Previous owner / Previous "mechanic" rant

[Beagle]

so I've been jacking with the Valdeez who's been dumping a quart of 15w40 every 100 miles and I find a couple of things that just royally set me off, every time.

Wire that went to something that isn't there. I looked at this turd for 20 minutes before putting a wrench on it looking for where this wire goes. I think I need a shop manual for a PSD because I flat can't tell what it went to. It has an oil sender kind of press on connector, and nothing to connect it to.

I found an o-ring laying in the valley. Did I lose one? Not a chance. They're all captured, they can't just fall off. Who left that crap there? Do I just ignore it or pull everything that is supposed to have an o-ring and check them? I know they are all there, I look at that junk when I'm putting it back together because I hate doing it twice. No, instead I spend 15 minutes looking around for where it might have come from.

I guess I understand hourly rate and who gives a shit about an o-ring in the valley when all the owner wants is a running truck but there's something in me that would make me embarrassed to know if I let a truck go out the door like that.

What's got me irritated now is I'd like to know what else they worked on so I could check all of that work. Slobs.

That is all. Thanks for listening. You're a great bunch of car guys.

(edit ... sloppy writing! PSD - power stroke diesel.. old body style. The Valdeez is an F250)

[Mater]

and this is part of why i hated working at the dealer. flat rate i treat cars as if they where mine even the turds so i would clean it up and make sure i left nothing. i was not paid well because of his

[Barry Donovan]

you should see what chattered into a quick lube...1992.

endless.

they got a wipe down if they needed it. I was actually one who taught that place to leave subaru skid plates alone.

they even changed alignment sometimes.. pansy asses with formula 1 fires.

a real eye opener is some military training. go fast and flawless doctor, and ape.. all at the same time.

I agree with the rant.

more to the point, the foreign object stuff..
if so much as a .25 inch lock nut was missing, the 56 foot tall bird ain't going nowhere.

[38P]

Dude, you'd have gone bonkers with all the hacked up stuff I've found on the "Speedway 7" project. It must have been rebuilt out of two or three cars by mopes who apprenticed at Jiffy Lube.

Now that it's a 2014 debut, I'm going to go back and fix some stuff I ignored in the rush for DW '13.

[midnightbluS10]

you should see what chattered into a quick lube...1992.

endless.

they got a wipe down if they needed it. I was actually one who taught that place to leave subaru skid plates alone.

they even changed alignment sometimes.. pansy asses with formula 1 fires.

a real eye opener is some military training. go fast and flawless doctor, and ape.. all at the same time.

I agree with the rant.

more to the point, the foreign object stuff..
if so much as a .25 inch lock nut was missing, the 56 foot tall bird ain't going nowhere.

Can we get that in English this time? Thanks

[Beagle]

Can we get that in English this time? Thanks

Barry has a unique way with words that you will get used to or after 50 posts, you'll get the decoder ring.

I wouldn't want my airplane to have a lock nut somewhere that nobody could tell me where it was missing from either.

[DanStokes]

Barry's "Special" - and we love him just the way he is. I don't yet have the decoder ring.......

And Beags - I feel your pain. Why I didn't make it as a flat rate mechanic.

Dan

[JOES66FURY]

dont even get me started on PO maintenace...I could go on for days....Hell, I could rant for weeks on previous mechanics that touched shit before I did...makes you want to find them and beat them to near death with a ford wrench....

[Beagle]

what's really messed up is that I'm a total pig and it still irritates me. I'm not worried about the half eaten oil soaked acorns, I *know* how they got there. They can stay. The o-ring still has me wound up. lol. I used to go insane at work when I would find things a previous tech support guy had left in place that should never have been left in place (software diagnostic logging junk mostly).

Maybe it's like a surgeon who can't find his watch after closing his patient and doesn't care. Tick tick tick. haha. We all know I love to bitch but man, does everything have to be such an easy target?

[Beagle]

Okay, I'm not so clever as I think I am. The connector goes to the water in fuel sending unit that somebody deleted, and the o-ring is from the fuel pressure regulator although I have no idea how it got out of there. Since I dropped an o-ring trying to put it in there and can't find the little bastard, I can see how one may have gotten down there.

so instead of a Rant, lemme tone it down to I still don't like it when something gets modified and there's no record of it. Maybe even "I understand now why my Dad always wanted to put things back together stock." or even worse, maybe I just need a Camry.

F* that. This thing was six camry payments and a camry will play hell pulling 5 tons of trailer. I should just stop being a pussy. Carry on!

[Silver68RT]

My '68 Mustang GT has been a worst case scenario for previous owner / previous mechanic screwing up anything they touched. It's been 3 years of fixing stuff, and I'm still not done. They even put the wrong pistons in it, so it's got something like 7:1 compression on a dual quad 390 with 427 heads and a big solid lifter cam. No vacuum for the power brake booster. Cracked leaf springs propped up with coil-over shocks. Oil pan dented in. Electric fan zip tied to 6 cylinder radiator and wired to heater blower switch. Missing lug nuts. No speedometer cable. Small block trans with no oil in it. Some ugly patches and dents in the floor pan. It just goes on and on.

[Deaf Bob]

How about a 57 Bluebird with a rebuilt 501 in it? Pistons were installed by factory manual, and marks on pistons pointing the right direction..
Actually the step was under the valves.. I turned them around and picked up power!

[Scott Liggett]

so instead of a Rant, lemme tone it down to I still don't like it when something gets modified and there's no record of it. Maybe even "I understand now why my Dad always wanted to put things back together stock." or even worse, maybe I just need a Camry.

OK. Everybody, listen up!! If you modify, or change the wiring in any way on your old POS, be sure to write down the changes and take pictures in case Beagle is the poor slob who has to work on it later on. Make sure to keep that folder with pictures in the car at all times. Are we clear?

[JOES66FURY]

OK. Everybody, listen up!! If you modify, or change the wiring in any way on your old POS, be sure to write down the changes and take pictures in case Beagle is the poor slob who has to work on it later on. Make sure to keep that folder with pictures in the car at all times. Are we clear?

Wish someone would have done that to the Fury...sure would have been helpful.

[SuperBuickGuy]

OK. Everybody, listen up!! If you modify, or change the wiring in any way on your old POS, be sure to write down the changes and take pictures in case Beagle is the poor slob who has to work on it later on. Make sure to keep that folder with pictures in the car at all times. Are we clear?

screw that.... I'm throwing 1 extra oil o-ring, and one 10 mm nut in every car he owns.