Jim Warman

I'll try to remember... but, one of these days, you will find out what "getting older" is all about. I will say I remember some important things like birthday, anniversary and what was playing when we met (Smoke on the Water, if you absolutely need to know) - more because it's been conditioned - Google "Pavlov dog" - than anything else. Remembering a third pail of ATF and a pump? This could be a challenge. I'm sure you must have been struck by the number of northbound trucks loaded with appliances....

Actually, I did wave but you was comed and goned too fast. I did try to call your cell but you musta been saving your batteries... FWIW, you were on your way south through Westlock when we were pulling out of Ramzi's parking lot. You had your media blaster in the box of your old truck.... Did you drive through the southeast to get a glimpse of the war zone?

Well... that was a spendy trip to the city.... $2700 worth of KitchenAid fridge .... a thousand bucks worth of Michelins for the truck - had an 8 year old tire separate on me... and, of all the things she might want, my loving bride decided that we needed a (fake) stone fire pit for the back yard.... I would have thought that it would be a while before anyone would want to see open flames. FWIW, if you are looking for a fridge "cash and carry" in Edmonton right now... you are going to buy the ones that nobody else wanted. We'll be living out of the bar fridge and the camper fridge for the next two weeks...

They were both at the same calibration level... however, recent events have left our schedule in a spot of disarray and it may be a while before we get back to this pair. We are curently down to one diesel tech (me and doubling as shop foreman doesn't add to my efficiency) - hopefully, the other two will be back next week.

The simple solution.... ALL brands of dealerships across the Republic of Alberta are hiring. While we were languishing in our temporary digs in Westlock, I was informed that the local Ford dealer had but 2 techs and they were looking. (Our DP, bless his heart, made sure we had no desire to go looking). There are a few tough to work for dealers here.... but if you remember that you can catch more flies with sugar than you can with vinegar - you should do well. I fell into a dealership that suits me.... makes me a poor candidate for this next statement - while they are interviewing you for the job... you should be interviewing the job for you.

If you weren't a bit giddy, you would read the manual a bit closer. R&R FEAD belt begins with "remove cooling fan stator" and directs you to 303-03 for cooling fan stator removal. From here, step one is "remove the cooling fan". We are directed to removing the cooling fan in this very same section. Step one of "remove cooling fan" begins with "remove the radiator". Back to my original statement... *I would seriously question the other shops statement about removing a fan shroud for alternator replacement.* With my various sticks, wires and tricks, I can change an alternator in far less time than it takes to change a FEAD belt and I can change a FEAD belt in less time than it takes to drain and refill the cooling system.... and I DO NOT WORK FAST. Had you read the post a little closer, you would find that step TWO in replacing the generator (Yes, Ford considers the alternator to be an AC generator) is to remove the cooling fan.... Back to the chase... I would assume that the accusing shop is on the same planet that we are. And I would suggest that, if the accusing shop doesn't charge for radiator R&I to replace the fan clutch - well, you should get my drift.... There is an extreme lack of professionalism in this trade. The number of techs willing to defeat emissions controls to make a sale is overwhelming.... and the crap doesn't stop there. This is a serious, far-reaching, complex concern - one that has no simple solutions and one that touches every one of us in some way. It is the reason so many techs are underpaid and the reason so many techs are overpaid and the reason so many civilians views us a thieves, charlatans or worse. What is most surprising is that anyone would be surprised about being thrown under the bus...... FWIW, the only good part about Ford shop manuals is the "description and operation" and "diagnosis and testing" sections. Once you learn how a system or circuit works, you can decide how to best test its functionality. If you are depending on Fords pinpoint tests for any accuracy or resolution, you will be sorely disappointed.

What year is it? Does it have the updated tensioners? If it has the old tensioners and the seals are blown out, oil pressure can be low as a result.

Professional courtesy? In this shark tank? This trade can be cut throat... The vast majority of techs are mediocre... (50% of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class) not an evil thing if a tech realizes the boundaries of his abilities (none of us do). But one sure way of making ourselves feel better is to belittle anyone we can. We do this because it is easier than actually learning stuff. Missing bolts, stripped fasteners... these are worth derision - but a simple "there were some missing/damaged fasteners from a previous repair" should be enough because, on my planet, anyway - SHIT HAPPENS!... Or, more precisely, STERCUS ACCIDIT! I don't understand your shops willingness to accept liability for the concern considering you didn't have to go anywhere near the problem area for the repairs you performed. I would seriously question the other shops statement about removing a fan shroud for alternator replacement. FWIW, there are times that I have mentioned another techs abilities... techs that have quite obviously chosen the wrong career path.....

Thanks for all the answers thus far... keep the opinions coming. First consideration is size... loving bride feels that 27.5 cu ft is getting too small (????) and she would prefer 28. I will admit that, for only two of us (plus whatever our son decides to steal - and he is always more than welcome to ) this should be way more than we need. Second, I want the freezer to be big enough so that we wont feel the urge to buy a separate freezer. I found that our upright Kenmore wasted more than it saved as we would often find something outdated lurking in the back. With Debbs Crohns disease, I am not about to take any chances at all with food and that includes anything that might be even a "little old" in the freezer. Ice maker is a must and water dispenser is a "well, why not?". Our last fridge was a 24 cu ft KitchenAid bottom freezer and the fridge part was always full.

OK... so the last time I saw my fridge and freezer, they were taped solidly shut and being placed, not so gently, into the back of a dump truck. Insurance asked for pics of the inside and I offered them a knife to cut the tape with... "please don't ask me to do something you wont....". Anyway, on the way home we picked up a 4 cubic foot bar freezer to augment the fridge/freezer in the camper for as long as it takes. Momma wanted an Electrolux 28 cubic foot fridge (I gave the ultimatum.... there's only 2 of us... we doan need no steenkeeng separate freezer....") until I started seeing consumer reviews that panned the ice maker. The question - do any of you guys have a large, french door fridge/bottom freezer with water and ice dispenser? What brand/model and is it any friggin' good? Saturday we are off to Edmonton with debit card in hand.......

Position the truck with the wheels straight ahead (the steering wheel spokes even on each side should give you dead centre on the steering gear high point. Gently move the wheel side to side - the torsion bar in the spool valve will give you some "spring" but the idea is to identify any looseness. If the steering wheel returns to the same spot by itself after moving it both to the left and the right (without actually moving the wheels), there is little chance that steering gear adjustment will help. If you are a little more anal and would like to use a dial reading torque wrenc to actually read the steering gear mesh preload over centre, you can remove the drag link and the drivers airbag module and use the torque wrench to measure first preload over centre and then preload at both full left lock and full right lock (this is to ensure that input shaft preload isn't fucking up your reading). You don't say if the truck has a lift kit or a levelling kit. Either of these can affect caster and I have seen a few where the installer has used the supplied bushings to really screw things up. I did a front axle drive shaft U-joint on one truck that had such an agressive caster adjustment performed that I had to undo the top ball joint to get the locking hub back in.

While the these tips are quite valid and can help to do a crude diag, if you are working on a modern diesel, you desperately need a decent scan tool.... I'm assuming you have an engine miss.... one that you might be attributing to a bad injector when it may possibly have another cause. Do yourself (and your customer) a favour and make sure you have adequate diagnostic tools at hand. I've been involved with repair the 6.0 since it's introduction and I refuse to try diagnosing any running concerns without our trusty IDSs. Without a scan tool, the best thing I can give you is somewhere between an opinion and an educated guess... http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Slave+Lake+dealership+survives/4847725/story.html

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Slave+Lake+dealership+survives/4847725/story.html

So let's play "What's in your driveway?".... The answer is my camper...... It looks like my house got moved to a different town..... in a war zone.......

Might be going home as soon as tommorrow... more when I know more.

Doing ANYTHING would be a blessing....

http://www.mez.co.uk/lucas.html Enjoy

You guys get to do all the testing for this part... makes my job easier when I get back...

Here is a satellite pic of a small, moderately affected area of the town.... a portion of our downtown core. For reference, north is pretty close to being the top. The damage to the southeast sector of twn s just indescribable. At the bottom centre, the copyright notice goes right through SL FORD. To the right (east) of the building is the back 40. Customer units, sold units, units waiting for PDI.. even Dwaynes toy pick up are back there. The red arrow points to a row of what used to be a few new Super Duties, several new 150s and several holiday trailers - not sure how many but everything was pretty much door handle to door handle (just enough room to open a door without hitting the unit next). The tail of my arrow rests on what used to be our brand new town offices and library. The only thing that saved the rest of that mall from destruction was that they drove a cat through the middle of the mall to make a fire break.... To the north of SL is a red X (sorry for the crudeness of my characters). This used to be a 3 story walk up apartment - one of many that were lost in this event. To the east of that is a row of condos.... From all outward appearances, they probably suffered little more than melted vinyl siding this is just my impression). Most renters in Alberta never seem to get around to buying renters insurance... To the right of that X, you can see an area where some trees are burned and some aren't. With winds that high, the fire seems to be very selective. North of the town offices is a red A. Every town in Alberta seems to have at least one hotel that is a hotel more in name than in function. This allows the operator to open a "beverage hall". This particular hotel, in whatever town it may be in becomes locally known as "the zoo"... and this red A used to be our zoo. Of interesting note.... this is the "new" zoo. The "old" zoo was a half block to the east and, in the 1980s, it, too, burned to the ground although the circumstances then were extremely suspicious). To the north and northwest of that are several burned out buildings including my best friends apartments.... thankfully, the gun I was shot with expired in that blaze. At the very top of the pic is one of our elementary schools.... all our schools were spared.

Kieth, I have no idea of how electricity restoration efforts have progressed... even in our closed meetings, all the info our town reps are given is that 'work continues'. I do know that our main sewer lift station needs to be replaced.... it was located at the northwest corner of S L FORD. Residential fire fighting efforts would have put a major strain on the water system. I've lost track of the water pumping capacity or our local and mutuual assistance fire departments but I'm sure that (before the water treatment plant went down) the fire pumps had drawn at least parts of the system into severe negative pressure - quite possibly severe enough to collapse water mains. This is just conjecture on my part. Natural gas is the home heating fuel of choice in Alberta. This infrastructure needs to be carefully inspected. Additionally, the feeder lines to each affected building will have to be capped. If ATCO Gas is going to declare the town as "safe", I'm going to assume that they may want to check even homes unaffected for any pre-existing gas leaks to avoid exposing themseelves to litigation..... they have more experience in that field and would know their level of comfort. Getting back to electricity for a minute. The mass exodus got into full swing along about dinner time on Sunday.... how many homes were left with stoves turned on is a number nobody can guess at. As for the building.... everything is pretty much undamaged except for the one row of trucks and trailers. We'll be ready for business as soon as they allow us back in.... at least I know I will be. Parts, sales and service are all pretty much under one roof so it isn't going to be much more tham a fairly large hiccup for us. It kinda helps that those of us that have lived in northern Alberta for any length of time become quite resilient (what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger). Emotions are running very high, as they will in any situation like this. The powers that be are being intentionally vague about when we can go back. I can see their point - if they spec a date and then realize they can't fulfill the promise, it is going to get real fugly, real quick. Flip side of the coin, not knowing is just adding unnecessary agitation (read that as "I'm glad it isn't me making these decisions).

Well, I guess it is no secret that I have a lot of spare time, right now.... I was perusing todays broadcast messages and found a bit of redundancy. Near the top of the list we have >3282 - 6.7L DIESEL - DTC P164A RESETTING AFTER TSB 11-04-21 6.7L DIESEL VEHICLES MAY SET DTC P164A AFTER PERFORMING TSB 11-04-21. THE NOX ADAPTIVE LEARN TABLES MAY NEED TO BE RESET TO PREVENT THE CODE FROM SETTING FALSELY. RESETTING THE ADAPTIVE LEARN TABLES CAN BE PERFORMED WITH IDS BY SELECTING THE FOLLOWING: POWERTRAIN - SERVICE FUNCTIONS - RESET/CLEAR SPECIFIED FUNCTION AND THEN SELECTING "NITROGEN OXIDE". REPEAT THIS CLEAR PROCESS 10 TIMES. IF DTC P164A STILL SETS ON A ROAD TEST, DRIVE VEHICLE AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS FOR 5 MINUTES, PLACE TRANSMISSION IN MANUAL 5, AND PERFORM 10, 5 SECOND COAST DOWNS WITH ZERO ACCELERATOR INPUT FROM 50+ MPH. AFTER DRIVE, COLLECT MODE 6 DATA BY SELECTING POWERTRAIN - OBD TEST MODES - MODE 6 ON-BOARD TEST RESULTS. CONFIRM THAT THE VALUE OF "O2 SENSOR ADAPTIVE LEARNING ERROR" IS IN RANGE (0.9-1.20). IF OUT OF RANGE PERFORM AN ADDITIONAL 5 COAST DOWNS. And lower on the list we have > 3266 - 6.7L DIESEL - DTC P164A RESETTING AFTER TSB 11-04-21 SOME 6.7L DIESEL VEHICLES MAY TRIGGER A P164A DTC AS A PENDING DTC OR ILLUMINATE THE MIL AFTER PERFORMING TSB 11-04-21 RECALIBRATION OR REPLACING THE NOX SENSOR. THE ADAPTIVE LEARN TABLES FOR THE NOX SENSOR ARE NOT RESET DURING PCM REPROGRAMMING AND MAY NEED TO BE RESET/CLEARED TO PREVENT THE CODE FROM BEING SET FALSELY. RESETTING/CLEARING OF THE ADAPTIVE LEARN TABLES CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH IDS BY SELECTING THE FOLLOWING: POWERTRAIN - SERVICE FUNCTIONS - RESET/CLEAR SPECIFIED FUNCTION AND THEN SELECTING THE NITROGEN OXIDE SELECTION. NOTE: ADDITIONAL DRIVE CYCLES WILL ALSO ALLOW THE ADAPTIVE LEARN TABLES TO UPDATE AND ACCURATELY EVALUATE THE O2 SIGNAL DURING EXTENDED DECELERATION FUEL SHUT OFF CONDITIONS, BUT WILL TAKE LONGER THAN RESETTING/CLEARING THE ADAPTIVE TABLES WITH IDS. Why do I get the feeling we are clutching at straws?

Dwayne, I found out last night that I was mistaken - can anyone feel thankful about being wrong? Sounds like Kyles Poplar Lane house was spared... His rental property in town wasn't so lucky.

It has been a week since our adventure began.... Our sons in-laws home at Widewater was badly damaged but their spirits remain high. They took this opportunity to beome a member of the holiday trailer set and the three families are grouped together in a campground with full services.... though the shower down the road is a bit ummmmmmmm rustic. The offers of assistance from people all over and especially from the volunteeers and citizens of Westlock is overwhelming... I can't talk about it without my eyes starting to burn and getting choked up. The first man I met showed me where the campground we are in is located... he gave me his business card and told me that if the place was full to give him a call... he could set us up on his family farm... We parked our trailer and went to the evacuation centre to register... we were given a hot meal and any toiletries we needed... given directions to two other aid stations where we got extra socks and underwear, towels, there was a vast selection canned and dry goods, a selection of novels to read, dvds to watch, kids toys, diapers, clothes for ecery member of the family... we were in awe. Gloves - anything you could think of. In retrospect, while we got most of our photo albums and Debbis good jewelry - some of our other choices of things to load are a little questionable. We can mostly blame that on me... Debb was taking her sweet time sorting things and all I could hear was exploding propane cylinders across town. We managed to bring all of our pets... two old cats and three dogs. The cats didn't take kindly to being uprooted and we, sadly, had to have them put down. The decision wasn't an easy one to make but, with no end to our current situation as a concrete date..... The dogs are adapting well. Mini-dog (the spaniel "Willy" aka "Bill") s the oldest and often stays at home while I walk the "bookends". Mega-dog (Koda, a German Shepherd that weighs about 120 pounds) and Micro-dog (the Chihauhau "Jake" aka "Snert") often get taken for walks together... This odd couple generates both stares and remarks... We do our best to keep our spirits high.... I've been telling people that we decided to pick our long weekend campsite early. We are so very lucky in this whole affair.... when we go home, my son and I will tape our fridges and freezers shut and move them out of our houses. Insurance will cover this and any damage we might find in the aftermath... without looking for damaged shingles, looking at the car or bike.. the shed... we have no idea. But these will be minor inconveniences.... Mere hiccups in our lives. So many friends lost everything... and every time I start to feel happy for me.... I remember these people and the guilt and remorse fills you in a heartbeat. When our friends finally get to see what remains of their house, they should have closure... When I see their house, all I will have is more guilt.... Talking to Slave Lakers around town... so many renters had no insurance at all. While their choice to go without insurance is idiotic, many couldn't afford it or they couldn't appreciate the importance of having it.... These people deserve our assistance all the same. I cannot believe how lucky my wife and I are... we are alive and doing as well as can be expected. Our extended family is safe. Our shop is basically undamaged and our boss had business interruption insurance... I should be on cloud nine.... for me, this whole fucking deal is more inconvenience than anything else.... The stress has been life altering for my wife... two of my very best friends - this is a "this guy is family" kind of best friend - lost everything... This is going to be one interesting year....

When we last saw our hero, he and a rag tag covoy of other refugees was slowly crossing the Alberta countryside.... Just before we left town, the last radio report that most of us had heard was that the highway to the west (north passage) was the only road open. I know that some people from town made it to High Prairie, Grande Prairie and whitecourt. By the time we got to the only remaining road out of town, that road was closed and the road east (south passage) was re-opened. As our convoy moved slowly down the highway, we would often be passed by ambulances and handi-buses filled with patients being evacuated from our local hospital. About 60 kilometers out of town, there was another roadblock. The highway to the south through the towns of Chisholm Mills and Flatbush was closed because of other fires. We were directed onto the highway to Athabasca. We decided to overnight at a campground about 45 kilometers on the Slave Lake side of Athabasca. Under more pleasant circumstances, this would have been a marvelous place to vacation. Peaceful and quiet with a secluded little lake abutting the campground..... But no cell phone, poor radio reception and, to Sirius' shame, no satellite radio news coverage that I could find made this a poor choice for us. We were about second or third into the grounds but it was soon to capacity. Among those things I was going to do in preparation for this camping season - change the battery on the holiday trailer. I woke up several times in the night to start the truck and charge the battery to keep the fridge going.... but it's not like we were sleeping well, anyway. After we turned onto this highway (Highway 2), the pace of traffic slowly picked up. As we sat in our campsite, there was a never-ending stream of cars, trucks and RVs passing by on the highway. This kept on until about 3 or 4 in the AYEM. The next morning, my sons in-laws decided that they would drive to Whitecourt to visit relatives. We bid them goodbye with a promise to rejoin later - there always seems to be strength in numbers. My son and I left the ladies in the campsight and drove into Athabasca for supplies. The aid centre that volunteers had set up was already at overflow. We purchased a few groceries and made our way back to the campsite to discuss our options. A workmate of TJs had an acerage near Clyde, Alberta and we decided to press on. When we got to the acerage, my loving bride, Debbi, became worried about it's distance from medical facilities she has Crohns disease and some other problems as old age encroaches - and the stress of our situation wasn't helping) and the poor cell signal. We left our son and his family with some trepidation and pressed on to Westlock, Alberta. We were most fortunate to find a space in a small campground right in the Town of Westlock. Almost immediately we had volnteers bringing us bottled water, insect spray, pet supplies and instructions on how to get to the evacuation registration desk and other aid stations. After we registered, we managed to contact TJ and had him come into town to register. His wife was impressed with our campsight and, seeing there were several empty, she talked TJ into bringing his camper to town. No sooner had he returned from fetching his trailer, we heard that the area he was staying in was being evacuated because of a wildfire..... Stay tuned for our next episode.....

Alex, I don't believe there was anyway that anyone could have changed the outcome of the fire... the heat, the wind, no spring rains... The fire was "running ahead of itself" it's about the only term I can come up with. It went from "this doesnt look good" to "Get in the friggin' truck" in the few minutes it took to drive home and hook up the holiday trailer. I never did get an order to evacuate and I am amazed that anyone would wait around for it. When the power goes down and the cell phones go down and the radio station goes down - this should be a pretty solid sign that now would be a good time to get the fuck out of Dodge... An evacuation order is a decision of epic proportions. The cost, the nearly universal effect - this is staggering. Could or should they have called an evacuation that morning? I can only answer that by saying that hindsight is always 20/20. I firmly believe that our emergency services did all they could. When the wind shifted and freshened (to 60 miles per hour), it was only a matter of minutes before all of our communications went out.