Brad Clayton

He could probably make an engine with what he's already got that would be better than that thing.

I would do a real good visual on the engine compartment to start with, looking for anything out of the ordinary, rust, chaffing, add ons, ect. I would also check the connection at the crank sensor, a known problem with these. If in doubt replace the pins in the connector.

I was on IATN a few years ago and a guy in Russia needed an injector for one of these and it was about $800 american for one.

My boss has way too much on his plate. He has been a long time employee of the dealership and decided to buy it two years ago. Unfortunately the bottom fell out of the industry, and he as we, have been struggling to stay a float. Lots of cut backs have been put in place, one being the decision not to have a service manager at the moment. The boss has always been service oriented and used to be a tech in the 80’s. At the moment he is running the back end but also has to contend with the romper room out front. I am the eyes and ears of the dealership. It would stand to reason due to my naturally nosy nature. I was taught along time ago that a dealer is a seamless organization. There is no one person more important than the other, from the owner to the guy doing lot washes. We don’t say, sorry mister customer parts dropped the ball, or Billy didn’t call you or whatever, if there is a screw up the dealer did it! If I see a screw on the ground in the parking lot I pick it up. If I see that a guy is asking for a wrong part at the parts counter, I ask if he is sure. A guy is using a tool improperly or is gonna hurt himself I butt in. Anywho, we are currently being plagued with comebacks and workmanship issues. I put some of the blame on the machine we call flatrate, and most of it on techs who don’t give a shit. Unfortunately those that are fast and produce but turn out poor quality work are praised, while the guys that take an extra minute to do the job properly and end up being less efficient are questioned. I watched a guy finish a job that introduces air into the high pressure oil system, start the truck and being finished with the job, go straight to the finished lot with it. No test drive or bleeding the air out or none of that foolishness, he was right back to dispatch for the next job please. I happened to be around when the customer picked up and he spun that thing over twice at about 30 seconds each time before she fired. He drove off and I’m not sure if he has ever returned. So I finally had enough, but I’m not one to drive the bus over another guy. Same tech does an egr/oil cooler. Puts the truck out with no test drive and no recheck of work done for leaks and or codes that may have cropped up, damn those pesky buggers. I am pulling in my next job (a ball joint job that went wrong, hard to believe someone could screw that up) and I drive by the truck and antifreeze is pouring out of it. I go and get the boss and say enough is enough could you please address this issue. He says he will run the tag and take care of it. Next thing I know the customer is driving off with it. I hope the issue got resolved! Well it didn’t the guy came back, he lives in another state by the way, and now we look like idiots. Not to mention the guy is probably thinking we will be responsible for any future engine damage due to this massive coolant leak. We can’t afford to act this way, period. In this day and age when customers can go to any dealer and get the same parts and work performed, all we have to separate us from them is our work quality and attention to detail. In the state of Vermont there are going to be only 2, count them 2, Chrysler dealers when the smoke clears from the closings and cut backs this year. We are a small state but that is scary. I would dare say that the stores doing shoddy work aren’t going to make the grade. So now we are in a mode where we are being reactive instead of proactive. This is not a good practice and I hope we as a team can get some of these guys heads out of there asses. If not I hope the boss will step up and cut them loose. We only have so much water to put out all of these fires. By the way, the boss came to me and admitted to me forgetting about the whole deal. There must have been a bigger fire at that time.

I came across an excellent example of clean power the other day. So I thought I would share it here. A guy that I work beside (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent), had an issue with clearance lights on a dump body. He gets his handy dandy test light out and gets to work on finding the problem. Well a few short minutes later (actually 30 of them) I here swearing and small fits of rage ensue. Seems this fellow gets agitated easily, which would lead me to think he is in the wrong field. Anyway another co-worker walks bye and starts to observe the “show”. Then he asks if he could be of assistance. The tech being somewhat proud of his own capabilities declines the help but can’t resist taking the opportunity to vent. He procedes to say that he has no power to any of the clearance lights, including the ones that are lit up at that very moment. The other fellow suggests that his test light might not be grounded properly. Tech “A” steps back in a huff, and exclaims I’ve got the alligator clip grounded directly to the negative battery post, see! Tech “B” follows the cord of the test light out of the guys hand and directly to a 12 volt car battery lying on the floor at tech “A’s” feet. Which makes me comment that just because you brought your car to a dealer, does not mean you are going to get dealer quality work.

I would do a quick visual of the engine compartment. Check the connectors going into the valve covers for oil or burned out pins. Check the wiring harness for fuel or oil wicking up thru the insulation. Check the ipr valve to make sure the solenoid retaining nut is in place and not lying in the valley somewhere. Things like that, just to rule out any common problems. You may have already done this, if so disregard.

'02 F-350 with a 7.3L still purring like a kitten.

If you have the metric lifting eyes that thread into the three points on the battery, it's a snap to get out and on the floor. I actually let is sit on the legs of the cherry picker and go to it. I saw a guy across the hall do it chassis with the interior panels out and I could do it my way twice as fast.

Those are some pretty frickin' sensitive radiators, jeez.

Just to add to what Bruce is saying, pull the aluminum insulation back and down out of the way and remove the vacuum canister from the heater box (2 bolts) and this will give you plenty of room on the right side.

Save yourself a step and leave the power steering pump on. You don't gain anything with it off.

I think I might actually put that in my next warranty write up and see what kinda rise it gets.

Quote: and the names of the streets where you road tested the vehicle.

Still having trouble getting Ford to pay for head gaskets and such. They defenitly ain't ponying up for the extra coin with head studs.

Electricity is AWESOME . It's been around since God lit the sun. Just think what we will be able to do with it in the not so distant future.

Mr Worley had an interesting idea about using an open wrench to hold the fitting while letting the wrench rest against the bolt retaining the gear. It seems to line everything up perfectly while allowing the fitting not to spin as you torque it to whatever you want. I haven't got a chance to try it yet.

Had a good one on a '08 E-450 ambulance. No start, ended up being the ground on the right front fender area. The glue had ran out of the heat shrink and got under the ground eye between the eye and the fender. Got lucky cause I found it pretty fast. It could have gone the other way and took forever to find, you know "in the last place you look"

Took A-9 tonite.....think I would rather take L2 again instead. Definetly saw some questions that could have been right out Bruce's notebooks.

I had a Mercury Villager that broke a head bolt and lodged in the cam and broke the timing belt. Some how I got talked into rebuilding the motor. Went completely thru the unit and she ran like a dream when it was finished. Released vehicle to customer. Next day it was in the parking lot on the hook with a no start. The screw had backed out of the distributor rotor and it would not turn. Easy enough fix but because I didn't "check" the screw for tighteness the whole jobs reliabiltiy came into question. The vehicle didn't need a tune up and I never touched the inards of the dist. in the first place, but I sure was the bad guy that day.

We've got our strips on order and they haven't showed up yet. That emotiocon is awesome! For anyone who doesn't know, my old service manager is now Davids headache. We needed sticky weights for the Fusion wheels and this tard told us that he would order them but we would have to pay for them. "We" being us techs. Jeez!

Just did one today and took your advice. I have pulled so many 5r110w's (due to the pair of recalls in the past) that it was breeze. I also had to torch the rusted bolts off and it made it easier and safer to get to.

Keep an eye on your paycheck buddy, you may be footin' the bill.

Called a guy at home later one night after doing an inspection on his truck earlier that day. I couldn't find the razor blade I used to clean the glue off the windshield and couldn't remember if I left it on his floorboard on the trans tunnel. Could have been bad if someone jumped in there barefoot or a baby got loose on the floor.