ones in service... I see someone misusing or abusing a tool - I will be in dutch with the DP for uttering statements he is trying to keep me from uttering (he's right.... but so am I...). Anyway... I digress (no surprise there). But the fact of the matter is that these are tools we desparately need with todays technology... and we need to learn to use them effectively... And management NEEDS to realize this and allow us the tools and the training required... I feel that Ford should offer one or two classrooms dedicated to the VMM... along with some more specific WBTs to help fine tune skills. Look at one of Bruces latest CMP/CKP traces... There's a correlation between the CMP pulse and the missing tooth on the CKP pulse that the PCM is looking for. How many longer than needed loose trigger wheel diags could have been done in a fraction of the time using this stuff? You may have a battle ahead of you.... you will need to be able to demonstrate the need for the tools and the cost effectiveness of using them. Some of us here can likely give you some ammunition for that.... But it's going to be up to you and your fellow techs to ensure that this stuff isn't going to have the appearance of being expensive dust collectors.... OTOH, we are looking for more techs... diuesel experience a definite asset (did I mention my flat rate guys just got a $2 raise? $40/hour if they meet the bonus...). Think, Mikey... two IDSs, technology almost out the ying.... and ME /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif (and you could let me know what they're saying on InFord).