Brad Clayton

We also just replaced a fuel pump in an Excursion that ended up needing 8 injectors also. Thing runs like a champ now.

.........what were we talkin' 'bout on this thread again?

Quote: Your reputation is built on 25% what you do and 75% what you APPEAR to do How true that is. The first thing I did when I met my oral surgeon, was to take a look at his own teeth. Never mind all the certificates on the wall and creds such as that.....

Working as a mechanic at a dealership Is comparable to being an independent contractor. Once you have taken on the job of repairing a vehicle in your bay, it is up to you to get the job done. I could stay in my bay and have very little interaction and absolutely no supervision all day. With the advent of intranet and interdepartmental e-mails, I can get a quote from parts and sent it to the service advisor while never leaving my bay. Now, that is not to say that I don’t communicate with people face to face. I deal with a lot of people one on one and talk to my fair share of customers on the service side and parts retail side. Comparing myself to an independent contractor, then it is up to me to police myself. If I turn my 8 or 10 hours a day then the dealer is happy. But it’s up to me to be on time, not to go over on my lunch break, clean my bay if it’s dirty, and buy tools that will make my job easier, and so on. Working at a ski resort is a totally different animal. I work part time at Okemo Mountain as a lift mechanic (not a technician, a mechanic!). There is very little solo work and most work is completed in teams. I am always given a specific set of instructions and time frame to get a job completed. Anytime a problem arises or even a scheduled task is being performed, there is a lot of communication back and forth with its involvement. All jobs are singed off and dated by the mechanic and logged. If a lift fails and causes injuries, we have data all the way back to the early ‘80s that can be called up. With that said, I have two goals in mind every time I go to work on the mountain. The first is not to get my snowmobile stuck and second is not to make my boss mad. My boss is a good guy, but he is firm. Two of the best ways to get into hot water, don’t do what he asks of you and set out to do a given task without full understanding of what was asked of you. Simple enough right? Well, I usually get my sled stuck at least once a year and it’s always on a deep powder day. I haven’t worked on a day that snowed heavily yet, so I am good there so far. Buuuuttt, I did manage to get myself in trouble for the first time this season. It was Sunday and we had been dispatched our jobs for the evening. Most lift maintenance happens before the mountain opens or after it closes. This is due to the lifts having to be shut down to do most repairs. One of the most mundane jobs we have involves seat repair. If you have never skied, imagine a porch swing that seats four people across and then suspend that 50 feet off the ground. Now you have yourself a chair lift. Cover the seat with some cheap vinyl and then jab it with ski poles all day and the seat pad needs to be repaired or replaced. We do all seat pads in house and they must be unbolted from the chair lift frame and carted to the shop. To get them back and forth involves laying the seat across a snowmobile seat and then sitting on top of it and taking off. You kind of look like an airplane; it looks real strange when you stack about 8 of them up and then head down the slopes. So the guy that is under me for seniority had to replace one seat pad and I watched him fumble around trying to get out of the shop yard while not clipping anything with his new found wings. I thought I was glad to have got out of that job, as all I had to do was change one tire at another lift near the lift needing seat repairs. Well my job ended up kicking my ass. I fought with that tire and the bolts holding it on were way too tight. I then dropped one of the 4 lug bolts in the snow and couldn’t find it. I had to go all the way back to the shop to get a new bolt. The tire got completely covered in grease due to being in close proximity to a greasy part and I had to strap that nasty fucker to my sled. All removed parts go back to the shop for repair or analysis. So now I am ready to get back and go home. As I am motoring up the hill I see a sled in front of me carrying none other than a seat pad. Now keep in mind the mountain is closed and there are no skiers on the hill. I see a golden opportunity to blow by my counterpart and smoke him on the way back to the shop, eh eh eh. I move over to the left side of the trail and squeeze the thumb control completely flush with the hand grip. The sled rockets past my buddy and I am catching air over some of the snow drifts that accumulate thru the day. I approach the top of the trail and have to take a 90 degree turn to get down an intersecting trail that leads to the shop. I barely let up on the throttle and lean way off to the right of the sled hanging my knee out towards the snow like a rider on a sport bike at the Isle of Mann TT. I get straightened up with the new trail and lift the front end a little as I hit the throttle hard again. As I approach the shop, I lock the brake and drag the track and slide my sled into the entrance to the shop lot. The entrance is a steep downhill grade and then a hard left to the back of the shop. The adrenaline is flowing and I am waiting to see Ozzy’s face when he finally gets to the shop. When I look to see the sled coming down the hill, it ain’t Ozzy. It’s my boss and he is carrying a seat pad. Oh shit is the first thing that crosses my mind. I just blew the doors off my boss and probably sprayed him with a serious rooster tail of snow in the process. He weren’t happy at all, and he let me know this. What a way to end a perfectly good day. I must admit that after I received my lashings, I laughed about it during the drive home.

Not much going on at the moment, a few diesel jobs here and there. A 7.3 oil pan and a 6.0 short block.

I found another bad one last week, along with a bound up water drain.

NEVER take off on a cross country trip in a vehicle with 20+ year old radiator hoses.

You didn't miss much, you big slacker. Guy had his van worked on and things didn't work out, so he took a video of all the stuff he saw wrong with the van.

Yeah, but now I aint got my "smart" teeth no more.

Quote: i still need get mine surgically removed, cant see them but they say they're there. i keep putting it off. like you it'll be out of pocket I should have gotten mine out when I was 18. Unfortunately I have 6 teeth, 4 in the usual spot and 2 in the front of my jaw. There is a nerve that runs in the same area and if it gets hit, then I could wind up a drooling fool for the rest of my life. That prospect plus I am a terrible procrastinator made me wait it out. Well I went to the dentist recently and they do this bone pocket test thing. On scale of 1 to 10, 1 being best and 10 being time for dentures, I scored a 7 at my lower wisdom teeth. It seems that if they are crowding the molars and not giving you any indication, they actually become silent killers and erode the bone away. This was my case so they are out now and hopefully some bone will rebuild back in that area. Quote: Mine were done by an oral surgeon which was probably best as I don't want to be awake during stuff like that. They make you comfy, give some grape air and make you count down from 100... 99... 98... 9tyyyyyyyyy - ssssssseeeeeevvvveeeeeennnnnn... Then you wake up with a mouth full of gauze, float out of the building and have someone drive you home... after you pick up your pain killers. Mine went exactly as you described but no counting. I didn't bleed any and haven't had any pain killers, so it's been a good run and I am back to work tomorrow. I have to pull that motor out of the 6.0 with 50 inches of water on the blow by test to do a cost cap. <clap,clap.clap>

It's not killing the TCM is it?

Thanks alot Mr. day late and dollar short. I'm sorry but all I can think about is the scene from the Pink Panther where he pulls the guys tooth and its the wrong one.

I think I am in the wrong business sometimes. I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and it cost me 2000 bucks. I was in the chair for a total of an hour and half. There is a 3 month waiting list to see this oral surgeon. But then again, I don't think I could stare into peoples smelly pie holes all day.

All for .5 hrs. <blows raspberries at Ford>

Did one Friday on a very early build '08. Advisors didn't even know about it, yet they print out and attach an OASIS to every R.O.

I'll do you one better, I upgraded my '97 'Ploder to a '99 lower pan that aims the plug down a little more. Then I upgraded the whole motor to a 5.0l. But that has nothing to do with a 6.7 that wont run after fuel filter changes.

Ah, it could be worse, it could be aimed at the radius arm! Kinda like a '97 Explorer with a 4.0l SOHC.

Quote: The oil drain plug gas a lot going for in contrast. This is where I will have to say that Navistar engineers have a tad more common sense than Ford boys. Let's see.....put a drain plug in an oil pan that has over 3 gallons of oil behind it and aim the plug straight down where gravity can do it's job and the oil can drain into an approved drain receptacle, or......aim it straight out the back of the pan towards the rear differential. Gee that's a tough call.

Oh I agree with you there. Unfortunately, I was chasing a hard start, no start and that test isn't part of the procedure. It's in the lack of power, performance procedure and it's still way down at step 14 of the ladder. That couple with the fact that most 6.0l's don't exhibit high crankcase pressures, this one had the stock air filter, and it runs "good".

Hey, baby steps pal ......had to order the cup, so the train is officially derailed at the moment.

Had an odd one today that made me think and look a bit past the end of my nose. Truck came in hydrolocked, removed all the glow plugs and cleared the cylinders of fuel. Performed a manual compression test while the glow plugs were out to make sure no ill effects. All cylinders were at 400 psi while number 1 was at 320 psi. According to the owner the truck ran fine before. Hmmmmm.....so I replaced two offending injectors and noticed the number 1 hold down crab loose. I removed the injector and it was toasted along with the cup. Now I usually think of a low compression issue being related to valve train and piston sealing/bent rod. An injector with a blown copper washer and shucking around in the cup was the farthest thing from my mind. So far out of my realm of thinking that I was really under the valve cover to replace the over fueling injector and not even worried about a cylinder that was a tad low.

Reading at idle!

The PTU will go before the trans, if he keeps that up. Those gears in them things are TINY. We replace 2 to 3 PTU's a year from people getting Escapes stuck in snow banks and beating on them trying to "rock" them out.

All vehicles leave my bay with clean and dry lug nuts and studs. It drives me nuts to work on a car that someone anti-seized the snot out of the lug nuts. That shit slings out every where and is down right......ah, I can't think of a word to describe it. As far as loc-tite goes, they might as well break out the welder and tack them lugs on for good while they're at it!

The new recall should fix that piston right up