Alex Bruene

Some of the local dealerships around here have taken out radio ads to fight back at Mr. Lube. Some of them are pretty good, but Mr. Lube has a far more aggressive advertising campaign.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. I just added a 26'er of 12 year old Balvenie Single Malt. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I haven't been to The Monkey House in some time (up until this past week)... It's nice to see that somethings never change.

A lot.

Well, I'm certainly not a war baby, but I am a product of German parents. My father's father was a high ranking officer in Hitler's army. Both reasons I find it important to read this book. You can get (a better copy of) the book through Amazon. Chapter's has banned it at their stores and online, so don't look for it there. Something to do with the owner being named "Reisman". My aunt has an original version of it, but my German is quite good enough to read such a book, but maybe I can get her to will it to me.

I'm currently reading the Manheim translated version of Mein Kampf. A fantastic (and important?) read if you can see past the messages of hatred. The popularity of the book has been growing over the past few years, although it's still banned in many countries.

For curiosity sake, can you check the build date on this truck? I've had it happen to me before while programming, and it seems to happen (to me, anyway) on very early (2006) built units. Basically pre-production units that were reconditioned for sale.

Ice Pilots, Man v. Food, Destination Truth... I used to like IRT until they did the India thing. My Sunday night cartoons, SNL and The Roasts.

The biggest risk in that (according to my source at IH) is that the HPFP will seize and in turn wipe out the gear-train.

I'm more of a Tara Spencer-Nairn fan.

Any time I connect to a vehicle, I update calibrations. I don't charge extra, I include it as part of my diagnosis. If somebody has an issue with that, they can find somebody else to work on it. JMHO.

It's funny you say that. When the presented me with the job offer, they had spelled my name wrong. Twice. Different both times.

Nobody's ever asked. People seem to know who I am. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

Sorry, I didn't address the question about allowing them to change the things that made me switch... I did air my thoughts. Our management "team" has a saying... "We will not be held hostage by our employees". Nuff said. But there are more reasons. No more working Saturdays or evenings, and about 20 minutes to half an hour less of a drive. Huge factors, especially since we had a baby back in September (hence my hiatus from this forum), and I'd really like to spend more time at home... and my wife was about to divorce me as I was out of the house for up to 15 hours a day. So, all those factors on an individual basis wouldn't have made me make the switch, but when you add them all together I think it was the right move.

Jim, sorry it took me so long to respond. There are a number of reasons, the main one being a flip-flop of supervisors. As it turns out, we shut the lights on our heavy-duty truck shop last week. We've been housing the world's most disliked assistant service manager down there for the past 9 months, as he was the main reason for last years (failed) union push in our dealership. Rather than package him out, they've decided to take our advisor/supervisor out of the commercial shop, and send him to the car shop and give us the world's most disliked assistant service manager... likely to avoid another union push in 3 months. This man is not only disliked by techs, but also by customers as he is very power-trippy and lies so much (to techs and customers alike) that he doesn't know when he's telling the truth anymore. In fact, most of our fleet customers that have ever had to deal with him at one time or another have threatened to take their business elsewhere if they had to deal with him again. Another reason is wages. I know the talent pool isn't very deep as far as diesel technicians is concerned, and most of us have jobs and are not actively sending out resumes, and the only way to recruit on of us is by making a pretty solid offer. In the past year or so, dealers are getting more and more aggressive around here as far as wages are concerned when it comes to recruiting. I ended up with an hourly wage that is substantially higher than my current wage, along with guaranteed hours, and more vacation. The final reason is management. Our management does not communicate. They keep people on edge and don't let people know what is going on most of the time. Kind of to keep the upper hand, I think. During a recent salary negotiation, I made my boss (also one of the dealer partners) aware of what other dealers are offering to recruit technicians, to which I was told, "technicians like you are pricing yourselves out of the market". Kind of a kick in the balls, no? They have not (yet?) made any effort to get me to stay. That might interfere with March Break plans. I could go on, but I've gotta leave for work. I don't want to get fired.

So, I've recently made the decision to leave the dealership I'm at to persue a career at another dealership. That would make this (new one) dealership number 5. I wonder how long it will take until I've had enough with this one and go get a job as a Walmart greeter?

I love that show. I'm glad they ended it on a high note, rather than waiting until the show ran out of ideas and got shitty. There have been a few spin-offs, but nothing can match the antics of Oscar Leroy and Hank Yarbo. I was also quite surprised when I was sitting in a hotel room in St. Pete's Beach, Florida back in 2007 and saw a commercial for Corner Gas.

Hi everybody!

When I remove engines, I do remove all the cab-bolts, except for the rear 2. I jack up the front of the cab enough to fit a 4X4 block between the body and frame rail on each of the front corners. That leaves enough room to pull the engine out the front with the oil pan, y-pipe and turbo attached. Headgaskets I don't find difficult with the body in place. As for the back of steel-that I definitely do not have-I do have a good group insurance plan that gets me a massage monthly!

'Twas not I. I've never found the need to remove a cab on a 6.0.

It started with this... http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f23/problems-6-0-lifters-265811/ Then turned in to this... http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f23/...er-tech-265568/ And now this is on the INFORD message board... Xxxxx Xxxxx XXXXXX XX XXXXXXXX XXXX XX XXXXXXXXX , ON posted Sep 23, 2010 6:49PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am in need of some other opinions. We have a customer who insists that because of the fact that the bypass valve and spring has been missing from his engine for an unknown amount of time, (approximatly 4 oil changes as far as we know) that this caused a lifter roler to break and cause a lot of damage to his engine. (camshaft, lifter, oil pump etc.) The oil changes were done in fastlane and yes, the missing parts were not noticed by anyone. The filter has metalic substance on the outside of the filter itself so the filter was still doing its job and the roler part of the lifter is not pressure fed oil, it is lubricated only by splash action. Just looking for further opinions, as this guy is taking us to court. Thanks in advance for your opinions.

I recall a 2004 E-Series that I replaced a pump on... It returned a week later with low/no ICP. The bolt on the pump drive gear was loose. That is the only issue I've ever had with a pump I had replaced.

They make a sound like breaking bones. Gross.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing crappy work... After all, I'm a diesel technician. In fact, I don't even find it crappy anymore. But a little gravy never hurts.

It seems I read about it more and more (especially on the Ford message board(s))... Dealerships that have their (higher) trained and certified techs. doing all the crappy work, when the non-certified techs. and apprentices do all the "gravy" work. I sometimes wonder if it's something that I do differently than than other techs that makes it a non-issue anywhere I've ever worked... For example, if something like that would start to happen, there is no hope in hell that I would ever help said non-certified tech. if he/she were ever to have a problem... or it could be that fact that I carry a reputation of not putting up with any shit like that, and it would likely cause me to part ways... I don't know. I don't understand how anybody would manipulate their trained technicians like that. Just a rant. Thanks for reading.