Aaron_Johnson

Just curious how long it took you to get that apart? Also, why wouldn't you have swung the boom out of the way and lifted the cab?

Haven't seen that yet, but have seen a water pump break in two, the tech working on it replaced the harmonic balancer said it was the cause....maybe he was onto something

Erick, When techs are first starting out, are they expected to work flat-rate?

Wow, Grandpa Jim...You sure have made a lot of good points in your posting, as have the rest of you. I left my dealer 3 yrs ago to finish my Heavy Equipment and Bus/Transport trades. There are advantages and disadvantages to those trades. Presently I can top out at almost 33/hr if I make over 12hrs a day. As an apprentice on the heavy side I was making 30$ straight time and all the OT I could work. And they wonder why they have a hard time convincing young guys to get into the Automotive trade. I can also with my class 1, go to work in the patch and make 100k a yr hauling water or doing hot-shot work. It's easy in Alberta to make 100K a year...but when the average house is 430k you have to make that much to live. Why do we all keep plugging away? Because we are all "gear heads" as you put it. I am only 28 and yes I think I know everything too, but I have been told I am the exception to the rule. Not many younger guys are true gear heads and want to learn. they all want more money, all the glory and won't put forth the effort to learn and do any training. In our shop the old saying holds true, the more you know, the less you get paid. We have 5 "diesel techs" incl myself. I am the only one trained. 1 will only work on 7.3 and only retail ones at that. The other 3 are spoon fed,have more comebacks than one can count, and flat rate books do not apply to them on retail repairs. I know it sounds like I am bitching, but it is like that where I am. Are there any other shops like that? Jim, what is the cost of living in SL? 40$hr, need any techs? lol

I have seen a couple like that. I bar them over backwards instead of pulling the glow plugs though. Haven't seen one bend a rod though.......yet.

Thanks Dwayne and Jim, good to be here finally! Seems like a good site so far, and will probably consume many hours of surfing.

flmmaz, Grandpa Jim and Dwayne both have really good points. I am not sure how old Dwayne is but both are very good techs from what I have seen. I will try to give you a point of view from a younger more computer friendly generation lol. As long as I can remember I had computers in school. I even started on the Apple IIe back in the day. All through HS and Uni everything was done on computers. We didn't have any choice but learn them as we went. The same thing goes for electronic systems on cars and trucks. We were forced into learning it because by the time I went to trade school EEC V was already out. Outside of teching our Holley 390cfm racing carbs at the track, I have never touched a carb. On the diesel side...IDI? (I think I read about those once lol) I have to dig out the book everytime I get one of those. Some other dinosaurs I have worked on that come to mind are B-block Cats, 2 stroke Detroits, and old Cummins (PT,L-10,big cam). Let me tell you, without the older boys helping me I would have been in big trouble. I think my main point is that us younger guys have just as much to learn from the older guys about the basics as the older guys do from us about computers. The problem bieng is us younger guys think we know it all, and the older guys for the most part don't like taking advise from the younger guys. That might not be true in all cases, but I've seen it more often than not. Just my 2 cents anyhow. Cheers