My favorite JRitS posts of the week, Vol. 28

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
10/29/2017 at 13:00 • Filed to: justrolledintotheshop, just rolled into the shop, reddit, wrenching, fail

Reddit’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is a veritable cornucopia of the many !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of shop lyfe. You never know what’s gonna roll in. Here’s what caught my eye this week.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: Tuffhandy423

Barely bearing-ing

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: camerajack21

Wiped out

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: Nollieee

What the bucket?

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: bmxkelowna

If daddy finds out, he’s gonna get his belt.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: pimart

Good thing there was a handy-dandy chain to keep the rest of the transfer case from dragging!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Oi! Fishface! I got a car of dirt, I got a car of dirt, guess it needs an alignment!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Ford Explorer? Ford !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: EndlessZ33

Scavenger hunt! How many things can you find wrong in this picture?

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Of course, we gotta include this radiator, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :

Photo: MR2_FTW

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: _Bamboozler_

Bricks were shat, I bet.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: InLikePhlegm

Battery bypass?

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: domlang

PUT DOWN THE RATTLE GUN AND STEP AWAY SIR

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: hboatz92

Welld done.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: GuffDuo

There aren’t enough cuss words to do these justice.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: funkikomedina

Yes she has always complained about smell in her car and yes we always have to keep a straight face.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: ismellpoo

It’s part of a drive belt. Vehicle only has 7,000 miles on it.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: Noneexistantbeing

It’s always fun to rinse these off with baking soda and get a look at what’s left.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: YPG-Got-Raqqa

Now I’ve seen everything.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: DrunkontheEL

Looks like they didn’t tighten the slide bolts and they came out. Dealers In Atlantic city and we are in Philly so it made it that far

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: abblezauze

This is your friendly reminder to check your coolant mix.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: Icerex

Very very temporary

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: DeadStags

Obligatory tire post

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Photo: redalexdit

Obligatory brake post

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

DISCUSSION (12)

His Stigness > Urambo Tauro
10/29/2017 at 15:29

That Kia interior is going to give me nightmares.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > His Stigness
10/29/2017 at 17:57

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Vn0cJDABQ

benjrblant > Urambo Tauro
10/29/2017 at 21:22

I’ve not seen spark plugs like that before. What’s the reason for that design?

Urambo Tauro > benjrblant
10/29/2017 at 21:47

You mean why the weird overall shape , or why the two-piece construction ?

I believe the valve arrangement in the heads is what calls for the extended snout on these plugs.

As for the construction, I’m sure that’s a cost thing. It must be more expensive to produce the two pieces and fuse them together than it is to machine one-piece plugs.

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro
10/30/2017 at 09:53

Flappy the windshield wiper reminds me of a story. At my previous school district, part of my job involved taking students to competitions. Some of these were over 500 miles away, during the summer. The district had a fleet of ‘98 Chevy Ventures that received zero maintenance, save for the occasional oil change with diesel oil, courtesy of the district bus barn.

The first summer (2007) I had to take those kids, it rained. A lot. Revealing that the wipers had become just like flappy. I bought a wiper blade out of pocket. Yeah, just one.

The second summer I made this trek, the superintendent (currently under federal indictment), had decided that the district wasn’t going to pay ANY vendors from January 1 to July 1. Instead the district was going to hoard the money in the bank and collect the interest. The trip was the last week of June. The gas card they gave me didn’t work. Had to buy the gas out of my pocket (I did get reimbursed at least).

To give you an idea how badly maintained these vans were, they were at this point 10 years old, and riding on the original tires. Anytime one of us shop teachers reported a problem, like the one that had a leaky rear brake cylinder, we were told to bring it to the bus barn. The bus mechanics were busy working on buses (go figure), so their mechanics would just say it was fine, so they didn’t have to deal with it. Repeat until infinity.

Come summer 2009, I had already accepted my current teaching position in another district. Armed with the leverage of not giving a damn what they could do to me, I put my foot down. The only way I was taking those kids to Kansas City that summer, was if they put new tires on the van.

The assistant principal personally took one of the vans to the local Chevy dealer the week before, and got it new tires. When I went to go pick up the van, they had assigned the one with new tires to some football coach. The van was still at school, but he had the keys.

I refused to accept another van. That was MY van, and I was not taking kids on a 1200 mile round trip to Kansas City in van van with 11 year old tires. They dup up the spare key for that van, and I took it home for the weekend to keep it out of the coach’s hands.

Smash cut to a 100 degree day rolling into KC that Monday, and the AC goes out. A buddy of mine recharged it for me in the hotel parking garage with one of those DIY kits (again out of pocket) to make it livable for the remainder of the trip.

Every time I see a black Chevy Venture, which thankfully is less and less frequently these days, I have to resist the urge to burn it to the ground.

That district still has those vans. I wouldn’t doubt that some of them are on OEM tires still, and I guarantee flappy’s replacement is still there, likely flapping away.

Urambo Tauro > shop-teacher
10/30/2017 at 10:46

“Yeah, let’s pretend that cars don’t need maintenance, that’s always a good idea.”

benjrblant > Urambo Tauro
10/30/2017 at 11:01

Makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro
10/30/2017 at 11:21

Yeah. Imagine if the fleet manager for that construction company you worked for (Ha! Right, like they had one of those!), was in charge of the safety of children.

They were the same way with the buildings too. If it was something the public could see, they were on it. They were constantly planting new trees and putting in new park benches. The gigantic parking lots got sealed and stripped every year without fail (oh, hello school board member who owns a sealing and striping company!). They employed a full time painter who worked at nights continuously painting the walls of all the buildings. After I left they even hired a full time old fashioned sign guy, who would hand paint all the signs in the building.

But, when one of the sewage lift pumps failed at one of the schools, they refused to replace it. They just switched on the backup pump and called it a day. Which was fine and dandy until the backup pump failed. I think you can guess the results of that. Apparently shit really does roll downhill. The head maintenance guy quite over that one, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Urambo Tauro > benjrblant
10/30/2017 at 11:21

Yeah, I’m glad I haven’t had to deal with them yet. Apparently it’s a super-common problem (search: ford 3 valve spark plugs). Basically the snout likes to break off and remain stuck inside the head, leaving you to use an extractor or pull the head. If you’re careful AND lucky, they might come out without breaking.

After that, you’re faced with the choice of using stock plugs and doing your best to keep them from seizing (like anti-seize on the snout, or frequent removal for cleaning), OR you purchase stronger aftermarket one-piece plugs.

benjrblant > Urambo Tauro
10/30/2017 at 11:28

Kinja'd!!!

nope.

Urambo Tauro > shop-teacher
10/30/2017 at 12:33

Oh God. Yeah, I think that’d be the last straw for me, too.

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro
10/30/2017 at 12:58

Especially since he told them it was going to happen, and the still wouldn’t give him the money to replace the first broken pump ahead of time.