There are just some days I wish I didn't turn wrenches

Sometimes you just never know when something will happen. I just got off a call with my friend that owns a shop in Junction City, Or., that I was trying to get to work part time and I was supposed to be told in March what was going to happen. Turns out I am going to be called tomorrow and likely work there on Thursday and Friday and see how it goes and hopefully continue from there.

When it rains it pours. Just got a call from a shop that I had applied at 8 months ago, as a service advisor. The owner's daughter works there at times and is an auxiliary member at my American Legion. Her brother is the service manager and it is a 14 bay shop and he wants me to come in at least part time and whenever needed, full time as a service advisor. I am to meet them again at 10 am tomorrow. Better location than the other shop and this shop has 4 techs. One of the techs is a "green tech" and he wants me to help train him. That is right up my alley. It is a 5 day a week Monday thru Friday shop.

My interview this morning, for service advisor, went ok, except for the money and the fact that there is a homeless encampment on the backside of the building and in the parking lot there was an old Dakota with the bed full of trash, nasty looking tarp stretched over all of it and tarps across the side windows and w/s and trash on the ground all around it. Turns out that right across the street is a Lane Co. homeless help building full of them and they roam all over the area. The pay was $18 an hour plus 2% of the tickets that I would handle. His son is the main guy and I would be a back up. He wanted me to move my tools there and help train the green techs. 5 techs there and not one of them is ASE certified in anything. Not moving my tools where the homeless encampment is in the back.

The one job I been wanting starts tomorrow in the shop owned by my friend where I would be there just part time, for cash, and wrench a little and help sell work.

Once I got home from the interview and talked to my girl about why I was not taking the job and she was happy and then told me to quit moping around and do something on her truck or my Tahoe. Yesterday I did the door drip rail seals on her truck and I had the Dorman exhaust manifold clamp for the driver's side rear, of Tahoe, and decided to do it. It was a bit of a PITA. Took me 1.5 hours on my back while it was on jack stands. Removed the firewall heat shield and disconnected the front driveshaft and moved out of the way. Still very tight quarters. The lower bolt at back of head is easiest to get to while having the bolt in the bracket hole and finding the threaded hole while holding bolt and bracket with one hand. The top hole has less room but is easier to swing the bracket in to position and find the hole and get a couple threads started. Then you just hold your tongue right and thread bolts in with tips of fingers because there is not enough room to hold your palm back and reach with fingers to thread easier. I tightened down till the bracket was snug and then threaded in the bolt that goes in to threaded hole and ends up pushing the manifold tight. Then I used ratcheting wrenches and again held the tongue right and tightened all down but you really have no room for leverage to tighten very much. I then got an offset long wrench and was able to tighten down quite tight. The bracket bolts are 14mm, the firewall heat shield is 10mm and the 4 bolts at the driveshaft are 11mm. Only damaged the right hand in two places and most of this was done blind because you cannot see past your arm and hand.

First day turning wrenches in the shop in Junction City, Or. The 2006 F150 4x4 5.4 engine is being replaced and the transmission rebuilt with a new torque converter. I started at 10 am and stopped at 1 pm. Bagged and tagged the fasteners as I tore down and will be doing a cleanup on components that will be reused. Look at the flapper plates for the intake. I shot pics of all 4 on d/s and the other 4 looked the same. We are getting a new intake and actuator for the plates. This is getting many new parts as we go: Throttle body, radiator, fan blade and clutch, injectors, plugs, ignition coils are less than 6 months old-I installed them a while back for a misfire code, all mounts, belt, tensioner, idler, water pump, new reman FORD engine, oxygen sensors, a/c condenser, trans cooler, knock sensors, cam and crank sensors, receiver drier, hoses, accumulator, flushed a/c system, new transmission cooler lines, temp sender and sensor, MAF, purge valve, fuel filter, fuel pressure sensor and I am sure I have forgotten some things....Plus, he did some training with me on the shop management program and writing tickets the way they want and working on entering info in computer and finalizing tickets and billing out. Seems like will work great but I am just playing it by ear for now.

Going back to the shop in JC, Oregon on Thursday and Friday. Talked to the other owner/tech today and he said that as soon as we are on the bottom of the downhill side of the engine and transmission swap on the F150, we will be sitting down with the other owner of the shop and working out a schedule and how pay will work. They know I just want cash and only part time. The tech at the shop said it is ok with him for me to use his tools when I am there. He knows that if I move my tools to the shop, I will for the right set up, then that would mean more money. I can work with it whatever way we go.

Turns out that just being patient and turning down the service advisor jobs at the two other shops, was the right thing to do. Old as I am, I would have probably ended up listening to too much of customer's not taking care of their own vehicles and telling someone to "EFFFFF OFF" and walking out.

Back to work on the 2006 F150 engine and transmission swap today. Worked from 9:30 to 2:30. Removed: ignition coils, tensioner, thermostat housing/crossover housing, wiper arms and upper cowling, engine bay engine power control module and bracket, radiator, both heater hoses from the heater core tubes, finished removing harness connections for engine and a/c compressor, drained a/c system, had to hand wrench 6 mounting bolts for the a/c compressor and p/s pump-no room, rear ground strap and coolant tube mount stud at back of engine, hood coming off tomorrow and unhooking the motor mounts, pulling new engine out of Ford engine crate pod and mounting on engine stand and setting the old engine in the pod after exhaust manifold removal. Then parts swap and new parts installed that can be done ahead of time. Will clean out engine bay and prep for new engine install. Sorry, no pics today of all this but will get them in the morning when I get there.

Ok, the 2006 F150 is completely ready to have the engine jerked out. motor mounts undone, harnesses bungy corded back out of the way, flexplate off, oil dipstick pulled out, a/c accumulator removed and compressor is completely out, the condenser is out but I have no pic of that, battery and tray removed and then we discovered that the engine picker does not have a long enough arm to get the new engine out of the shipping pod so we can mount to the engine stand. Gy in a business next door has a fork lift but was not there. Some day next week, will get new engine out and mounted to engine stand and pull old engine and drop in the engine pod for core return. I will swap the exhaust manifolds over and whatever other parts I can install on the stand and then the fork lift will be back to drop the new engine in. I cut my middle knuckle on my left hand first thing this morning.

Good job buddy!