(written on the 14th}
It was another big work day today, decently successful.
The first car was going back to that 2013 Mazda 3 that needed struts. It’s supposed to be a relatively simple job, you know? You undo the sway bar link upper nut on both sides. You remove the lower bolt that mounts the strut to the knuckle. You loosen up the CV axle nut. You bang The knuckle down to get it off the strut. You remove the three upper strut mounting bolts, and then you replace the strut, putting everything back in reverse order.
Easy peasy, right?
Right. 😅
Well, the strut that was completely busted out didn’t have any way of securing it from the top, so I had to try and hold up the strut with one hand in the air, while at the same time banging down with the sledgehammer.
Not very effective, but not much else I could do. 😕
It took me 4 hours to do both struts. 😶
I had to grind off the paint on the struts, and grind the rest of the inside of the knuckle as well to get it to work. And it took a heck of a lot of beating with the sledgehammer to finally get it to seat in and be on.
Eventually, I got it, but not before my sledgehammer decided to kiss an electrical connector, shattering it into I don’t even know how many pieces.
😬
I had just barely noticed that connector, and it just tried to move it out of the way, when it swung back down just as I was swinging the sledgehammer.
Boom.
Miraculously, there was enough of the connector left to still secure itself onto the receiving end, so it was still fully functional. I added a little bit of ultra gray to seal the side that I thought could possibly allow water in. I think the seal was still intact, but I added the ultra gray just to safe.
One job down.
The next job was going to a 2006 Honda Civic that wouldn’t start. I’ve actually done starters on that particular Civic twice before that. The original, and one warranty job.
Today was the second warranty job. Good gravy.
The next car was a 2007 Chevy Tahoe that wouldn’t start. Gratefully, I had come prepared with a starter, and the starter is exactly what it needed. Also gratefully, starter jobs on Chevy trucks and SUVs are easy, at least up until the recent ones where they got that stupid connector that’s impossible to get off without breaking.
It was about that time in the day that I decided to give the Dodge avenger guy that I had the wrong diagnosis for a refund of all my labor. That stung of the wallet a little bit, but I don’t want to Get it wrong and then charge them the full price anyway, So I ate the labor.
Ouch.
Fortunately, the next car was an easy one. It was a 2020 Jeep compass that just needed the auxiliary battery changed. Of course, there was a little bit of a hiccup with that one, as the Jeep was in a student housing parking garage, and apparently the rack on top of My work van was taller than the underside concrete beams.
😅😬😆
Oops.
I drove into the parking garage without any trouble whatsoever, but as I rounded the first turn, there was a beam that was a heck of a lot lower than all the others. As I rounded that turn, I heard a loud noise.
Mercedes but there was an exit sign hanging down, so I thought that maybe I had bumped into the exit sign or something like that.
I didn’t think much of it other than that, but then when I went around the next turn on the next level in the same location, I heard another bang.
So I got out and looked up and realized that my roof rack was maybe a quarter of an inch taller than the max allowed height, so I was banging into the concrete beam.
Lovely. They would bang into some of them, then pass just fine under others. Yeah, I just decided to get out and try to bend the rack, gratefully, I was able to do.
Once that was taken care of, the battery was easy peasy.
🥳
The next car on the list was going back to a Ford bronco that I had replaced a battery in a month or two before but had not properly reset the battery monitoring system, so I swung back to do that. I think it reset this time. My scan tool wasn’t able to do it. Didn’t even show up with a Bronco as a possibility.
The last car of the day was replacing a battery in a 2011 Toyota Tacoma. I asked him if he wanted to diagnosis first, but he said no, he wanted the battery, and then to have the alternator checked afterward. So I brought him a new battery, put it in, tested the alternator, and found that the alternator was bad, so I told him I’d get a quote for replacing the alternator later in the week. He wanted a factory alternator, so I had to call the dealer the next day to be able to get him a quote.
It was well after dark at that point, so I just headed home for the night.
I finished up the day with a little over 9 billable hours for the day, but I refunded nearly three, so It was a net gain I’ve probably 6 1/2. I sold some parts as well, so I got close to the financial goal, if not the billable hours goal.
Another day in the books.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 