How'd it go today?

:lol: ahem....my equipment..er, that doesn't work either.......oh, c'mon, you know...machines & tools & stuff! There we go..;)
 
Small maple to take down, the one behind the fence, HO kinda got overwhelmed with the brush (behind fence) took a fair bit off sidewalk side and what was overhanging house. Finish up next week.
IMG_20150801_124019.jpg

Finally GF decided that after me telling her about her transmission cooler line leak at the rad for over a year, well, not me telling her, the gears started to slip while she was driving, swapped out her rad...she's been nice to me lately, so I decided to do it. I tell her, "When I frown, I don't like to do your work that pays nothing......best keep me smiling!"

IMG_20150801_154607.jpg

Then decided to add a few more stitches to my foot loop for my knee ascender, and fixed up my ascending bag. Nothing but the finest sewing. :O
IMG_20150801_195052.jpg
 
Sooooooooo ......

I fixed my truck that was fixed today.. Did some maintenance. Changed oils etc. Had an emergency split tree I went and guyed up this am.
Story behind my white F250
2nd tranny implodes in a month ... The F 350 had just got it's done.
I was pulling the dingo out of a back yard (engine blew on dingo) and blew the tranny on the F250.
So I have it towed to the shop that took care of the 350 tranny .....
I am told it was going to be more expensive for the 250 because of the type of transmission it is being HD and 4wd. Ok ... sooooo
I ask, since I have to put 1/2 deposit... probably not more than 2k? Ohhhhh he says.. it should not be more than that...
So I put a grand down and wait..... and wait...... and wait..... week goes by and he finally pulls the tranny. I figure, hey... ya know I kind of dumped this in his lap... only took a week after the last tranny pulled, no problem. And I wait and wait and wait.
Month goes by. I am told about the horrors of my tranny failure and made promises to.. I decide to make a couple uprades for a couple hundred more. It should be tomorrow and several tomorrows later I am harassing the guy that still has my newly rebuilt tranny in the back of his PU. Now I am feeling I might be having a relapse of anger issues.
I need my friggen truck.. I need to put a large chipper on the road and I need that truck to pull it.
Finally I get a phone call at work from his secretary... not the mechanic. 2800+ clams. Are fuggen kidding me?????!!!!!!!
He holds my repair up in the fuggen bermuda triangle he calls a shop for a month while taking in quick money in front of me and adds almost 1000 on the bill???? WTF?
Looking at the figures, he is basically charging me 1100 for a tranny exchange on top of the rebuild... 11 hours??? You fuggen kidding me.
So... we meet 1/2 way... I need the fuggen truck back.
SO I am told the transfer case was low on fluid as I am picking it up ... I remind him he topped it off prior to the tranny issue and got the truck right back. It must have a leak... Well he could not find the leak... Oooooooook then. We are in the store parking lot after picking it up and guess what we see??????
Dripping fluid... well hello there leak no one can find...... RIght out the out put shaft seal on the case... well geee. that was hard to find !
So I order a seal... figure I'll handle this Saturday(today). I crawl under the truck at the shop just to look a little closer at my situation as the transfer case really needs rebuilt or replaced. I figure replacement is my best bet.
They brazed the pipes for a hot air return to the engine on the CAT all fuggerd up. WTF. Not even totally done, holes not sealed. The dudes dad told me they had found this problem when they were under the truck that the pipes had broke. Bull shit. They removed the exhaust system to drop the tranny, cut the pipes and screwed up the repairing of the cut pipes.
I do the seal today, told the case takes 5 quarts of fluid. I drained it and could only get 3 in .... Seriously????
SO when I am picking up the new seal at the parts store... dip shit walks in all smiles... tries to kibbitz with me, all smiles... I tell him sternly about finding his mysterious leak... Ohhhhhh he'll take me right over to the shop right now and make it right.. I have the only seal in town for this, and he is assuring me he'll be able to fix this right now? Seriously??? Not that he knows this. I am ready to come un hitched. The last person that really needed to say a word to me is now right in front of me hitting me with more smoke up my arse. i DON'T EVEN GET INTO THE FUGGED UP BRAZING. Then he starts on how we should probably replace the bearing as well as that might be bad.. I look him straight in the eyes and ask... Are you so sure we should replace a bearing in an already messed up transfer case that I am replacing in the VERY near future??
I watched as is light bulb finally started emitting a dim glue.. "probably not".
Then I get real stern.. Bud.. You are NOT going to make this right. I will be more than happy to work on my Saturday (like you could have) off to make this right for my self as needs done so this truck gets to work on Monday. I can have this seal in the case in less than two hours including having to run for any other parts I might find buggered up (yes folks, had to replace some stripped out bolts on the u-joint thanks to his crew).
I took my parts and left. He tried 3X to talk me back to his shop and he was very lucky I don't want to go to jail.
Truck is fixed. Bugger off.
If I had known the tranny was going to cost this much with a couple of 100.00 up grades (if they were even done) I would have bought one on line and had it free delivery for less than 2000.00 and had it installed in a day or two myself.
Sorry... had to vent.
More tree work rolled in today...
Bills are all caught up...
Transfer case should be affordable in a week or two.. He quoted me 1500.00 with labor. I can buy one out the door for about 800.00. I wonder if he realises I have about 350 clients in my data base I see once in a while :/:
 
That sucks Stephen. Thats a good example of why mechanics get a bad rap.

Those transfer cases are not bad to work on. I rebuilt mine in a 93 diesel for less than half of the reman. I had to change the shift fork but the planetary was good.
 
Things like this are why I've resorted to doing all my own mechanical. I got tired of paying big bucks and finding things buggered up. I can screw it up myself for a lot cheaper.

Take a load off you need a break. Up here it's BC day long weekend! So a lot of us Canadians are having a good ole long weekend.
 
Working on that. Trying to get to a place I only need to really be in the field 4 days. The service or estimates on the 5 the day. Then two days off. Goal eventually, 4days on, two off rotation.
 
I could fill pages with stories about poor French mechanics, my favourite is when one garage replaced the gear box in my chip truck, I picked it up drove 10 miles and the gear stick came off in my hand!
I stormed into the garage and when I told him my opinion of the competence of his mechanic (his son of course) he opined that it was no big deal and asked "Other than that everything was fine though?"
 
My two personal favourite experiences were on the same car....
Body work done....
No cotter pin in steering arm.... Interesting at 65 MPH 4 lane freeway.
Bumper bolts not tightened and bumper falling off when bumped.
Ohhh I have a few too.......
 
So it's world wide then. I know how you feel Stephen, rip offs drive you mad.

My best two.

Drive shaft bolts came loose a few miles after getting a diff replaced at what used to be the best truck repair shop around. Lucky I felt a vibration before going onto the motorway.

Anvil bolts came loose on my chipper on the first job after Vermeer replaced it, because I thought them doing it would save me time. I had to fix it and the damage.

My brother said they had a name for it, I can't remember what it was but something like tea/coffee break tight [I'll tighten that later]
 
It's a newer shop in town and we really try to support local. Very disappointed. They did two jobs and did good. Always tried to see to stuff promptly. One of the partners always took good care about of Katy at other shops in the past. Sad really.
 
Since it became unethical for car repair mechanics to have playboy playmates covering the interior walls of their shops, a lot of good mechanics got out of the business. When a kid, I loved going to Reo's garage. ;)
 
My mate worked in a printing factory, maybe 10 blokes all with one printing machine. Each one had their own workspace plastered in pictures of naked women. It looked like a butcher's back room. Then, one day they all came down.
In hindsight it was all a bit much.
 
Never been quite sure why guys would want porn at work tbh.

Where I used to work years ago one of the crew brought a portable DVD player in, when such things were still a novelty. Apparently they watched a couple of box sets and in his own words, two or three hours of hardcore porn. Never quite fathomed that one.
 
Lol, there was a small engine shop here a long while ago, I went in there for what I don't remember, it wasn't my regular shop. There was a vcr playing a porn flick on the TV visible from the front customer area. It was 2 naked peeps on roller skates having sex while skating around. So utterly weird and lame. The shop didn't last long in business.
 
My whole feeling is that I GAF about what they may watch or hang on their walls.. I want my stuff fixed timely and don't lie to me. Don't cheat me. Do me right and do me fair.
If you are sitting around watching porn, chances are, you are not getting my work done or have a level of concentration to do it proper.
Also... Don't leave beer cans in the back of my pick up
 
Beer cans in the back, you say... unbelievable.

I guess they never heard of the Saint Valentine's day massacre that took place in a garage.
 
Roof coating job went well today. Not in as bad of shape as I had pictured from the description.

Couple hours of prep and a couple more to apply coating.
 
Back
Top