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Just another day in paradise

Monkeywithawrench

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
Messages
281
Location
New Hampshire
I think someone does not understand that pricing of fuel is based at the 1/10 of a cent or 1/1000 of a dollar. It is never sold by 9/10 of a gallon.


Gas price wars (maybe back in the 50's or earlier) had sellers undercutting their competition by 1/10 of a cent when that amount of money actually meant something. This is how my father explained the situation to me. He owned a couple service stations and worked at many through his youth prior to purchasing his first. It was a good place for my mechanical head to grow up. It also taught me that I hate dealing with the general public.

I worked at a gas station (among other jobs) through high school and college. I have ALWAYS assumed that the 9/10ths were gallons.......not tenths. 54 years I've thought that.............so thank you for educating me. Always learning, everyday...........

Link to article regarding history of gas price fractions.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/energy/why-gas-prices-fraction-of-a-cent/index.html

The gas station was in Hingham, ma off Rt. 3 going to Cape Cod............met some veeerrrryyyy interesting people. One lady yelled at me because I couldn't give her directions to somewhere 6 towns away.............LIT INTO ME!!! Another guy pulled up in a truck that was burning oil.......full serve gas station......had me fill the gas and check the oil........shut off after $2...........nothing on the dip stick. Added 4qts (took the standard 5 quarts in that engine)...........he then asked if the truck could make it to Washington, DC ( I told him I don't think I'd try it........burning a crap load of oil)..........how much oil will it take to get to Washington, DC??? It was interesting. Learned alot there. All the skills a young boy should learn........lock picking, slim jimming, hot wiring (that's a whole new skill now), ripping cars apart and fixing them........all the skills a college student needs.
It was only later in life..........mid 40's that I learned to hate people and that most of them are useless.LOL
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,425
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
After returned from Ft Knox went back to work at a local station as I went thru classes at trade school. Used my taught skills as owner would allow and got three raises in ten months. His also was Full Service where Only he and the older men worked the pump islands and dealt with customers. Owner was always growling about malcontents and overly demanding people but worked into his seventies at the station.
 

Monkeywithawrench

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
Messages
281
Location
New Hampshire
I can't believe I forgot this one last night..............older lady came into the station and wanted to have the summer air taken out of the tires and winter air put in............straight face, dead serious. I was taught to respect my elders............and boy, was I confused. Had NO IDEA how to handle this. Went and got the manager, Dave (awesome guy.......I think that's why I stayed so long)........before I burst out laughing. I told him what she wanted. He said "I'll take care of this." He was being polite and sincere when he said that to me. Went out, greeted the lady, motioned for me to open the bay door, drove the car in, put it up on the lift, checked the tire pressure, made a show of putting the air hose on, backed it out..........more pleasantries........"Have a good day, mam'm." She pulled out some cash, he refused........no charge. He came in and said that's how you gain a customer. She was back having her car serviced until I finished college. Dave was a gentleman..........learned alot from him too!!

My brother and I had gotten our hands on some old snow guns from a ski mountain. They were updating their snow making equipment to newer more efficient stuff. One cold winters day............hadn't had any snow yet...........I brought a gun in and a 185 cfm compressor. This was on a Sunday. Hooked up to the fire hydrant, fired up the compressor, set the gun up on the corner of the building and started making snow in front of the bays. After about 10 hours of my shift I had a nice snow drift in front of the bay doors and pretty frosted windows. Packed up and headed home. Showed up at 3pm for my shift Monday...............There's Dave......Big grin on his face.........."We got a snow storm yesterday??"
He was more curious how I did it.............very funny. Wish I had been there when he pulled up in the morning.
 

Tags

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
1,610
Location
Connecticut
That’s a great story!

Let’s face it, all the work “we” do really isn’t life or death stuff, there’s no reason it can’t be enjoyed by having a lot of laughs along the way. Truth be told, if you’re miserable doing what you do, you shouldn’t be doing it.
 

mekanik

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2015
Messages
942
Location
Canada's Northwest
I used to work for a Kenworth dealership. They used to let customers in the shop to watch us work. There was a bit of theft. Never tools mostly shop supplies and such. The company charged 8 3/4% shop supplies on top of the hourly labor rate. Glass cleaner was something I could not keep on my work bench. It was always being taken.

One morning I was tasked with the job of installing two new windshields in a Freightliner cab-over that had just come out of the paint booth. Using a step ladder I sprayed the windshield gasket down with glass cleaner and carefully using a plastic window stick got the first windshield in place. Glass cleaner is the best lube I have found for installing windshields. When I went to get the can of glass cleaner to install the second windshield it was gone someone had taken it. I went to the parts window and got another can and sprayed the gasket down again and installed the second windshield. I needed to spray the gasket down again to install the lock strip but the second can had dissapeared as well. So I go to the window again for a third can. This time I took a razor knife and removed the label from the can. I installed the lock strip and cleaned the windshield and backed the truck out of the bay.

I was cleaning up and I noticed I had a can of spray contact cement on my bench as well. I used it to glue the foam rubber that was always falling off the inside of the Kenworth hoods. The can was exactly the same size as the glass cleaner can so I took the label from the glass cleaner out of the garbage and sprayed it down with glue and applied it to the glue can and left it on my bench. Sure enough the next day its gone. Whoever took it brought it back as it seemed to disappear and reappear on different benches in the shop.

There was a glass shop next door and we would get them to do some of the more difficult jobs. One day their glazier was installing a windshield in a Ford Louisville. when he was done he spotted a can of glass cleaner on a bench where he was working. He grabbed it and sprayed the windshield he had just installed with it then when he tried to wipe it clean the paper towel stuck to the glass. He was not impressed. Another time the service manager came out into the shop, he took his glasses off and looked at them and then took a can of glass cleaner off one of the benches and tried to clean his glasses with it. He was very pizzed!!

Every time I had new can of glass cleaner I would swap the label with something else

After that I could keep a can of glass cleaner on my tool box or bench and nobody ever took it again.
 

Monkeywithawrench

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
Messages
281
Location
New Hampshire
Mekanik.........that's awesome!!LOL Needed that chuckle first thing in the morning!!

Worked on tugboats out of college. Adventure and life at sea is for me (also a young mans game) Worked my way up to chief engineer and held a captains license. I would work on some projects in the galley sometimes. Quick, get it done types of things when we were trying to get under way at the start of the trip or return. The tools would end up getting piled up on a counter by the port side hatch to be dealt with later. The cook, John 'Squeaky'; would give me **** about getting the tools out of his kitchen. Sometimes I would procrastinate..............Squeaky was a great guy and a really good cook. One day I started my watch............into the galley for coffee, exchange pleasantries, talk to the 2nd engineer whom I was relieving about anything that occurred, then headed into the engine room. I descended the ladder to the lower deck of the engine room, with coffee in hand...........being careful not to spill the life giving nectar.............AND THERE ON THE BIG WORK BENCH.......WHAT DO I BEHOLD???
Most of the pots, pans, collanders, and other asundry cooking containers piled up and taking over the work bench.............with a note that I needed to wash every pot and pan before I put them away. I was laughing so loud, I guess the whole boat heard me. Squeaky had filled in the rest of the boat what he was going to do so they knew what I was laughing about.
Point taken!!! No more tools in the galley!!! LOL
Tugboating!! Its a contact sport!! 99% sheer boredom, 1% sheer terror!!!
 

mekanik

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2015
Messages
942
Location
Canada's Northwest
Back when sealed beam headlights were the norm we used to sell a lot of XtraVision and Silverstar headlights. They put out a bit more light and whiter light than regular halogen headlight. They didn't last as long but most people felt the trade-off was worth it. Some ran the replaceable bulb halogen headlights but in the winter with the amount of gravel they put on the road headlights had a short life expectancy.

One day I brought a truck in the shop and had four new headlights and the headlight aiming tool on the bench. I Left for lunch and when I returned all four headlights were gone. Someone had taken them. I went and got another four headlights and proceeded to install and aim them.
After I was done I took two of the headlights I replaced that could pass for new cleaned them and put them in the boxes from the headlights I just installed. I made sure at least one of the filaments was burnt out by feeding them twenty four volts from the battery booster cart. From that day every time I replaced a headlight if the old one was not damaged I would make sure it at least one filament was burnt out and put in the box and carefully glue the box shut then leave it lying around the shop. They would always dissapear after a while.

One day this guy comes in the shop looking for advice on why he had electrical problems with his headlights. He was an occasional customer that did most of his own work. I told him how to clean the plugs without damaging them and make sure he was using the ground in the headlight plug for his test light not the bumper.
The next day he shows up with the truck and I get the job of troubleshooting the light problem. It had two of four on high beam and one of two on low. Someone had made a new wiring harness from the plug on the firewall forward and did a real nice job.

I removed all four lights and tested the plugs and my test light said the headlights should work so I got four new lights and with them hanging from the harness I turned them on and all of them worked properly on high and low beam. So now the customer is a bit more than confused. I told him obviously the new lights he put in were no good. I finished the headlight install and aimed them and sent him on his way.

I went into the parts room to get something for my next job and he was in the parts room arguing with one of the parts guys. I heard the parts guy say to him "If you can show me an invoice where you bought those lights from us I will give you your money back".

I noticed after a couple months no one was taking the headlights that I was leaving out in the shop anymore.
 
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Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,535
Location
WWW.
Peterbilt encapsulated windshield-Sil-Glyde on the gasket or any other glass.

A blacksmith in my old home town had some stuff disappear when a certain person
would visit just before coffee and doughnut time in the mornings. The forge does
a wonderful job of putting a little heat on things.
 

Mike L

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,897
Location
Texas
Occupation
Self employed field mechanic
Holy smokes! Been helping out a local dealer with a couple jobs. Today I was asked to look at a cat 6.6 in a prentice crane. Had a noise and low oil pressure. Motor was just rebuilt. Engine had zero oil pressure and it sounded like someone was on the inside with a ball peen hammer trying to get out. Yanked the engine and dropped the pan. Pine needles in the base and a sliver of metal in the pickup tube.removed the oil pump which had been sealed with red silicone. Gobs of red silicone. Rotated the engine and found #2 connecting rod was loose. Hadn’t spun the bearing yet. everything felt gritty. Took apart the oil pump and it was smoked. Started tearing off the head. Not one rocker had any lash. Found 3 bent pushrods. Removed the rockers and found one of the valves had lost its keepers and the bridge was jammed into the spring. Pulled the head and found the piston had slapped the valve that was messed up and another piston had metal chunks jammed into the top of the piston. I don’t know where that metal came from. Removed all the pistons and #3 and 4 were waaayyy too tight. Damaged the heads of the external torx bolts trying to get them out. The whole thing is pretty much smoked. $28k for a reman. I don’t know how much it will cost to repair this one but they want to fix it. Tomorrow I’m finishing the tear down and sending the block, head , and crank to the machine shop. The story is that it had a ticking noise before the rebuild. a shop did the rebuild and it left sounding worse than it came in and now they won’t answer the phone.
 

joe--h

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
1,259
Location
Utah
You better read through Vtech's thread, you're headed the same way.

You getting their shop rate or your rate?

And find out if the machine shop is the same one that did the bore for the too tight pistons.

Joe H
 

Mike L

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,897
Location
Texas
Occupation
Self employed field mechanic
Interesting job yesterday into today. New customer called. Deere 437ex knuckleboom crane. Said it needs an injector, can you do it? Sure. Drive 100 miles south of here. We find the crane is turned around backwards with logs still in the grapple up off the ground. Operator isn’t there. Try to crank it and it will smoke but no fire. Plug into it and it had several vgt codes. Check the vgt linkage and it’s stuck. Remove the exhaust and the turbo is stuck but I can get it freed up. Tried to crank it and it bound up tight. Hmm. Think we’re beyond an injector. Turn it with an engine barring tool and it will bind up. Rotate it backwards and it goes almost 360 and binds. Well, it needs to come out. Tier 4 engine and it is in the top 2 worst engines I ever pulled. Layers of government garbage just to get to the engine. I’ve never seen so many sensors on one engine in my life. Pull it out, haul it home. This morning I take it apart and found this. At least I had my number one helper with me today.12F4C2B5-ED02-43DF-9674-E510A3783F3D.jpeg3DC01B88-801A-48D2-A1A7-672AFC09B8A1.jpegC4F63A09-DCBC-4F00-9631-C262EFD72F91.jpeg
 

Mike L

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,897
Location
Texas
Occupation
Self employed field mechanic
Went to Deere this afternoon to see about parts. $22k for parts plus my labor or $41k for a reman! $41k for a Deere 6068? WTF?!?! Granted it is a 2018 which is a 24 valve common rail engine but holy Moses on a rocket powered pogo stick!!!
 

JLarson

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
656
Location
AZ
Occupation
Owner- civil and heavy repair/fab company
Good old deere, I have to break the same news to a customer about a 750 tow behind compressor, ran it on gas for a couple hours, it took issue with that treatment.
 
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