Jim Warman

In additon to what Kieth has mentioned, we should look closely at what we have disturbed in our repairs.... My experience has shown that anything that can build 300+ PSI warm, is going to be difficult to see.... something as simple as installing an oil rail cocked can mark an injector ring bad enough to cause this. Think back over the repair and see if there was anything that gave you trouble..... A couple of things I have learned.... when checking for high pressure oil leaks - temperature matters.... get this thing cooking hot before testing if you can. 120 PSI of shop air ain't nothing compared to 500+ PSI of oil pressure... sometimes testing can get messy (that's what the wash bay is for).... There's been a few occasions where I have disabled the FICM and had an assistant crank the engine while I look for oil leaks - extremely difficult if you have the "wave" rail....

Battery hydrometer???? You old coot... My hydrometer rarely gets used for other than ambulance inspections and some other retail occasions.... One apprentice saw me checking our 8D booster cart for state of charge and mentioned that he hasn't used his coolant tester for that yet - "SAY WHAT???". I still like the hand held tester (Micro 490???) for checking battery capacitance... many bad batteries can pass the high rate discharge test under the right conditions yet can't live through the "Ukranian" battery test..... leaving the key turned on for 15 minutes (there's a story there that might come to life later). We are the unlucky recipients of a GR1-190... this machine refuses to fail a battery at all costs..... even after the 3 or 4 hour "recovery" charge. Explain that to your customer.... This old dinosaur still does a lot of things by "feel"... I only wish that ford offered a web based course on creative writing....

Sorry, Nat... what happens on the forums stays on the forums.... This is how we share information.... Some salient points..... "cop truck" isn't much help - no they aren't all "the same".... Year - model - factory options - aftermarket options - how and when the parasitic draw tests were administered.... I've had some stinkers, lately, that would blow you away for what I had to go through to find them. There is no detail too small..... Here's where I turn into a dink.... there are no "magic bullets"... someone may make a remark that gets our juices flowing, but we will solve nothing without some basic information on what we are dealing with. I've spent many hours looking for concerns that are outside of any "experience" on record only to find out that the resolution was something too simple too imagine... be it from something like http://www.forddoctorsdts.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4913&page=1#Post4913 to http://www.forddoctorsdts.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4234&page=1#Post4234 to an Excursion with an improperly wired PATS bypass that would turn the alternator on "sometimes". Sorry if the links don't work.... blame Kieth...

Joey, what I have found, over the years, is that making a tech pay for anything that he broke (either through the luck of the draw or sheer stupidity) will have him trying to hide stuff along the way. Having a customer tell us that something like this has happened is far worse than having the tech tell us. Our shop has a policy that we would rather carry a guys mistake and learn from it than possibly lose a customer.

It's been a lot of years since I was last subject to one of these smoke and mirror shows.... sorry, I meant product demos.... In the 70's, I worked for a dealer that started using Wynns Xtend products... no flushing machines back then, but this stuff was added to customers vehicles without their consent.... if they complained, they didn't have to pay for it... Some marketing startegy.... I don't think this stuff can hurt a vehicle, but neither does it do anything "for" a vehicle, either. As for any trick questions, all of the reps I have seen are well schooled in "if you can't blind them with brilliance, then baffle them with BS"...

What we need to remember is that this strategy can only reduce or prevent the occurance of stiction... If an injector is already pooched, no amount of programming is going to cure it. FWIW, our experience is showing that this flash is more effective than the "buzz" at what it does... we still see some bad injectors after the reflash and these get "normal diagnostics".... It appears to me that Ford is telling us that they feel any faulty injectors at this time are because of base fuel concerns... fuel quality, water or low fuel pressure brought about by inadequate filter servicing. HTH

Have to use a torque wrench with a crowfoot wrench or similar? http://www.toolcrib.ca/downloads.htm

neener - neener - neener.... The biggest hurdle is showing the top dog the need for tooling... remember that he is already p*ssed at drop shipped tools.... If you can demonstrate lost productivity due to inadequate tooling, you should be shoe in for additional units....

Dustin, a few years ago, we got a bad disc that took both our WDS down for a couple of days before we got things right.... I remember this all too well.... Now, at days end, I alternate IDS (we have two). Today, I might run a manual update on IDS 01 and, tomorrow, I'll do the same to IDS02... and keep alternating like that. If we have something come up like 07S49, I grit my teeth and do both but only after the first updated machine has completed one task. FWIW, we have two IDS and two PDS (along with some old stuff I keep handy) for 8 guys... we still have the odd wait time or I can swap a guy with an IDS for a WDS or NGS if required...

The thing that is burning my butt, Alex, is that he has had trouble with the exact same things (TPMS sensors) and didn't learn from the first go-round that the WSM can be his friend. I made a promise to all of our guys.... and I am far from the worlds greatest tech..... that I would give them the opportunity to be the best tech that they can ever be. And I hope I can fulfill that promise... As for the shop foreskin.... I replaced a coffee drinking, self-righteous, know nothing whose only claims to fame were the trail of half drunk coffee cups left around the shop and the log splitter he built using company time and materials.... While management likes having me around, they aren't quite ready for my style of operating....

I have a promising young apprentice with an overwhelming problem.... it appears that he doesn't like to read.... The current dilemma involves the new generation TPMS. Until recently, our shop has had zero experience with the system other than my insisting that all of our shop staff take the WBT course... and, of course, I don't have STARS2 authority to make sure they did (but I should have thought to ask our training co-ordinater to check for me). I digress.... Our first "total immersion" experience involved changing a damaged wheel on an F150. I was extremely busy with other tasks and told the apprentice, several times, to read the appropriate section in the WSM. He did but never quite got to the part "installing the sensor, cradle and band".... IIRC, 27 in/lb is the torque spec and quite easy to exceed with 1/4" ratchet... A new band is US stock only - a week away and I have to jerry rig this thing to keep the customer happy. Fast forward to Friday last.... My young lion decided not to ask me because I will either ask to see his OASIS report or have him show me what part of the WSM he is having trouble understanding. He aked another tech ( a "fresh" journeyman ) where the TPMS sensor was located... (one point for him). The tech started his reply with "I think...." (minus one for both).... and I have to jerry rig...... For any techs from Saskatchewan. There is a Freestar heading your way with a really F%^&& up looking TPMS strap on the left front.... don't laugh - a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.... Back to my question.... This young fellow shows promise (and we are in a real bind for living, breathing bodies in this trade right now).... what can I do to get him to use the resources we have and to avoid micro-managing???

Almost a follow up to "Free advice".... On another venue, I'd almost grazed the surface of the idea that we have what can be considered "intellectual property". This can be almost anything... like knowing the procedure for checking crankshaft endplay without refering to a manual to knowing that there is a procedure for checking endplay... Those things that we have etched into our minds through our tenure in this trade.... things that many manuals take as "common knowledge" and don't mention. And it doesn't stop there - even knowing that there is a document that addresses a particular concern and knowing where and how to find that document could be considered as intellectual property.... What we know can, at times, be more important than what we do. This is one of those things that we need to be sure that our employers know and appreciate... this can be a thing that will set us apart from "the crowd"... I realize that none of us wants to take our job home with us... but that doesn't mean we can't take our careers everywhere we go. Got a stinker in your bay that refuses to be fixed? Leave the frustration at work but take the puzzle with you. Turn the TV down and study what you have - fixing something that others couldn't is going to be a feather in your cap and how you got from "broke" to "fixed" will be your intellectual property to do with as you please. Read BroadCast Messages like they were a religion.... too many of them are valuable yet never get turned into an SSM or TSB. Be aware that there is a lot of good stuff on fleet.ford.com.... Go to BBAS (body builders advisory service) and find a lot of good info on SEIC and fuel systems along with other trivia that comes in useful from time to time. Know how to find SVB bulletins... check them occasionally... There's info about Rotunda tools, training courses and requirements.... good stuff to know. I hope everyone reading this knows that you can get "as built" data from OASIS, now.... I have guys that look over my shoulder while I retrieve it for them and they still think it's magic... Intellectual property... know that it is valuable, flaunt it... don't leave home without it....

Very good tip.... one of those that, as soon as we read it we slap our foreheads and utter "DOH!!!". Thanks, Zman.... now that I'm not staring at the trees, I can see the forest... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

We have a Bingo... do not disturb your cards....

More and more of our local independant shops are venturing into the land of diesel repair.... without adequate tooling, without ANY documentation and all of them expecting two things.... That these systems can be understood without any preparation (be it reading or instruction).... And that the local Ford store will be more than happy to drop what they're doing so they can spend 45 minutes on the phone trying to explain the high pressure oil system FOR FREE. Now, don't get me wrong... I get the "warm and fuzzies" from helping my fellow man and I always feel good when someone looks at me and says "AHHHH, I see how it works, now...".... and having other shops in town should help take some of the pressure off of us.... "should" being the key word... I've gotten to the point where I have to have the receptionist screen my calls for me. Is anyone else seeing the aftermarket attempting to get into diesel repair without adequate preparation on their part - hoping that our bosses will condone us spending their time dispensing free advice or (worse yet) having them expect us to loan tools? I'm trying very hard to be diplomatic with these shops... in spite of the fact that diplomacy and political correctitude aren't in my dictionary.... Maybe if I learned how to say "FOAD" in Latin..... or maybe one of the romance languages.... Swahili???? Esperanto????

Fodder is an old name for "cattle food".... And most anything I say, these days, is something that the censorbot seems to eat right up... If one of my posts isn't "taken under review" when I post it, it may soon get deleted, anyway.... And I'm not even a $hit disturber like many that were banned from the US counterpart to InFord. Most Canadian techs seem to take little interest in what happens at the MotherCorp.... especially when it comes to upper management. Dirty Jack is the guy that we can thank the most for shrinking SLTS. His idea of cutting warranty costs was to pay less for them. I'll bet that if I posted Allan Mullaly's name on InFord, nobody would know who he is nor would they wonder what airplanes have to do with trucks. But I'm sure the censorbot would perk his ears up.... I had something neat to say about the last time I posted the word "mother"... but I see Kieth fixed that /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

Gary might be on to something, there..... As for the course... all it can ever do is lay some groundwork for us... This is kind of like having a chaperone whilst we dip our foot in the water for the first time - whether we learn to swim or not is entirely up to us. None of the courses that I have been on have been the "end of the process". Rather, they are the beginning and we learn from there..... sometimes all on our own.... It's been that way since I first learned that you don't polarize an alternator and with every technological change since then....

Dwayne.... I'm gonna sound like a real dork..... How does a guy flunk an open book test? I would guess that Daryl was your instructor.... he's putting through two classes a week and the class I was in (was well as the classes both our other diesel techs took) covered all the material well. Some guys were hooping themselves on the practical. The truck had an EGR code as well as (IIRC) a fuel pressure or pump code and some guys were going after the EGR valve for a bit at first but, along the line realized that this wasn't a good choice.

You can call up the documents for 07S49 on OASIS... Attachment V is a question and answer type sheet that covers some good material. Programming issues are addressed in question 9.

I still like testing the EGR the "old" way... We've had several that you "just know" are intermittent EGR faults but they pass the canned test sequence many, many times in a row. I had one last week that I couldn't get the EOT over 80C... I was barely given enough time to do any comprehensive testing let alone change the thermostat, too. This one, as it turned out, would have been easy to spot - it was siezed closed... couldn't even budge it with a screwdriver. Interesting thing (and I wish I had thought to save the recording) was that about a minute after cycling the EGR to 100%, EGRVP would come up about halfway and start doing the funky chicken.... really sharp swings about a half volt or so each side of mid-point. FWIW, if I am trying to analyze data, I always record... the more, the better.... There's too much going on too really make a good decision without the time to study - and live data is too hard to study, sometimes.

Kieth, they kinda snuck that one through in Canada.... Broadcast Message 7004 was released on the Canadian website Saturday - Posting BCMs on Saturday is something I don't ever recall seeing them do. For our resident Canadians.... are my old eyes playing tricks or didn't there used to be a "07S49" thread on the Canadian message board???

A position sensor IS something that they should have included in production.... I believe the DuraMax has it. It certainly would take a lot of staring at graphs out of intermittent diagnosis. FWIW, I never see anyone mentioning the magnet test, anymore...

My Dad was a career soldier and we moved all over Canada when I was young.... I can cuss in French, Yiddish, Cree and a little bit in Polish....

The blind man picked up his hammer and saw!!!! Thanks, Joey... clear as a bell, now.

Kieth.. I think the profanity-bot is turned up to tight. !@#!?$! is actually !@#!?$! board. On edit..... Whoa!!! !@#!?$! is actually mommy, sorta... More editing - !@#!?$! was actually first typed m o t h e r board with some spaces omitted.... I think I'm going to go check and see how empty my jug is getting....