Jim Warman

We had more kids than we've had in a lot of years... Tonight I dressed up like a fat old curmudgeon... Most parents still recognized me. Friday I wore a really neat costume at work. I dressed up as a mechanic... even had dirty hands. OK... so maybe it wasn't real imaginitive.... but my costume was authentic looking

You mean they aren't P rated.... right?

Well, I read the rest of the thread... My fucking GOD!!!!! You guys allow people like this to vote? And procreate? Oh... wait a minute.... some of those guys are Canadians.... And they haven't realized that the TREAD Act doesn't apply to Canada... Hell.. I bet they haven't realized that Moss-Magnusson doesn't apply to Canada.

ROFLMFAO!!!! Now... I only read the first post in the thread so far. I'm not sure I should bother with the rest. The TPMS light comes on when a tire is 25% low. The idjit in the first post has an F350... meaning his rear tires are recommended at 80 PSI. If we reduce his tire pressure by 25%, we get 60 PSI before the light turns on... Yup.. don't know how much his dealer charged him - but he is happy that his light doesn't turn on at 65 PSI... I think it was P.T. Barnum that said "There's one born every minute...".

+1... I have replaced branch tubes - this is not a real fun job. But the ones I have replaced have been leakers, anyway. A couple of them failed without the STC fitting being a concern. YMMV.

Here comes a SWAG... the 6.0 has HEUI injectors that spill oil into the rocker box (along with whatever comes up the push tubes). Some of this oil is going to wind up as mist that will help lubricate the valve mechanism.

I'd be checking cam lobe lift on the affected cylinder... Both of the times I saw the problem, the affected cylinder was #1 and both times the cam showed significant loss of lift measured at the lobe. Both times, the concern appeared to be a rocker arm concern and, IIRC, both engines had an odd squeak coming from the right front corner. The time I did it, I had to replace the cam... the time another diesel tech did it - he got to put a motor (lucky shit).

Is your ECT getting out of hand? I see a lot of these with restricted air flow through the cooling stack. All the crap (including feathers)seems to be able to make it through the condenser and the CAA... giving the radiator a beautiful, but well hidden blanket. There is a tale of woe in Alberta involving several dealers... thankfully, not ours. A 6.0 that got two head gasket jobs before the motor finally self destructed... the rad was plugged...

Oh, I know the trade hasn't changed - not one lick. Back in the day, one tech might do a tune up... replace plugs, points and condenser. Another tech might do that and add check fuel pressure, test and adjust choke pull-off, inspect and lube mechanical advance, test vacuum advance and a host of other "icing on the cake" operations. (One winter, on a particularly cold day, I took an early lunch in a local diner. A competitor sat in a booth near mine and remarked how busy he was... a lot of his customers cars wouldn't start and he was swamped towing them in and thawing them out... I gave him a blank look and remarked that all of my customers cars started that morning.). Math? Something I try to get people to think about... In a properly functioning gasoline engine, once the spark plug gap is ionized, the spark event lasts for about 1.5 milliseconds (give or take) - at 2500 rpm (and for the sake of brevity, let's not dig into piston acceleration and decceleration), how many degrees would the crankshaft rotate while the spark event is occuring? Thinking in these terms can sometimes help us envision what is going on inside a cylinder. Speaking of which, these things still work on the premise of "suck - squeeze - bang - blow"... all of the internal stuff still works pretty much the same as when Henry was punching out cars that could be had in any colour - as long as it was black. What happens OUTSIDE the cylinder.... the same stuff, I suppose - but accomplished very differently... (Shit.. even the Model T had one coil per cylinder...).

Have you run the car with the FEAD belt off?

Not a Ranger... but a Packard powered custom.... or something a little less "conventional" might be

In some places, dung is used as heating fuel (quite possibly as cooking fuel, too). Mmmmm - beef tenderloin slow roasted over a shit fire... Let's eat!!!!

You were admiring the Ranger diesel engine that puts out a whopping (if not awe inspiring) 140 horsepower? Yup.. they get all the good shit... Just so everyone knows... The island we call Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) is something over 244,000 square kms. The province of Alberta is something over 650,000 square kms. Diesel fuel in England is currently about a buck 30 per liter (almost 5 bucks a gallon for you southern gents). Now... we were talking about????

Ummmm, you know you're looking at a bobcat engine in a crown vic, right? It looks like a neat installation because it can't pass emissions criteria. Europes emissions standards have been tighter than north American standards for quite some time... Japan has seen trucks using SRC technology for several years... "Simple" is grandpas Cockshutt tractor...

http://www.kontraband.com/videos/24517/Mrs-Mac/

I have something like 300 LPs.. I might still have a box containing about 500 single play 45s (at least I hope I do...)....used to be that audiophyles would shun digital media because vinyl had "warmth"... in between the pops and hisses. I haven't listend to an LP in about 10 years... I may have forgotten stuff. I recall seeing turntables with platters exceeding 40 pounds - efforts to reduce speed changes and rumble... The problems we saw "back then" were different fom the problems we see now.... The same skills we used then still apply. but we have to be sharper with them if we want to succeed. Sidebar... when I got into this trade (late sixties) it was a dumping ground. If your son wasn't smart enough to be an electrician or a plumber, he could always be a mechanic.

The more I think about it.. the more I come up with... In the mid 50s, there was a switch to the 14 volt system (most techs see this as 12 volt system, but what's in a name?). Through the 80s and even into the 90s, there was talk of moving to 42 volt electrics (multiply 14 times 3) - partly because the electrical loads on the 14 volt alternator have these things about maxed out and partly because a 42 volt solenoid is a lot stronger than a 14 volt solenoid.... and 42 volt solenoids should be able to actuate poppet valves. Sorry for the rapid digression... but the move to the 14 volt system improved the reliability of the starting system. When that film was made, techs would still be faced with the odd magneto ignition system ( Lincoln gas powered welders might even still use magnetos... it's been a while for me). Breaker point ignition was limited by the load carrying capability of the points and the ability of the condenser to eliminate arcing as the points opened. Capacitive discharge ignition wasn't offered universally. And, the big three all came out with their own versions of electronic ignition within a short span (IIRC, Chrysler lead the way with GM following shortly and Ford brining up the rear. FWIW, manufacturers desparately needed to make the distributor a "no service" part in preparation for the up-coming "catastrophic converter". To appreciate what is happening in a breaker point ignition system, you really need to walk through a scope trace capture and consider what each section is telling you. Consider this... my very first personal car had less than 10 fuses in a single fuse panel located under the drivers side of the dash. At some time in the mid 60s, manufacturers switch the front park lights to the 1157 bulb from the 1034 bulb... At this time, they started having the park lights remain on when the headlights were turned on. Previous to this, headlight switches were built so that park lights were turned off in the headlight position. GAD!!! I had this flashback.... I can vividly recall listening to "Strawberry Alarm Clock" on my 4 track tape player. You young'uns might not appreciate the significance of that....

Life is full of "intangibles". Stuff that "helps"... but you can't prove it. Several years ago, I worked for a man that offered a 10% discount on your tire purchase if you took the tires and went elsewhere to install them.... 'Scuse me? You are going to pay me 10% to let somebody else inspect my brakes? Oooooooookay!! I can't speak for where you live... but, where I live, it is rare that I can't sell something "righteous" if I'm under the car. OK.. you got me... sometimes I might have to check service history to find scheduled stuff... Lord knows the customers are religious about reading the owners manual... right? When you are under the car.... your main job is to look for an itch the customer may not know he has... if you find one... you offer to scratch it. Oil changes... if all you are doing is dropping the oil, spinning on a new filter and filling the engine back up.... the customer can do that at home for a lot less... If I don't accomplish anything else... at least I have verified that this is a car that is safe enough to share the road with my wife and kids. On edit.... one statement that has earned me a few customers for life..... "did you know your spare tire was flat?". Think about that for a while.

Hmmm... seems to have a wee problem with opacity... yes? Back in the 70s, I recall a shop in Calgary that was offering to convert pickup trucks to Deutz diesels.... Since the Deutz was an air cooled puppy, I don't think they caught on real hard... at least not in a place that can get chilly. Today, people become vegans... eat sodium reduced foods,,, exercise daily, watch their calories, get their suntan out of a spray bomb and want to be rude with their rides... I am old and I don't understand a lot of "newthink". Thank God for that...

The earliest car mechanics were blacksmiths. Mass production, parts availability, labour costs, complexity of subassemblies... these are some of the considerations that have changed the face of this industry. We no longer repair some of the subassemblies that we used to... manufacturing techniques, assembly techniques, the materials used in the parts... It is economically feasable to refurbish these at a location that has specialized equipment and (sadly, in many cases) the trained monkeys to refurbish them... more on that in a minute. As late as 1980, installing a rebuilt assembly during a warranty repair would be greeted with shock and disdain. We could go to the parts shelf and build a brand new power steering pump with parts on hand. Steering gears... you could get any parts you needed.... An engine died? We were expected to save the parts that could be saved and build a motor around them. Let's go back a bit further... It wasn't until 1920 that crank bearing inserts were introduced in the first engines (Marmon)... It wasn't until 1937 that the flathead V8 utilized insert type crankshaft bearings across the entire production run.. and GM was still using poured babbit bearings at the time. (On an interesting note, the Ford flathead V8 was used in production cars up until about 1961... the Simca Vedette). I believe that insert bearings changed this industry more than most other technological developments. Replacing poured babbit bearings was more art-form than trade. "Back in the day", a good tech could remember just about everything he ever needed to know. Today.... a good tech can remember where to find the information he needs and how to use the specialized diagnostic equipment he needs to use. The skills we need are the same... the logic we need to apply is the same.... But there are days I feel like Louis Bleriot trying to fly a 747. on edit... I think it would be with the flathead that we started seeing pressurized oil systems in produciton engines....

Ladies and gentlemen - please do not disturb your cards.... we have a BINGO... My day is a series of interruptions interrupted by a a series of interruptions. In the last 10 years, there has been two instances that had the opportunity to end badly. Two instances where I allowed my attention to be diverted. One side of me says "as far as humans go, that probably ain't too bad". My other side says "How the fuck can you sleep at night if you can make this kind of procedural error". My job is all about getting distracted.... "I'll be there after I tighten this"... if I can't tighten "those fasteners", I might remove them... I might lay a wrench in a particular place (when changing oil... the drain plug and the wrench live together until the plug is tightened - if I look around and see the wrench....), when I drain the engine oil, my oil jug is placed in 'such' a place to remiond me to fill the crankcase.... I hang a rag from the doorhandle to signify a car that is out of gear and up on the jack beams.... I am fucking anal about this shit... and I will admit to two instances of oversight..... Now.... be very careful, here.... because I have seen and fixed MANY cases of other techs oversights.... If you think you are perfect, there is every chance that it is because nobody has told you they fixed your fuck up.... Now... who here hasn't assumed something based on apparent evidence... "The brake linings must be OK because the master cylinder is full".... Wheel alignment must be OK because the tires aren't worn funny... 4WD on a super duty must work even though we didn't check to see if the hubs are already locked in.... a gearbox of any sort must have enough oil in it because it doesn't look like it is leaking. Each and every one of us is one act away from becoming neighbours with Mark Fabian... be it by design or by accident. We desparately need to rid this trade of thieves, charlatans and hacks.... My dear old Mum used to say "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face". Bad things can happen to good people...

Call me paranoid... there is "strong evidence" to "suggest" this man "didn't pull the wheels".. yes, he might be the worlds biggest hack... but without the facts, where do we stand? He might also be the worlds biggest dupe. If you have access to the documents... share.... If not, are we reading hype? Would you like to be convicted on the basis of "strong evidence"? ('Scuse me... "fact" must be on vacation). I haven't read any repair or inspection records. I haven't read any court documents. I haven't read the accident reports. At this point, I cannot choose sides.... Remember... I am often called to assist in accident reconstruction... A mistake made on my part could have life-changing effects on a court proceeding.... on someones life... on someones family. One report was that the brake fluid reservoir cap was left off... Once we have established that this is fact... we further need to establish if this affected the operation of the brakes. All I stated was - and quite simply - is that this man was convicted of manslaughter... was this conviction rightful? I can't tell from where I am sitting. What I can tell you is that this case, as far as I can see, has set a precedent... For you and me, it may be a dangerous precedent. Every time that justice is seen as carried... there is the opportunity for justice to have been miscarried.

I didn't really bring this up so we could start debating details - especially since not many details have been printed by the media. Did the driver apply the park brake? Did the park brake work? Is the missing fluid reservoir cap the cause? Was it used to suggest shoddy workmanship? WE DON'T KNOW!! For this, you'd need a trial transcript. The salient thing is that a technician was CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER... was this conviction based on something he did? Or something he failed to do? In the past, these kinds of events would not likely have resulted in criminal charges but remained in the realm of civil litigation. All that has changed, now. I think this is a precedent......

Not sure if anyone remembers... in 2008, Mark Fabian was charged with, amongst other things, manslaughter after a school van he worked on crashed killing at least one person. I don't bring this up for us to discuss any mistakes made nor to condemn the man - we know nothing of his work ethic nor his skill level..... I bring this up because each and every one of us is in a position where we have the opportunity to make <that> mistake that might change our lives forever. Mr. Fabian was convicted in Septemebr of this year and will be sentenced in December. Be careful out there, boys and girls...