Jim Warman

I don't recall stumbling across an injector performance sheet, anywhere.... is this on PowerStroke Central? For smoking injectors, all I've ever done is drop the manifolds and watch....

He turned in his notice about 2 weeks ago.... I did find out that his attitude got him fired from his last job... and I wish his next employer well... This kid has had some shining moments - but his attitude keeps getting in his way... He wont ever admit that he's in over his head and needs some help... But, we can only ever show them the direction and leave the rest up to them...

Several... one sitting out back right now.... hydrolocked. The one I posted the pic of the melted oil filter standpipe I found when water started leaking out of the right side exhaust manifold to head interface.... Like Dwayne, I find many of these have a lot of water in the turbo...

What Alex and Dwayne are saying... Is it possible that the coolant level isn't high enough to puke and all you are getting is the farts kinda thing? I've seen a few where, when you get into it hard, you can watch the pressure gauge as it climbs, the cap dumps and the gauge climbs and the cap dumps.... over and over...

Survey says.... *brain fart*!!!! When I checked the pump shaft/ torque converter splines... the converter laying on the studs.... the pump shaft (which looks pristine) dropped into the converter splines and held really good.... But, in real life, the shaft doesn't bottom in the converter splines.... lift the shaft ever so slightly and "BINGO" - we have the source... This one could well have been the misdiagnosis from hell.... And it came at a very good time... It shows that when we start feeling that something is becoming too complex, we might back up a step and revisit our basics... As for my superstar?.... I still think he lucked out... and he will be someone elses problem next week...

Well... another company campout come and gone.... Used to be they'd have me cook a big pot of chili but they found out about my ribs.... Anyway... tomorrow, back to the more mundane things in life.... And this includes an AX4N... diagnosed by my "superstar" as having no line pressure. (oddly, the second transmission in a row he has diagnosed as having absolutely no line pressure...). Even after I told them we needed to do more in car testing before we started dismantling things (especially in the abscence of any tattletales in the pan), I was informed last week that the trans was in the fixture on the tranny bench. OK... now we are officially looking for a needle in a hay stack. Pump looks good, convertor and pump driveshaft are like new, main regulator is free in the valve body... forward and reverse clutches air test good... Codes?.... Whaddaya mean codes.... I doan need to check for no steenking codes.... Go figure... Victim is an 03 Windstar - customer concern was no engagement forward or reverse.... When asked if there was any motion in any of the manual gear positions, superstar kind of blanched and stammered "No"... Any displaced trans gurus out there? When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember all you wanted to do was drain the swamp...

Hey, Aaron... welcome aboard.... gettin' to be like old home week around here...Say "Hi" to Focus-Boy for me...

The alternator was still a pretty new device when I got in to this stuff.... electronic ignition was still a few years away, IIRC.... But we were well on to that slippery slope to technological overload.... But the difficulty is relative.... a carburettor might sound or look simple to the unfamiliar.... it ain't, in all reality and many adjustments had to be fine tuned either by gut feeling or experience.... and adjustments there are - choke pull down, choke break, choke pull off, choke thermostat, fast idle, base idle, solenoid idle, idle mixture... and it didn't take much in the way of missed adjustments to turn a carb into a monster in the right (or would that be "wrong ") kind of weather... Making it this far shows that you have a healthy dose of problem solving and logic progression skills... IMHO, these are two of the most important tools in our toolboxes... Add in a measure of electrical (notice I said "electrical" rather than electronic) savvy.... The laws of electricity don't change.... never have, never will... Get 'em staight in your head and you will have the world by the tail... Probably Kirschoffs law is the most important for us.... Don't worry too much about what is going on inside a module.... all we really need to know is that a particular group of inputs should have some particular output... We can test a sensor and it's wiring and, for the most part, we can test actuators and their circuits... but we can't do it with an ohmmeter.... and that is important to remember.... Read the PPT test step to understand what they want checked/tested and perform a test appropriate to the information needed (usually a load test, BTW - and I'm starting to find that a garden hose is a handy device, too, as we are starting to see some poorly made wiring that can pass enough stray current to screw up it's neighbours). I'm forever telling our guys that they need to spend some time "playing with their toys". If someone wants to learn the VMM, I'm more than happy to devote part of an evening or two (with some appropriate beverages supplied after the event)... taking time to show them the waveform library and showing them how to save and name any waveforms they might like to keep, as a bonus... If circumstance allows, install a "bug" in a vehicle and see what the result is... in sensor and actuator activity, waveforms, driveability. The same goes for a voltmeter... the most under-used, misunderstood tool we have.... If a guy needs, print off the diagram for the affected circuit to help visualize what we expect for a voltage drop across any particular part of a circuit. I "build" all of my own desktop PCs.... It's easy... pick a tower and power supply, pick a mobo, disc drives... make a few decisions... on board sound and video? - cards? This hardly prepares me for a job in IT... but it helps to simplify the truck in my bay. While the 6.4 is high tech to the Nth degree.... it still works on some very basic principles.... and BASICS is the thing to keep in mind.... Ever watch a tech chasing lean mixture codes? Had one of our top guys faced with an early 90s Ranger... runs like a bag of crap... lean mixture codes.... he's setting off on a break out box adventure... but I managed to talk him in to a compression test.... done deal - two bad holes. Or the guy checking fuel pressure in the bay instead of on the road.... And that list can go on and on if we don't consider exactly what it is we really want to test... It ain't rocket science... but many of us try very hard to turn it into rocket science.... We roll up our sleeves and wade right in - when the first thing we need to do is gain some knowledge of how something is supposed to work (every section in the WSM has a "description and operation" subsection.... every PPT in the PC/ED has an introduction). I'll hazard a guess that we'll see a lot of agreement if I say that the "very, very good" techs will head straight for either of these very soon after opening the hood. OASIS and Hotline are underused.... but we don't have to follow Hotlines suggestions to the letter.... listen to what the engineer or tech is saying... let it trickle down through your mind and see if it sparks any ideas from your own experience... And there is a wealth of other info.... fleet.ford.com - motorcraft.com - SVB bulletins - (one of my fave's) broadcast messages.... Someone on the Canadian message board once took exception to me saying something about a tech not reading BCMs... "Yeah? What if you don't read them?" - I could only reply "Why not?". I am not trying to make a decision for you... But, the fact that you are here on DTS shows that you care about what you do. I have no idea of how many years or how many dollars you have invested in this trade... but I imagine it to be, at the very least, "significant". I'm a grade 8 drop-out.... the hardest thing I've ever done was to train myself how to learn... I constantly ask "why?"... why am I doing some particular task or test... why does <this> happen? What else is going to happen along with <this>? The investment in personal time can be imposing (there's a better word, but I can't think of it right now)... but we mnust remember that we are discussing our own particular futures. I can't see myself doing anything other than what I am right now... But lifestyles (and careers) are like a pair of boots.... what is comfortable for me, may be painful for another. You had to know that your post would get the old man back into <windy mode=ON>.... What happens from here is going to depend on you... are you going to expend effort into learning something else? Or are you going to expend effort in to understanding this particular craft a little better? If pay or working conditions is a stumbling block, consider a new store or even a new region.... I spent my youth as an "army brat"... moving has never been a hard decsion to make when push comes to shove.... There are jobs out there begging for a tech that has reached the point where he realizes he needs to make some sort of change... this could be "that" job... the one that takes you from $20/hour to $30+/hour.... from "handmaid" to "mover and shaker". I'm not really sure if my DP likes me or not.... but he loves what I do and he loves how our customers react to it. !!WHEW!!

If the Hotline engineer asks if there is a chip (currently) installed or specifically asks about other mods that may be present... how am I to answer? Head gaskets (still a bolt problem, IMHO) can fail even without the help of a chip... Could adding the chip have made 'that much' difference?... I don't know and I can't make that call.... However, if the engineer asks "IS there a chip...?" I have to answer truthfully.... I don't offer such information, but if I am asked, I must answer the question given directly.... "Has it had a chip?" and "Does it have a chip?" are different questions. At the same time, if the PC/ED tells me that something that is currently installed on the truck may affect my concern, I leave it to the higher levels of management.... "How much time and/or money do they want me to waste?".... At the same time, I have little respect for anyone that would ask me to tell a lie.... Occasionally, I am given a troublesome warranty claim... I am required to "dance with the truth" in order to get this thing through.... I refuse to exceed my comfort zone.... I never, ever thought that obfuscation would be an asset....

In 1969, my eyes were glued to the television as Neil Armstrong made his famous statement.... He went there with less computing power than a hand held calculator. However, at one point in time, my few remaining brain cells were absorbed with the notion of electrolysing water to create O2 and hydrogen.... and using this to power a vehicle.... With the technology available at that time, it was a defecit scheme... more power was required than could be regained. The thought of hydrogen fuel cells resurfaces every now and again, but does anyone really want raw hydrogen being slopped about by the guy next to you? (Think "Hindenburgh). Pure hydrogen is, basically, a fire looking for some oxygen (IMHO)... and I would prefer to remain as far from it as I can. However, there is a lot of research going in to alternative energy sources.... This old planet has a real problem looming on the horizon.... One faction wants to produce bio-diesel from grains and ethanol from corn... yet we continually swallow up prime farm land with housing developments. Somewhere along the line, we have to admit that the almighty dollar ain't all it's cracked up to be.... "what's for dinn3er tonight, m'love?".... "Garlic roasted one dollar bills, if I can find some garlic.... five dollar bills for desert....". Extreme? Yes.... But is it unthinkable?

Not to worry, Kieth.... I have found that diluting this insidious substance with varying amounts of fluids containing C12 H22 O11 or similar has a "stabilizing" (or possibly "destabilizing") effect.... Several chemists have found that this particular formula (or others that react similarly) can be produced from whole grain rye, whole grain barley or "sour mash" corn.... This "antidote" is freely available at many retail outlets without prescription....

Canada is bi-lingual.... "YCNEGREME" is an English word and, therefore, "verbotten".

That reminds me.... I'm about due for my flock of "ECNALUBMA"s to come through for their twice yearlies....

There is an ancient Chinese curse, I'm told..... "May you live in "interesting times....". So.... I finish putting a mechatronic in a CVT - that someone else took apart..... and I finish up on an IMRC that someone else took apart on a 5.4 to find an O2 heater code - an open in the harness that runs behind the intake - the one that I used to have free access to with the manifold off..... and I get a holiday trailer (can you believe this?) that someone unreeved all the cables on the "push out" on... not to mention about a dozen customers incapable of reading the owners manual to find out which button to push... and the guy that keeps blowing fuse 10 in the SJB on his 07 F150 - it only blows when he hooks his trailer up... what's wrong with this POS truck? Last night we had the going away party for our departing young journeyman.... in his bay, a 7.5 is hanging on the crane poised to drop into the engine bay of a 87 F350 once the last of the accessories is bolted to it.... at least the bolts are grouped for where they go..... "Oh, Jim... the customer needs it for Monday PM...". And they wonder why I drink..... Thusly, I am reminded of two other old sayings.... One Scottish - "If it can nae do ya any guid... it can nae do ya any harrrrm". The others roots I am unsure of - "What does not kill me can only make me stronger...". And, while I am busy bringing up "old saws"... many years ago, one of my peccadillos from this blessed profession was to manage an Esso bulk fuel depot (I believe I've mentioned it before). The last year I was there, we pumped over 32,000,000 litres of diesel fuel alone. After one particularly harrowing week.... a loaded propane truck laying on it's side and sundry other little "annoyances", our bean counter remarked "Cheer up, Jimmy... things are never so bad that they can't get worse...." On that note, and as I hear thunder rolling close by, it is time for me to extend that aluminum ladder and get about installing some soffit and fascia... free beer (Canadian beer at that) and pizza for all that help......

With a lawyer involved, stupid goes without saying.... At the same time, this could set some sort of precedent..... At the very least, the aftermarket chip vendor is getting named AND there may be some contest regarding performance enhancers.... Too bad this isn't happening in a state where a very dim view is taken regarding non-compliance for emissions....

I, too, am a slave to the ubiquitous plastic card... With your sack of gold coins, one could easily tell if he was getting a little giddy in the stores.... not so with the card - until you see the line marked "overdraught charges" on your statement.

I've been with this store for about 5 years. Tony... we've always been one of the higher paid shops in town but the labour pool in Alberta has shrunk drastically in the last very few years and other stores have caught up to us in terms of wages. On another forum, I see techs complaining about wages under $20/hour and I can't fathom that (the low wages, that is)... though I will admit that this last five years has seen tech wages in Alberta take a massive leap... by about 40%. When I started here, base journeyman rate was, IIRC, $26/hr and it has steadily climbed to mid thirties... and there is a 50 cent hike for each specialty and a $2/hr performance bonus if the tech books over 100 hours in a period. In general, the labour pool in western Canada is thin.... it is almost impossible to find licenced techs... signing bonuses have almost become a way of life and, in all honesty, I can see this as the beginning of binding contracts as employers try to protect the investment these bonuses represent. I've seen stores offer as high as $7500 to sign and I've "heard" of stores offering even higher...

Kieth, I had never thought of it that way before... and you are quite right... "Back in the day", each denomination was one colour...a single was green, a deuce (two dollar bill) was reddish, and so on... Until I got used to our new, colourful bills, I thought they looked a little "third worldish". Our bimetal toonie is still a little over the top....

You 'Muricans are so cute with the "real money".... Been a long time since Canadian money was play dough. My last pay stub was for July 31 through Aug 14... was pre-deduction $4531.56 CAD... this converts (at todays rate) to $4273.04 USD. The exchange rate most Americans remember is when the CAD was wallowing in the 60 cent range. What my payroll deductions were not so nice.... I'm in the highest income tax bracket that Canada has /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/puke.gif I'm always amazed when I look at my pay stubs.... my first full time job (non-automotive) paid me the princely sum of $28 per week. When I became a Journeyman, my wages skyrocketed to nearly $4 per hour and my loving bride and I went out celebrating... This will likely come as a surprise - in the late '50s, the Canadian dollar was worth a buck seven US... And then the Liberals happened...

I've only done a couple... but I find it is easier to remove the cooling stack as an assembly and disassemble it on the bench.

I could offer you an "entry level" position.... Of course, once you jumped through some hoops set by the tradesmans and qualifications branch, we could pump you up to Master tech rates. I have 3 techs that can make up to $40/flat rate hour now that our new raise has "settled in". Two of my techs (both diesel guys) regularly book 110ish hours WHEN WE ARE SLOW (pay period is twice a month). To *book* those hours, they would likely *clock* about 90ish. FWIW, 110 hours in a pay period would have them with gross (before deduction)wages of $4400... thta's $8800/month. We are rarely slow and, when I was on the bench 120-130 hours was closer to the norm (clocked time would be closer to 100-110 hours). In spite of this, we are still having trouble attracting people.... My 19 year old son recently hired on with an oilfield service rig company. His last pay stub had him *taking home* over $2500 for two weeks work. As long as they aren't "tripping" out of a hole, work is pretty easy... Sometimes they can have extended wait times while a consultant tries to decide what is ass and what is hole in the ground.... But, at the same time, weather can be an enemy... Take home that much scratch for what is basically an entry level position in that field makes it hard to convince a youngster that the $17ish per hour he will make as a first year apprentice is "good".

Is the truck a "used to have" dual alternators? If so, Q-91 on the fleet.ford site might help.... Another thing you might check... I think I thought I maybe might have seen a dual/single generator "switch" in "programmable parameters"... at least I think I might have seen it...

This last long while, rust pretty much exclusively... Some times a little bit of rust gives more dramatic symptoms than a lot of rust from what my techs are telling me and what they are showing me.... "Lot rot" appears to be the culprit since most of these trucks I know for a fact aren't driven regularly...

By now, many of you know I have an apprentice "superstar".... For some reason(s), he will rarely tell me he is having trouble.... Two of the biggest - what I want him to test next is "too much work"... and, <GASP>, I try to get him to think for himself.... Thankfully, he has turned in his notice.... usually, we just buy these guys out (pay them two weeks and say "fare-thee-well") - for reasons beyond my comprehension, this isn't happening this time.... Cut to the chase... 91 Explorer.... 300,000 kms +... The RO reads "Customer states transmission needs a solenoid".... I beg your pardon? WTF is that? An A4LD that simply needs a solenoid? An A4LD with, quite possibly, 300,000 kms on it that needs a shift solenoid? And not a rebuild? At this point, it appears that we have over 4 hours in this trans and the recommendation is to remove the trans and "look for intenal problems"? FWIW, yes the fluid is nice and red... has a hint of odour.... I'll bet I can find an RO from another shop that says "flush trans" somewhere. From the few notes on the back of the hard copy, I see that the trans has 18 inches of pressure to the modulator (I'm having a hard time with an apprentice that considers this "pressure")... no mention of observed concerns... pressure gauge is hooked to "something" on the trans and the note reads "no pressure"... yet the car was driven into the shop.... I didn't find this until days end because, along with the 5 hours production expected of me (my job for the day), I had two comebacks and an NPF with no effort into finding the concern. Today, I left early.... 6:30. And they wonder why I drink???? I don't want these old freakin' pots darkening my doorway and I see an RO like this.... I was almost ready to ask Kieth if he could open up a shop foremans "elitist" kinda forum... But I think it is better for everyone to see what we're battling.... Look at the guy in the next bay... if he is churning out trash - you will be painted with the same brush that paints him.

Wow.... now here is an inept store.... they wont spend the money to access documentation (or they did and they aren't smart enough to access it)... The reporter is interviewing a tech that appears to be truly inadequate for not researching such a major undertaking... and instead of doing an earthshattering expose on inadequate shops, they listen to a freaking hack and, in not so many words, lay the fiasco on Fords doorstep... Don't get me wrong.. do we have a concern with the aluminum heads? You betcha!!! But we're smart enough, I would hope, to research these troublesome things a little before we commit to a course of action. Now, before some of the guys not quite in the loop about shop costs get a knot in their Haynes.... One of my yellow service DVDs came up missing... the one up to 2002. They want over $3000 for a replacement.... Our first VCMs subscription came up with the yellow nag screen... $420 per year. Drop shipped tools... you really think that Ford is giving us these out of the kindness of their heart? While there'll never be an invoice, they HAVE been paid for. So... a dealership is no stranger to the cost of documentation, training and tooling.... The reporter seemed to relish the knowledge that Ford developed a special tool to remove the spark plug jacket.... "There is a problem!!!! Yippee!!!"... OK, and the tool addresses the problem quite handily IMHO... But it still galls me.... Here was the perfect opportunity to expose those shops and techs that take a cavalier attitude towards maintaining and repairing a customers vehicle... and instead, it is elevating this moron to a saintly stature.... This trade needs a damned good shaking up... a wake up call.. The world needs to be reminded that "50% of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class". Oh... I forgot... According to many other forums... this is so easy "even a cave man could do it..."..... in 45 minutes... in the driveway at home...