Burken Boys’ and Girl’s Journey

[Rocket Man]

I’m going to title this particular post - “Proper diagnostics - A Teachable Moment”

Javier informed me shortly after getting the truck that the horn in his F-350 wasn’t working so today he decided to get the horn working. I asked if he had checked the fuse for the horn and he said he had and it was good. As it is his truck, I am trying to let him do his thing and help when asked.

Ford installed the horn in almost the worst location, inside the passenger fender. I walked out to check on him after about an hour to discover he had busted off a couple of rusted bolts and had a few more where the panel clip nuts were rusted through and were just spinning on him. I helped him get that taken care of and finally got the fender liner out so he could get to the horns. We got the horns out and I suggested that we put 12V to the horns themselves to see if the horns had failed or there was a broken wire somewhere. Well, 12V made them sound off loud and proud. Well, that started me on my electrics diagnostic routine as he was already 2 hours into this project and I knew he wanted to do an oil change as well. 1st step, do we get power at the harness-Nope. 2nd step is the relay tripping when the horn was pressed-yep. 3rd step, is there power at the fuse which he said had tested fine? Well, here is the teachable moment. After having him show me the fuse location diagram for the truck, I discovered that the fuse location for the horn was empty. I grabbed a 15A fuse, put it in and viola! We were blasting a solid chord from under the fender. I told him in the future, he needs to make sure he takes his time and to make sure he understands what he is doing and to double check his work.

Had he done that, he could have avoided about 4 hours of work when all he needed to do was install a 15A fuse.

He also learned how to deal with busted off bolts, figuring out what hardware to get for the auto parts store like panel speed nuts, bolts, washers, etc.

At the end of the day, he got a 4 hour lesson on the benefits of proper diagnostics, how to deal with rusty and broken bolts and how part of his truck is put together.

I call it a win as I love watching my kids learn.
View attachment 367590

And that reminds me of why I don’t work on Fords. I swear everything is stupidly hard to service. The last time I helped my friend by working on his 98 F250, all I needed to do was replace the blower motor. There was this one bolt that they must have figured you should remove half the other things in the engine bay to get to. I ended up cheating by bending a few items since it was an old truck and nobody would know. It still took forever and a lot of cussing.

 

[iamdub]

At the end of the day, he got a 4 hour lesson on the benefits of proper diagnostics, how to deal with rusty and broken bolts and how part of his truck is put together.

I call it a win as I love watching my kids learn.

This!

 

[Tonyrodz]

I’m going to title this particular post - “Proper diagnostics - A Teachable Moment”

Javier informed me shortly after getting the truck that the horn in his F-350 wasn’t working so today he decided to get the horn working. I asked if he had checked the fuse for the horn and he said he had and it was good. As it is his truck, I am trying to let him do his thing and help when asked.

Ford installed the horn in almost the worst location, inside the passenger fender. I walked out to check on him after about an hour to discover he had busted off a couple of rusted bolts and had a few more where the panel clip nuts were rusted through and were just spinning on him. I helped him get that taken care of and finally got the fender liner out so he could get to the horns. We got the horns out and I suggested that we put 12V to the horns themselves to see if the horns had failed or there was a broken wire somewhere. Well, 12V made them sound off loud and proud. Well, that started me on my electrics diagnostic routine as he was already 2 hours into this project and I knew he wanted to do an oil change as well. 1st step, do we get power at the harness-Nope. 2nd step is the relay tripping when the horn was pressed-yep. 3rd step, is there power at the fuse which he said had tested fine? Well, here is the teachable moment. After having him show me the fuse location diagram for the truck, I discovered that the fuse location for the horn was empty. I grabbed a 15A fuse, put it in and viola! We were blasting a solid chord from under the fender. I told him in the future, he needs to make sure he takes his time and to make sure he understands what he is doing and to double check his work.

Had he done that, he could have avoided about 4 hours of work when all he needed to do was install a 15A fuse.

He also learned how to deal with busted off bolts, figuring out what hardware to get for the auto parts store like panel speed nuts, bolts, washers, etc.

At the end of the day, he got a 4 hour lesson on the benefits of proper diagnostics, how to deal with rusty and broken bolts and how part of his truck is put together.

I call it a win as I love watching my kids learn.
View attachment 367590

Valuable lesson learned for Javier. I'm sure he appreciated the lesson too--a better way to diagnose and/or trouble shoot.

 

[89Suburban]

Joseph is getting things ready for his lawn mowing business by switching his rider from its snow removal configuration to its grass cutting configuration.

Yesterday afternoon he was replacing the broken lower console on his riding lawnmower with a used one off of ebay and it had this “strange” plastic thing mounted where his rider has the cruise control lever. He couldn’t figure out what it was for so he asked me. I had to laugh because I realized he’s never seen a cell phone that would fit on this. I’m envisioning an old Nokia fitting in this perfectly.
View attachment 366588View attachment 366589

Doing the same here, putting the deck on. Hopefully it will dry out tomorrow and I can mow the field.

 

[wjburken]

Its been a while since I’ve posted here, but the summer has been pretty busy but these past couple of weekends have been busy with working on the boys trucks.

The weekend before Labor Day was spent working on Javier’s F-350. He had the passenger side front axle seal in the knuckle go bad and start coming apart so we had to pull the wheel bearing and the front axle. Iowa rust always makes stuff like this a challenge.

I didn’t realize that you needed a special $80 tool to press the new seal on before we started so we ended up making one with $12 of pipe fittings and some strategic use of a grinder since we needed to get the truck back up and running.

Once we got the seal on and the axle back on, Javier went about changing out the rotors and pads while we had everything apart. I enjoyed supervising that part of the process.

 

[wjburken]

This weekend was spent working on Joseph’s truck. We had been getting a gas odor near his truck after he filled up, but this past week, he found a puddle under his truck. Of course, he had just filled up his 34 gallon tank. When investigating, everything was dry around the fuel pump and fuel lines. It was wet, however, along the mid-line of the fuel tank behind the fuel pump where it sits up against the truck frame so i deduced the tank had rusted through. That meant a new tank at a minimum. We got a new pump and some other new bits to replace some rusted stuff. The fuel lines actually came loose rather easily so I decided to leave them be. Was kind of pushed for time so didn’t get any photos, but the boys helped. Was able to lift the bed up to give better access.

 

[adventurenali92]

Dang you guys put in some hard work! Still find it so respectable and amazing that you spend this much time helping your boys develop essential life skills! Hats off to your boys for be king willing to learn!

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I really enjoy watching this journey. BRAVO!

I had a similar one with my 2 boys 15-20 years ago, and there is nothing more satisfying than to see your children develop these essential life skills, and not have to waste their money needlessly, by having someone else do a job that they can now do for themselves.

 

[wjburken]

So……a couple weeks ago, the transmission in Javier’s F-350 took a bad turn. Getting anyone to look at it to see if it could be rebuilt was next to impossible. The ones that did say they’d be willing to try and rebuild were booked out a couple months and said it would cost about the same as a buying a rebuilt which was outside of his budget. We started looking at our options and found that my cousin’s son-in-law had a 2002 F-250 for sale with a blown motor that had the same transmission as Javier’s truck. $800 later, I had a working transmission that was wrapped in a truck still.

Today, Javier and I pulled the transmission from the donor truck.

Next is pull the transmission from his truck and install the donor transmission. Then I’ll try and recoup some money and sell/part out the donor truck.

 

[Sam Harris]

Another excellent learning opportunity you’ve taught your boy. (Actually all your kiddos, since they also know the scenario, even if they weren’t greased up to help with the work) great work as usual dad..!

 

[wjburken]

Well, we got back at it today. We got the transmission pulled from Javier’s truck and was able to get the transmission from the donor truck put in place before we got rained out. The fluid definitely had the distinct smell of burnt fluid. We did go ahead and replace the rear main seal while we had the transmission pulled. I’ve had a few people ask me if it was worth all the effort for a 21 year old truck that has 190K and a lot of rust. I think it is absolutely worth it. It’s been a lot of fun working with Javier on this project and whats better than being able to spend time with my son. Can’t believe he will be turning 19 here in a few weeks.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

"I’ve had a few people ask me if it was worth all the effort for a 21 year old truck that has 190K and a lot of rust."

Clearly those folks who ask you that do not know the REAL value of this project, as you so succinctly pointed out to them.

 

[Tonyrodz]

The donor looked in good shape--in the pics. Was/is it in better shape then Javier's? Other then the blown motor. Maybe you can mix and match and use the better parts from the donor?

 

[wjburken]

The donor looked in good shape--in the pics. Was/is it in better shape then Javier's? Other then the blown motor. Maybe you can mix and match and use the better parts from the donor?

It looks better in the photos than up close. The sheet metal was about the same on both. Javier did pilfer some parts off the donor truck, like the tailgate and front grill and air dam.

Limited on sheet metal swap options with one being a crew cab short box and the other being an extended cab long box.

Some of the interior stuff will likely be swapped, ignoring color differences.

He’s going to pull the alternator and some other parts from the donor truck as well.

 

[iamdub]

Some of the interior stuff will likely be swapped, ignoring color differences.

Color combinations exclusive to the Shitbox Edition. King Ranch ain't got shit on it.

 

[adventurenali92]

Man these kids are learning some seriously valuable lessons! I’m so jealous! I wish I’d learned my mechanical skills from my dad and had that bonding time! I only ever got to work on my truck alone lol.

 

[wjburken]

Success!

We were able to wrap up the transmission swap tonight and Javier’s truck is back up and running.

I think the smile on his face says it all.

 

[Fless]

Success!

We were able to wrap up the transmission swap tonight and Javier’s truck is back up and running.

I think the smile on his face says it all.

View attachment 383911

Before I read what you wrote, the first thing I noticed was his big smile. Good work all around!

 

[adventurenali92]

Nice work! Dang @wjburken he’s really your mini me…. Looks just like you!

 

[pwtr02ss]

Nice work fellas!

Lol at the "shit box edition* emblem.