What are you working on today?

[BrianF]

Ball joints are in. Just need to torque the wheels. Both lowers had a bit of play, one upper was still usable while the other upper was toast. Its grease was like playdoh and plenty of slop.

Removing the last upper was slick, not needing much for force. The lower was the worst. I bent the cup as it only has two little tabs to take the force. I had to resort to smashing it out. Used a cheap impact socket and supported the control arm with a jack. With a little heat and a decent hammer, it eventually came out.

Prior to a test drive, I need to revisit the passenger side e brake again. Still not enough bite for my liking.

 

[ripcord]

Got an email that parts got delivered today so, I'll be replacing brake hoses and master cylinder tonight on my son's pickup.

 

[mattd]

Pulled apart the LML duramax today. I must say, these are the worst of the 3 diesels, by far, to work on. Looks like he might have been a little late on getting rid of this grenade.

 

[super20dan]

nothing ihave toyotas

 

[clinebarger]

Pulled apart the LML duramax today. I must say, these are the worst of the 3 diesels, by far, to work on.

I agree with that....Did you pull the cab?

 

[mattd]

I agree with that....Did you pull the cab?

No. Doing this in my drive way as a side job.

 

[clinebarger]

Finished up building the 4L60, I'll flush the coolers & throw it in tomorrow.

 

[clinebarger]

No. Doing this in my drive way as a side job.

That's rough brother!!!

 

[meep]

I installed my new set of tires today. I bought the vehicle last month and it had two cheap off brand Firestone tires on it called SureDrive that’s like their house brand and they were awful especially in the rain and very loud, then the original Firestone Destination LE2 tires on the back which were pretty worn out. Got these Yokohama Geolander CV G058 to try out and so far after 30 miles of driving they are spectacular. Quietest tires I’ve had in a long while. Ride like pillows. My dad’s been criticizing me over my tire choice since I got home telling me I needed to return these and get Michelin. Michelin are great and all but I’m trying to stay around the $600 range which these were $614 with my employee discount and the Michelin would of been between $800-$850 with the discount. I am bummed no white letter tires were available but that’s ok these do really well. Yokohama has a tire plant in a neighboring town to my hometown and work town and I know a few workers there. First time trying Yokohama and they haven’t disappointed so far. I also purchased a set of Goodyear Reliant tires for it from Walmart Black Friday deals and they will be here tomorrow I’m going to save them as an extra set and use them next time I need tires or sell them to a friend or coworker maybe. If they weren’t a good deal I’d not have bought them but for $96 a piece wasn’t bad. Normally I’d never consider Goodyear because of a few reasons but they were cheap. I’ll be doing an alignment tomorrow I was just too tired today.
View attachment 310856View attachment 310857View attachment 310858View attachment 310859

I’ve never had a bad experience with Yokohamas. They seem well made, hold up well, balance out nicely. Wishing you excellent service from them. My next set may be yokos.

 

[mattd]

That's rough brother!!!

Slightly regretting it lol. That rear EGR cooler going be fun to remove by the look of it if the owner moves forward with injectors/lines/fuel rails.

 

[clinebarger]

nothing i have toyotas

What is the point of this post? I promise you Toyota service departments stay just as busy as any other marques service department.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Steering rack on a 2012 4Runner. A rusty mess. Glad it’s over with lol. It was barely damp on the boots and the customer said replace it. Pretty costly repair. The steering rack was $1,300 and labor was another $1,000 or so. As much as I can I help the customer out but on this job you have to charge full price it takes every bit of the 7 hours especially with rust. Tomorrow I have two tickets scheduled for me already 4 tires and alignment that the lube techs upsold on Monday and the customer wanted some off brand cheap Chinese tires that had to come from the west somewhere, it was supposed to be done today but the 4Runner had been waiting for 7 days already so I had to do it and then I have a Tacoma that I rejected a few days ago for contaminated brake shoes from a leaking axle seal so I have to do the axle seal and rear shoes and drums and a re inspection. I do not want to do drum brakes lol. And who knows what else I’ll end up doing but I’m glad to be working for sure even when it’s jobs I hate doing lol. But I don’t want to be staying till 7:30 or later each day it’s getting old and working thru lunch. Our dispatcher isn’t the greatest and loads us up and we get backed up.

 

[clinebarger]

Steering rack on a 2012 4Runner. A rusty mess. Glad it’s over with lol. It was barely damp on the boots and the customer said replace it. Pretty costly repair. The steering rack was $1,300 and labor was another $1,000 or so. As much as I can I help the customer out but on this job you have to charge full price it takes every bit of the 7 hours especially with rust. Tomorrow I have two tickets scheduled for me already 4 tires and alignment that the lube techs upsold on Monday and the customer wanted some off brand cheap Chinese tires that had to come from the west somewhere, it was supposed to be done today but the 4Runner had been waiting for 7 days already so I had to do it and then I have a Tacoma that I rejected a few days ago for contaminated brake shoes from a leaking axle seal so I have to do the axle seal and rear shoes and drums and a re inspection. I do not want to do drum brakes lol. And who knows what else I’ll end up doing but I’m glad to be working for sure even when it’s jobs I hate doing lol. But I don’t want to be staying till 7:30 or later each day it’s getting old and working thru lunch. Our dispatcher isn’t the greatest and loads us up and we get backed up.

Was this a Reman rack?

Stop giving people "deals", You're not only hurting yourself but also devaluing OUR craft. I'm surprised the dealer lets you modify your hours in the first place?

Anytime you struggle with a certain task....Strive to be the best at it!!! I hated Northstar Cadillac's when I first started......Went & got a job at a Cadillac dealer, Worked my way up to world class technician status in 7 years.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Was this a Reman rack?

Stop giving people "deals", You're not only hurting yourself but also devaluing OUR craft. I'm surprised the dealer lets you modify your hours in the first place?

Anytime you struggle with a certain task....Strive to be the best at it!!! I hated Northstar Cadillac's when I first started......Went & got a job at a Cadillac dealer, Worked my way up to world class technician status in 7 years.

Reman Toyota rack yes. I can pick and choose hours for anything that’s not a menu priced item. For example I can’t change the price of an oil change and I automatically get 4 tenths but I can change the price of the steering rack so the book time was 7 hours but I could of asked 10 if I wanted too or 6 or whatever. Like today I also didn’t feel right about charging book price for spark plugs in a 4 cylinder Camry so I reduced it from 1.5 hours to .8 hours. I make a profit but don’t rip off the customer.

 

[53' Stude]

Steering rack on a 2012 4Runner. A rusty mess. Glad it’s over with lol. It was barely damp on the boots and the customer said replace it. Pretty costly repair. The steering rack was $1,300 and labor was another $1,000 or so. As much as I can I help the customer out but on this job you have to charge full price it takes every bit of the 7 hours especially with rust. Tomorrow I have two tickets scheduled for me already 4 tires and alignment that the lube techs upsold on Monday and the customer wanted some off brand cheap Chinese tires that had to come from the west somewhere, it was supposed to be done today but the 4Runner had been waiting for 7 days already so I had to do it and then I have a Tacoma that I rejected a few days ago for contaminated brake shoes from a leaking axle seal so I have to do the axle seal and rear shoes and drums and a re inspection. I do not want to do drum brakes lol. And who knows what else I’ll end up doing but I’m glad to be working for sure even when it’s jobs I hate doing lol. But I don’t want to be staying till 7:30 or later each day it’s getting old and working thru lunch. Our dispatcher isn’t the greatest and loads us up and we get backed up.

Get used to it brother. I wouldn’t complain as You are making money. Don’t complain about doing jobs either. Makes you look and sound bad. And trust me management will find out.

 

[D60]

2015 CRV: the owner's been living with a really bad brake shimmy for a year.

She just had two sick dogs: one (rez rescue) died after lengthy medical bills due to a hidden bullet he's had for four years, and he was already a tripod as a leg had been amputated at age 1 due to said bullets. The other dog randomly got cancer in a leg and had it amputated to prevent spread -- he's recovering now.

But she also has to make regular trips to ABQ for chemo for the remaining dog, and I told her she can't be making that drive with her dash shaking every time she brakes.

Rather than contribute to her go-fund-me I told her I'd fix her CRV. I had O'Reilly turn the rotors ($20 ea) and found some Bosch Quietcast Premium pads on Warehouse Deals for $25. I re-lubed the slider pins and so for $65 my cost she got a full front brake job. It stops beautifully now.

The last time I was in this engine bay I found a huge rodent nest and a dead rat. This time I found a really old Light Stik (not mine) that had been melting on the exhaust collector for quite some time

If you ever drive across the Navajo Nation....you'll be glad your municipality has animal control. @GON knows

 

[mattd]

Owner of this lml may have gotten lucky. What I thought was metal mixed with junk turns out to be just junk in the VCV. Pulled the rollers out of the pump and checked the camshaft and they are all in excellent shape.

Unfortunately he ordered the incorrect pump for his application so now I have to wait for him to get the new one…getting cold here in the northeast quick might have to rent a bay somewhere for a day or so to get this back together! Was supposed to do this job in October but owner has been dragging his feet on ordering parts. Might be an extra charge if I have to rent a bay because I can’t feel my hands!

 

[wander2039]

Busy couple days and got alot cleaned up, remembered have 22 acres why am I looking at this? Was mostly waiting for gravel to get delivered. Got the shelves put up in container, organized container.. then cleaned the back and cab of the truck. Amazing how nice both are now.

Brush hogged the fence area I pulled out, around where I cut down some trees and a back area that hasn’t been touched in 40+ years. Hit a metal piece, hurt my feelings and almost my wallet. Moved junk mowers and couple tractor pieces to the back area. Got the junk wire picked up and in trailer.

Got the mowers, trimmer and post hole digger gas drained and ran until they shut off. Pulled the batteries to put in basement. Tired time to go back up to the noisey city.

 

[BrianF]

@wander2039 great work!! I did plenty of bush cleanup in my teen years. Since 2012, my wife and I have been living on acreages. Both of which had mature, overgrown yards, back 40s, fence etc. It never ends and I have a healthy respect for people that do this kind of work.

No pictures but I worked on the garbage skid steer snow plow today. Just prior, the forecast showed we are getting a pile of snow this weekend. Now it shows next to nothing until lat next week. Anyways, the thin metal bracket that allows you to bolt the pivoting blade frame to the skid steer mount, bends and cracks. I welded it again and tightened the 4 large bolts as tight as I ever could.

The adjustable spring tensioner for the blade always allowed some slop. I picked up several large washers (1.25" ID) to shim the spring. Hopefully it wont flop around like a drunk rubbie outside the liquor store.

 

[BrianF]

Took the Polaris Magnum out for a decent burn today and night. Once back in the shop I went to check the pil bath front hubs and bearing load. Well, not good, the bearings had play, way to much play. The fluid, a mix of #0 grease and ATF, had a bit of glitter to it as well.

Retorqued the hubs and changed out the fluid. I put in some Mobil 0w30 I had laying around, will use as a flush. Took another burn and so far bearings are good.