Looks like it did a great job.

It worked amazing. I had 5 broken on this one. Wish I had it on the last 2 trucks I had broken studs on.

With my luck I'll never need it again now. I'll just loan it out to others.

That's how it works. I have some tools that have never been used because those jobs never came in.

Siliconing a Busch can to a thermostat housing won't stop the leak.

I have a real 'Duh!!' issue with my '99 Road King.



Upon recommendation by my boss, a fellow HD rider, I bought a bottle of Star-Tron fuel treatment. His directions for use were "One cap-full with every fill-up", and so that's what I used to measure out my bike's first dose. Everything worked just fine until the little white plastic disc inside the cap fell out and went into my tank.

Multiple attempts to fish it out have failed, and it's settled into a place that I can't see or reach with my flexible grabby-thing. It's been down there for almost 300 miles and hasn't caused an issue yet, but I want to get it out. I bought a few small mirrors but they have all been too wide to get past the small-diameter filler in the neck of the tank.

Autozone rents a borescope that they say will help me see the piece of plastic, and from there I should be able to retrieve it. It's $140 but I'm told that they'll refund my money when I return the tool.

At least I now have a project for the two weeks I'll be off at the end of the year for the plant shutdown.

We must've been on the same wavelength. Used that same kit Thursday to drill out 6 studs on a 3412.

Can you take the tank off and (after dumping out the gas) just shake it out?

I have only worked a handful of weekends in the last 6 years.

You say that now. You'll be back. Sundays even

Probably, I’m just a little intimidated by the number of hoses and other parts that are involved. Once upon a time when I worked on bikes for a living, gravity did a fine job of feeding fuel to the carbs. Now there is a fuel pump inside the tank, along with more hoses and emissions stuff under and inside the fuel tank.

I’ll have two weeks of crappy weather(I’m sure) to figure something out.

That's what i said when I took my job teaching. School is only open Monday, thru Friday, right? Nope!! They have crap going on all the time!! Parades (I had to drive the float to and from the parade), Recruitment days, school expos, all kinds of crap!!

But seriously, for all the time off I get, it's worth it!!

Im not so sure I'd be sticking a electric device into a tank full of gasoline.

Attached File


Something different... leaking rear bearing oil return line fitting on our helicopter. Took this while the cowling was up.

What happened Saturday?

You’re a ford tech right?

Maybe we can find one more spot to put a brake light.

He gets rear ended it ain't his fault.

ML350 diesel.  150k, been exposed to northern climate.  Towed in for an esp light, well that doesn't explain the puddle under it.  Has a blown brake line, which is a bit of a rarity for me.  I drive it in, see all the lines are crusty, send a quote for fifteen hours.  Out back it goes.  Work gets sold, I top off the fluid, drive it back in the shop.

Three of the four brake lines are here, and they are pre bent.  This is gonna be fun.  I start pulling the rear lines out of their brackets and see how truly fucked i am.  Then I see the right front.  It goes over the transmission tunnel.  Fuck.  I underquoted the shit out of this,  I've got to pull the powertrain.  It pays eleven to pull  motor, I'll take a beating but I'll survive.

I don't have the vehicle racked properly to pull the engine so I start it up and move it a smidge.  Back it up, straightened it up and pull forward.  Pedal goes to the floor.  Nothing.  I'm half hanging out trying to line up with the lift, and it won't stop.  I hit the park button and hear the clatter of the pawl overrun the park lock.  Next instant it's up against the tool box.  The tool cart is dead.  Vehicle has one small bump.   It makes a bit of noise when it impacts.  I get it centered and parked as the crowd gathers.  Well nobody got hurt, so there's that.

A few minutes later I'm going balls deep into disassembling this thing.  I noticed where I had one puddle and one dripping brake line, now  have two puddles and two dripping brake lines.  The other side blew out as I was moving it.  I feel like less of a dumbass now.  Good thing I sold all the lines.

And another tech turned in his notice.  That's two this month.  We are down a whole lot of people.

Picture doesn't show just how bright it is.

Damn it man.

Why are they quitting?

Burn out.

A bunch have gone to tesla so they can be lazy there and collect a paycheck.

The last one is going to be a lot lizard and do dent removal.

It's been difficult to get training.

Poor attitude.

Increasing complexity of the product with terrible support.

They on!y want the easy jobs that pay well, and basically refuse to do anything else.

They act offended when it's time to do a waiter.

Deliberately avoiding work, not turning hours as a result makes for a poor paycheck.  (I'd rather do nothing than replace or diagnose X syndrome)

The young guns are eager.  The older ones are angry about them being able to turn hours and make a decent living because they want to work.  This is one that I personally dealt with a lot coming up.

I've got a tech pushing 80+ hours a week, with nearly 40 years in.  Why can't a tech with 15 years do 50-60?  They were never willing to take on things beyond their comfort zone and make it into a good job.

We.have a young buck who took panoramic roofs and made what was a plentiful yet terrible job his bitch.  Now he seeks them all and destroys the.labor time.

I turned the airbag recall in to a game.  A competition for the lowest time.  We were distraught at the labor time of 1.4 hours for both.  I have guys begging for the job and a chance to beat the time.  The record is 35 minutes.   None of the guys who left have ever done one.

It's as if they are intimidated by the new guys who want to do well.  The new guys are doing more with less.  The old guys refused to use the resources they had to improve.

There was an odd trend amongst this group that they all for the most part would not buy tools.  This of course hurts productivity.  The guy leaving is the last of that group.

Sitting behind the parts counter, talking at length with anyone who walks by, watching YouTube, sitting in the booking office, and sitting in the advisors office is not being in your bay working.  You can only turn hours being in your bay working.  When you complain about your hours and it is brought up in a very detailed and documented manner that you haven't been working, you won't get the sympathy you believed you deserved.

Tech drama.  It's always been around.

A lot of this sounds familiar.  People constantly bitch about the high hours that I make, but can't seem to go 15 minutes without taking a smoke break around the back of the building, show up late, take extended lunch breaks, don't pull tickets, etc.  I just laugh as I watch my direct deposit notifications.

Had a wtf moment yesterday. At the gravel pit and the owner's son asked me to listen to a rattle on his truck. He thinks the injection pump is coming apart on yet another 6.7 powerstroke that he bought. This one is a 17 or 18 with 25-35k I bet. He found aluminum in the water seperate when he changed the filters. Had the same shit on the last one he traded in with 40-50k.

The wtf moment was when I noticed it has a vacuum brake booster. Every other diesel I've ever seen has a hydroboost. What's the reasoning for going backwards?

Tesla doesn’t pay worth a crap from what I understand.

I'm not sure a bore-scope camera would be an issue, but I'd be more worried about igniting the vapors than doing it in a full tank of gas. I could run the bike completely out of fuel, but then rust would be my main worry.

But it isn't flat rape, so there's that.

It's complete and utter chaos now.

I came in super late today.  It was not a good situation when I arrived.  I wasn't able to salvage anything really.  Taking tomorrow off, we were supposed to go spend the weekend in the mountains but the winter storm has cancelled that.  I went from okay, then okay maybe we should take my truck with mountain snowflake rated tires and 4wd,  to oh hell no we aren't going.  It looks baaaaad with an Asheville expecting 3-5" of snow and ice.  We would be returning late Sunday at what is forecast to be among the worst time.  I completely lost control of my corvette on black mountain in a light drizzle.  Fuck driving it in the snow.  Adding ice?  I'm staying home.

The girlfriend's 2010 CR-V is making this awful knocking noise when going over bumps, sounds like from the rear end but i can't identify which side. Also the gear indicator blinks while she's driving as does the veh stability light and brake light which randomly come on.

Of course she never noticed the noise and didn't mention the lights / blinking that started a week ago

honestly it's a beat up 250,000+ mile CR-V with inop A/C and a whole host of issues. I can slap a bandaid on it but in reality she needs to trade it in and find something else

Saved my FIL some money today

His f150 has the 4.2 v6

The coolant tube on top the intake corroded and was leaking.

So I used a blind hole bearing puller to get the old one out and then dabbed up a tool to press the new one in.

Shop was trying to say they needed to remove the intake for like $500. LoL

The guy I talked to that used to be a tech for them was $19 per hour clock time, no overtime.

Starting with MY12 all non DRW configurations have a vacuum booster. Cost savings is the reason I assume. I installed a salvage hydroboost on my 11 6.2; anecdotally the best upgrade for my brakes were Z36 pads.

The CP4 is a somewhat common issue in Powerstroke and Duramax MY11-present. Since the same guy had the same issue twice in a row, it is either a fuel quality/maintenance issue or a tune demanding more fuel than available causing cavitation.

A larger lift pump or dual hpfp set up can resolve the latter issue.

This was two different low mile, stock trucks, pulling fuel off a tank that 4-5 other 6.7s and 6.4s are filling from. I'm leaning toward bad luck or just more blue oval quality.

And it still won't budge.

Get a 1" multiplier?

I have a 1" t-bar.

My 1" multiplier is 18-1. Something will happen.

On of the problems is the engine wants to keep moving back when I try. I'm worried about ripping the mounts out.

Needs more

Attached File

There's no room to get a 3/4" impact on it?

One coming in the morning.

It fits but just makes noise.

Tool dealer: I have a socket made for that.

Me: I'll take it.

Five minutes later.

Didn't you say you only have a 3/8 air line though? 3/4"s and up need some air!

Yea those sockets are junk.

If you have the stick on weight for wheels that is a solid strip you can take it and wrap it around the socket 3 times and it may work. My Toyota buddy was able to do that on a Toyota.

Yes and you are correct. I keep the 3/4 at home for use there. It was a why not try this moment.

I have the IR one coming tomorrow.

Politics gonna politic.  Old foreman who literally did nothing is retiring.  Other team leader is taking his place.  From what I can gather, he can have it.  Expected to turn hours (which our shop has never required before) as well as foreman duties.  While there is a tech stepping in to his TL role, there is no other suitable candidate currently to advance.   So it appears that I won't need to worry about stress or a pay cut for more responsibility.  I like what I do, and I'm happy.  It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

During my one on one with the SM, my first so far, I demanded training for everyone, at least twice a year.  I was told to simply provide names, qualifications and suitable classes and it will happen.  I requested new hires for the express service team in order to promote my existing team.

I'm actually glad things turned out this way.  It gives me a chance to closely follow the events in ways I have not been able to in the past.  I can better prepare for the future this way.  Watching and listening.  I also don't have to deal with situations that are the foremans responsibility.  It's more customer facing and non stop problems than I want to deal with currently.  Being forced to handle that AND make hours isn't a position i cars for at all.  Pressure.  Pressure and more pressure.  I'm good right now and really enjoy things as they are.  I'm content to remain at this level of control and responsibility.

I'm not understanding how adding weight to a socket will result in more torque?