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Im driving a 20 year old pickup. Im replacing the ball joints, tie rods, sway bar links, rubbers, and all the shocks. I have 20 dollar ball joints and I have 45 dollar ball joints(which are MOOG). Im going with MOOG. I would rather spend the money and replace them once instead of doing it twice at half the cost.. I plan on having this pickup a while longer. I do not want parts that are going to break in a year or stop holding an alignment as soon as I roll if off the rack.
You get what you pay for.
Im driving a 20 year old pickup. Im replacing the ball joints, tie rods, sway bar links, rubbers, and all the shocks. I have 20 dollar ball joints and I have 45 dollar ball joints(which are MOOG). Im going with MOOG. I would rather spend the money and replace them once instead of doing it twice at half the cost.. I plan on having this pickup a while longer. I do not want parts that are going to break in a year or stop holding an alignment as soon as I roll if off the rack.
You get what you pay for.
Well…..need to replace all the shocks and its getting all new ball joints. Running me about 357 for premium shocks and ball joints.
Still need tie rods. Hopefully I can replace everything and get it aligned….and I may not be running it up on 33s…I may be dropping it down on the ground. My buddy got himself a SR20DETT and will sell it to me for 1300 dollars. So I may rebuild my KA24 and sell it with the tranny and everything and swap in the SR20….not sure what I would need it, or what I plan on doing with this pickup….or what purpose it will serve, but an SR20 is probably going to fit in somewhere….or maybe an sr20 up on 33s….
Well…..need to replace all the shocks and its getting all new ball joints. Running me about 357 for premium shocks and ball joints.
Still need tie rods. Hopefully I can replace everything and get it aligned….and I may not be running it up on 33s…I may be dropping it down on the ground. My buddy got himself a SR20DETT and will sell it to me for 1300 dollars. So I may rebuild my KA24 and sell it with the tranny and everything and swap in the SR20….not sure what I would need it, or what I plan on doing with this pickup….or what purpose it will serve, but an SR20 is probably going to fit in somewhere….or maybe an sr20 up on 33s….
The servo action of the drum brakes help stop a car moving forward…one of the few benefits of drum brakes. When its moving backwards, it is much harder for a drum brake to stop the wheel because of the way the drum is designed….
But I agree….did drum in hat park brakes on a derdge this summer….major PITA with the halfshaft in the way. Could barely see what I was doing…
The servo action of the drum brakes help stop a car moving forward…one of the few benefits of drum brakes. When its moving backwards, it is much harder for a drum brake to stop the wheel because of the way the drum is designed….
But I agree….did drum in hat park brakes on a derdge this summer….major PITA with the halfshaft in the way. Could barely see what I was doing…
Could it be like a moon roof, where as power flowing from A-B opens(unlocks) and power flowing form B-A closes(locks) the door?
Also is that silvery substance just dielectric grease that is old?
But if the new actuator does not work, I can try to help you figure out a test procedure as well.
Could it be like a moon roof, where as power flowing from A-B opens(unlocks) and power flowing form B-A closes(locks) the door?
Also is that silvery substance just dielectric grease that is old?
But if the new actuator does not work, I can try to help you figure out a test procedure as well.
And another topic….I started with about half the training(or less considering I was not certified in anything with the ASE and most of the issues in the field is driveablility). But they are going to provide “student ASE testing” which I guess is basically the ASE test that you pass without the required shop time. And you get a student ASE certification…Im not sure how many peopel are familiar with that…
But the shops around here high at pretty high an hour. I was offered 10 hr or 17 book hour. Well he ended up just putting me on flat rate because its what the other guy was on, he didnt start on it, but he was on flat rate and it was “just fair” which I didnt really like seeing as he was new and got to start with hourly and I didnt.
But one independent shop back in my home town is hiring at 22-28 dollars book hour starting. Another location(which has heat and AC!!) is highering at 18 and hour, but the kicker is that they just renovated their shop and have a very high retention rate, the employee that has worked the shortest amount of time there was like 18 years. So maybe I will find a good shop. I want a family and its hard telling my fiance that she will probably have to work a job to help pay bills. I’d love to be able to work enough to allow her to stay home with future kids…or even just being able to find that perfect shop and work there until im too old to see the bolts without having to worry about where the next shop is that I can work at….seems like every tech moves from shop to shop every couple years or even ever few months…
And another topic….I started with about half the training(or less considering I was not certified in anything with the ASE and most of the issues in the field is driveablility). But they are going to provide “student ASE testing” which I guess is basically the ASE test that you pass without the required shop time. And you get a student ASE certification…Im not sure how many peopel are familiar with that…
But the shops around here high at pretty high an hour. I was offered 10 hr or 17 book hour. Well he ended up just putting me on flat rate because its what the other guy was on, he didnt start on it, but he was on flat rate and it was “just fair” which I didnt really like seeing as he was new and got to start with hourly and I didnt.
But one independent shop back in my home town is hiring at 22-28 dollars book hour starting. Another location(which has heat and AC!!) is highering at 18 and hour, but the kicker is that they just renovated their shop and have a very high retention rate, the employee that has worked the shortest amount of time there was like 18 years. So maybe I will find a good shop. I want a family and its hard telling my fiance that she will probably have to work a job to help pay bills. I’d love to be able to work enough to allow her to stay home with future kids…or even just being able to find that perfect shop and work there until im too old to see the bolts without having to worry about where the next shop is that I can work at….seems like every tech moves from shop to shop every couple years or even ever few months…
[quote=”adhtech” post=77354]hey eric i am working for a shop and am paid hourly and i’ve really come to like diagnosing electrical problems and i would like to go to school and i would like to specialize in electrical diagnostics but i’ve been reading about the whole flat rate issue. my question is if i got really good at electrical would i have any better leverage when it comes to wage. i know you spend a lot of time on the forum answering questions so thanks in advance.[/quote]
In answer to your question, if it is driveability, it may be paid flat rate as general diagnostic…then you get paid to fix whatever sensor or whatever you find to be bad. In some cases, there are exceptions…we had an old cadillac. Major wiring issues. Could not find it. Guy litterally tore up every peice of carpet trying to find this wire that was bad. After about two days, he figured it out and was paid for every hour he spent(or pretty close) chasing them down. A good/decent shop will pay you hourly for chasing wires in some cases.
I worked a summer in an independent shop(very short period of time actually). I had 13,000 invested in tools. I only lasted maybe 3 weeks. I was working flat rate at 17 dollars an hour. And I believe the shop rate was 55 o r 65 an hour. There were Three of us total. The owner, myself, and another tech. I had a year of formal training at school in Basic automotive electronics, steering, suspension, and brakes. The other tech had zero formal training and only a couple years of experience. Now the killer part. Two hoists and one flat stall.
I would spend most of my time sitting on my hands waiting for parts than anything. And the place he ordered parts from was the cheapest in town and they sucked. At least once a week it would cost me an extra two hours because they delivered the wrong ones.Or I would have one torn apart to diagnose, tell the owner, he would get prices on parts, call the customer, get their consent, order the part, wait for delivery, replace, and move on. This all wrecked me. And that doesnt include times the customer doesnt answer and you sit and wait two hours for them to pick up their phone….but usually by the time you put it back together and roll it out, they call and ask if you fixed it or not >:(
I asked one of my automotive instructors how he managed to book 50 hours plus. Turns out he had four hoists, a flat stall, and the alignment rack. He also told me the parts house was right next door and they were delivered extremely fast. The problem now is that shops put one tech on every hoist because it doesnt hurt them to have people sitting around with a thumb up their ass. It just means when they do get busy, work gets done maybe 15% faster, but it hurts everyone working there….
The absolute worst part, I had no idea what money I was making on jobs. I did not have alldata or any other website for information on diagnostics unless I asked the owner to print off something, and I only did that once. It made me feel ike an idiot for asking for a wiring diagram or sensor information. And I never knew what the jobs flat rate was. When I did quit his shop after a few weeks, I was turning about 4.5 hours a day…and I was usually there close to 9 hours. The other tech was turning about 5 or 5.5. But he did help me a couple times and was pretty good to me if I had a question and I tried to repay the favor whenever I could. And the owner was a chrystler/nissan master tech….he had to bust his ass to make 8 hours a day. He said he usually spent a good 12 hours a day at the shop plus saturdays to feed himself through the winter.
And it was hot, in the upper 90s/100s most of the time and no AC….Working on cars that are already 225 degrees in that heat sucks….and working on the cars in the winter when it was 5 degrees outside(temps in the summer here are easily 100s and in the winter -15F without windchill usually)…workin under a car and it would drip just right so that it your nose and went right into your eye or dripped into your crotch or anywhere sucks so much.
I am honestly thinking I made the biggest mistake of my life spending close to 45,000 dollars and two years of my life learning how to fix cars….No AC, always dirty(a little dirty is okay) but being constantly covered in grease and oil is not fun. I do not like spending 9 hours covered in fifth and having to come home and shower most of it off and being too tired and too broke to do anything beside go to bed….seems for every good story I hear about working with cars, there are 4 or 5 bad ones…. 🙁
[quote=”adhtech” post=77354]hey eric i am working for a shop and am paid hourly and i’ve really come to like diagnosing electrical problems and i would like to go to school and i would like to specialize in electrical diagnostics but i’ve been reading about the whole flat rate issue. my question is if i got really good at electrical would i have any better leverage when it comes to wage. i know you spend a lot of time on the forum answering questions so thanks in advance.[/quote]
In answer to your question, if it is driveability, it may be paid flat rate as general diagnostic…then you get paid to fix whatever sensor or whatever you find to be bad. In some cases, there are exceptions…we had an old cadillac. Major wiring issues. Could not find it. Guy litterally tore up every peice of carpet trying to find this wire that was bad. After about two days, he figured it out and was paid for every hour he spent(or pretty close) chasing them down. A good/decent shop will pay you hourly for chasing wires in some cases.
I worked a summer in an independent shop(very short period of time actually). I had 13,000 invested in tools. I only lasted maybe 3 weeks. I was working flat rate at 17 dollars an hour. And I believe the shop rate was 55 o r 65 an hour. There were Three of us total. The owner, myself, and another tech. I had a year of formal training at school in Basic automotive electronics, steering, suspension, and brakes. The other tech had zero formal training and only a couple years of experience. Now the killer part. Two hoists and one flat stall.
I would spend most of my time sitting on my hands waiting for parts than anything. And the place he ordered parts from was the cheapest in town and they sucked. At least once a week it would cost me an extra two hours because they delivered the wrong ones.Or I would have one torn apart to diagnose, tell the owner, he would get prices on parts, call the customer, get their consent, order the part, wait for delivery, replace, and move on. This all wrecked me. And that doesnt include times the customer doesnt answer and you sit and wait two hours for them to pick up their phone….but usually by the time you put it back together and roll it out, they call and ask if you fixed it or not >:(
I asked one of my automotive instructors how he managed to book 50 hours plus. Turns out he had four hoists, a flat stall, and the alignment rack. He also told me the parts house was right next door and they were delivered extremely fast. The problem now is that shops put one tech on every hoist because it doesnt hurt them to have people sitting around with a thumb up their ass. It just means when they do get busy, work gets done maybe 15% faster, but it hurts everyone working there….
The absolute worst part, I had no idea what money I was making on jobs. I did not have alldata or any other website for information on diagnostics unless I asked the owner to print off something, and I only did that once. It made me feel ike an idiot for asking for a wiring diagram or sensor information. And I never knew what the jobs flat rate was. When I did quit his shop after a few weeks, I was turning about 4.5 hours a day…and I was usually there close to 9 hours. The other tech was turning about 5 or 5.5. But he did help me a couple times and was pretty good to me if I had a question and I tried to repay the favor whenever I could. And the owner was a chrystler/nissan master tech….he had to bust his ass to make 8 hours a day. He said he usually spent a good 12 hours a day at the shop plus saturdays to feed himself through the winter.
And it was hot, in the upper 90s/100s most of the time and no AC….Working on cars that are already 225 degrees in that heat sucks….and working on the cars in the winter when it was 5 degrees outside(temps in the summer here are easily 100s and in the winter -15F without windchill usually)…workin under a car and it would drip just right so that it your nose and went right into your eye or dripped into your crotch or anywhere sucks so much.
I am honestly thinking I made the biggest mistake of my life spending close to 45,000 dollars and two years of my life learning how to fix cars….No AC, always dirty(a little dirty is okay) but being constantly covered in grease and oil is not fun. I do not like spending 9 hours covered in fifth and having to come home and shower most of it off and being too tired and too broke to do anything beside go to bed….seems for every good story I hear about working with cars, there are 4 or 5 bad ones…. 🙁
I just want to let you know that I hate babies. And also that I am a girl and I like ribbons in my hair…and I want to kiss all the boys.
I just want to let you know that I hate babies. And also that I am a girl and I like ribbons in my hair…and I want to kiss all the boys.