Jim Warman

I had the most curious inspiration.... When you get old, you wake up in the morning expecting shit to hurt.... when you realize it doesn't - your day gets off to a pretty good start.... . I guess realizing you are still on the sunny side of the grass is a pretty good thing all by itself.... I hope all you young, healthy guys are feeling better....

I had one - installing the VDR seems to have cured it.....

Mikey got the election he asked for... I'm sure he would like to give it back, unopened. Baldy is happy - the Liberals are the best thing that ever happened to the NDP... And a Tory majority - I think there might be a God... and I think he is against long gun registration...

I realize that, but there is one less radical asshole in the world.... There's an old saying.... a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

It's about time........

Food for thought... is ITEC adding a core deposit on these things, too?

Tomorrow, May 2nd, Canada goes to the polls. Yes, we are in the midst of yet another federal election... mostly because we don't have the solid choice of "left" or "right" - we are a nation of ballot spoilers with the "Green" party who have no real platform other than what we are doing is "bad" and what they are doing is "good". With the Bloc Quebequois... a party interested only in a single province. The frogs are trying to treat the Anglaise much like Alabama tried treating the blacks in the 60s. Their only role in Canadian politics is as a spoiler. They dissent and my tax dollars are used to research their dissent. The NDP and the Liberals.... WOW!!!! The NDP openly portrays Ignatief as the "destroyer of Canada" (check out some of their web ads)... yet they have indicated that they are willing to form a coalition government with "the man that will destroy Canada". A "coffee room" poll indicates that more than half of the guys in our shop feel that voting in an election is a "waste of time". WTF is that? You can take your smug little ass and never visit a polling booth claiming "what can I change?". If a thousand.... or even a hundred of you stupid little fucks would get out and vote... even if you vote for the wrong people, the wrong ideals or the wrong reasons... you can make a change... A lot of people have suffered... a lot of people have died so that you have the right to vote...

OK... if we don't drink the KoolAid you wont tell us what makes the WSM routine so bad? FWIW, "don't do this..." and similar statements deserve to be followed with "because yadda-yadda-yadda".

Hmmmm... that's what bulletproof offers for square coolers... Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever installed a round cooler into a late engine? Will it physically fit? I've never had the opportunity (nor the inclination until now) to compare the two side by side. We rarely replace round EGR coolers for leaking... but then the round coolers weren't around for very long making any subjective comparison difficult. Unless somebody kept numbers????? On edit.... typos.... fucking typos....

I'd be considering injectors, too... But like Bruce says, you'll want to do some investigating to be sure this engine isn't a money pit. I might add a visual inspection of the turbo and intake duct (how many of the stock air filters I've seen with improperly installed lids.....) and probably a crankcase pressure test, too. Not very intrusive and quick to perform - be aware that if you have low pressure and non-contributing cylinders that crankcase pressure might be low BECAUSE of the non-contributing cylinders. Even if you can get away with just O-rings, seems to me 7.3 injectors are now cheap enough to be a good insurance call. FWIW, I haven't had much luck with FQR injectors.

Well..... at least it isn't fucking head gaskets and egr coolers or drooling fucking injectors....

Yes... remeber that the RUNNING requirements (especially on older vehicles) is much lower than the STARTING requirements. Bringing us to point number one. What does the customer think he needs/wants and what does he really need? Is his concern a parasitic draw? Is he looking for a theft deterrent? Does the truck sit idle for extended periods and he's looking for a way to reduce 'normal losses'? Does he have a real requirement for disconnecting the main starter feed? Or is disabling the the other 99.9% of the electricals sufficient? (Notice that a stock 7.3 has only one power "tap" at the right side battery - later trucks have power taps from both batteries). "Most" available manual disconnects are rated for 100ish amps continuous duty and surge loads to 500 or so amps - higher ratings are available but the minute you start shopping for "emergency vehicle" parts, the price goes up. If it's a theft deterrent, a little creativity is all that is needed. FWIW, if the customers concern is parasitic draw, you would be further ahead to try and have him fix the concern properly just in case the parasitic draw is just the tip of the iceberg.

That thing looks like it could be about half dangerous in the wrong hands....

Unplug the quick coupler and take it with you. I've seen guys mount them to the side of their tool cabinet with a pony length of hose to plug into the wall, too.

On the old side of the shop (built circa 1980) we rarely have water problems... On the new side of the shop we had to install water traps on all of the outlets. The company supplied these. What I don't understand... if you have a problem with water in the lines and the boss wont pick up the tab for a water separator, why wouldn't you buy your own? I wouldn't be happy about having to pony up for something I feel is a shop item, but I'd be less happy if I destroyed an air wrench because of water.

After all this time, I never realized that this was there... I think I may have seen the website before but never realized I could log in and be told my input string wasn't in the correct format Something Mum never told me... she always said to make sure your underwear was clean if you went away from home... but she never said anything about my input string...

We got snow last week... I put the car and the scooter back on the road and now everyone blames me. and ewwwwwww!! guess who forgot to clean the smoker last time he used it? Screw it... let's ride.

So... I'm in the middle of brining a turkey and making beef pies.. and I miss an overwhelming truth. The video isn't a Ford video as far as I can tell. As far as I can tell. It appears to be a production from Crossroads Ford. Apparently, this is a rather large group of dealerships. Once I saw this, I didn't spend too much time looking a the problem... What I did see is that the website will let you buy shit... but it wont allow you to tell them their ass is sucking slough water... This isn't surprising since my ISP, my utlity providers, my satellite TV provider and many other companies that influence my life do not give me the online capability to criticize their performance. I can tell the, they are doing good, or that they are doing good or that they are doing good. If they aren't doing good, I can call the "help line". I get to wait three days to talk to someone in Pakistan who will tell me that I need to call back later so that I can talk to someone that has a much poorer understanding of the English language. We will accept this as "normal".

Seems to be a common error. NOx is "oxides of nitrogen" and N2O is "nitrous oxide". The two are mutually exclusive. At the same time, Ford has fallen in to the perennial "then" and "than" conumdrum. We need to remember that the people making the videos are people that make videos... they do not have the foggiest idea of what makes an engine run. The narrator read the script she was given... from there we backtrack. Sidebar... we read manuals that are written by people that write manuals... they are not written by people that fix things... Everything we see and read in Ford documents assumes that we have some basic understanding of automotive theory. If it involves a pinpoint test... and that PPT has us perform a questionable or inappropriate test, we should do whatever we are comfortable with (if we are comfortable with testing a ground circut with an ohmmeter - we are in for a world of hurt). Bottom line... we all like to expect that our mistakes will go undiscovered... but if Ford paid thousands of dollars (if they paid ONE dollar)for that vid clip... they got fucked. And whomever approved it's release needs to be chastised.

My Dad went in mid 92... Mum went about 8 months later.... If you have something you need to say to someone you love... say it today... phone them up and say it now.... The last time I talked to my Mum, we argued.... and then she was gone.... I will never have the chance to say I'm sorry for uttering cross words. I can never undo what has been done. This only part of what makes GrampyJim. I can give you the full load... in three part harmony if you like... life hasn't been real kind to me from day one... You perservere... or you cease to exist...

Around our house (and I do have to mention that we don't go to church but we do celebrate many religious holidays - or at least acknowledge them), traditional Easter fare is either turkey or ham. This year I am attempting to smoke a turkey... Tom is about to take a bath in my brine solution... tomorrow will put him in the smoker and assume BBQ position number 3.... this position involves a lawn chair, a baseball cap with a favoured logo pulled over ones eyes, appropriate music (generally, '60s rock) and a beverage of ones choice. One should avoid any physical movement until the remote meat thermometer indicates something wonderful is about to happen. ("something wonderful"... my apologies to HAL9000).

[quote name=mchan68 Which is all fine and dandy. But what do you do' date=' when you get THOSE kind of customers that have THEIR mechanic, and only show up on our doorstep for stuff they don't have to pay for? [/quote] You document the piss out of your recommendations and do what you are told. I can't speak for anyone else but nobody ever told me that life was going to be fair. The leopard isn't about to change his spots for anyone. (Remember my customer that wanted a reflash to get rid of a persistant P1000 - every time he cleared codes, this code would come back). We can work WITH our team to try and affect a positive change - or we can be a thorn in their side making them all very happy when we leave. Me?- I'm happy with the few things I can do rather than miffed about the many I can't. Life is too short to take too seriously... On edit... what I did neglect to mention is that customers are feeling the same financial squeeze we are feeling... and we don't have to face those high car repair bills. We are, traditionally, $20 to $40 per hour higher than alternative shops... false economy for the most part, but customers seek comfort where they can find it... FWIW, if you look at the bad press some dealerships seem to be able to generate, is there any wonder that some customers are willing to visit shops less equipped than we are? One of the most important things we can do is work with a customer as best we can. Mayhaps we might win his business... mayhaps we wont... First we must attempt it.. and second we must allay his fears and gain his trust. If we aren't prepared to do that.... There's an old racers adage... "nobody 'prepares' to lose". Give it your best or don't fucking bother.

The really sad statement on affairs is that I'm not surprised that it has finally happened at least somewhere. Looking back over my long (but not illustrious) career, I lose track of the number of times people have brought me cars that wont start to make them start - even though the fucking thing wont stop if you do get it going. When asked "how long can I drive it like that?", I usually answer "how long is a piece of string?". Your shop has proven that common sense ain't and, at this point in time, there's a chance that every piece of equipment in the shop is suspect until proven otherwise.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune... but what better time to reiterate... when we are using great force or if we are using something sharp... one of our first thoughts should be "if this slips, where is it going?". The whole idea is to be able to go to work tomorrow... Stay safe.

We can't... we are going to be at the mercy of any shop that didn't perform a "filled the tank with gasoline" repair in accordance with Fords recommendations and failed to report the condition. Did something like that happen? I don't know... and it bothers me.