Final blog

This week we are putting together the engine that we tore apart. And we will find out if it seals up enough. But I will be putting together a truck that was in a accident after the engine rebuild. Here are some pictures....

This truck will need a new fender, grill, bumper, fog lights, head light, and a little bit of buffing. The driver said a car cut him off and he couldn't stop. 

All in all this quarter was good. I leanred a lot. Especially towards the end because of the engine rebuild. I leanred how to organize my self so that I can pull anything apart but I can also put it back together a week later with out forgetting how. By taking pictures organizing all the bolts with the correct parts. Marking things with paint pens etc. I look forward to coming back to school excited to learn more about the Diesel engines.

Hours  351 

Head gasket

Today me and vlad started pulling apart 734 it had its engine rebuild at Ik truck repair but they didn't torque the head right and the head is warped now. So we are going to JB weld it put a new head gasket and trade it in for a new truck. Here are some pictures....

Here is the parts we desasembled. Tomorrow i will remove the turbo and EGR.

Here is a picture of the individual head gaskets for the Mercedes's engine. I took off all of the houseings. 

We didn't get very far today due to time but I will have more pictures next week! I leanred how to brain storm a game plan first with your partner before beginning. And to always put the bolts back to where they came from. If u remove a part put its bolts back with it. So you know exactly what bolt goes where. 

Hours 306

Lock nut

This week I brought a truck in for a service and I noticed the tire was waring unusually. Here is a picture 

 

It's hard to see in the picture but the fourth thread line from the left is worne out a lot more then the rest. The only reason this can happen is cause of the drivers bad driving, king pin, or bearing.

I jacked the truck up and used a rod to see if the tire moved for king pin play. There was a lot of play. So I removed the tire and hub cap. And I noticed there was an older style lock nut but it wasn't even locked in... I spun the nut off by hand. That is why the tire was waring bad and had play in it. Here are some pictures....

As u can see it isn't locked in. 

I installed the new style lock nut and torqued it to the right amount. I leanred how important it is to observe tire ware. We got really lucky, that tire could have came off going down the high way and killed someone. The lock nut was factory so it had been running that way for a very long time. Also I leanred how to tongue the lock nut by reading the directions. I usually tighten all the way to set the seal and back it off till the tire spins good. That's how I was thought. I think I'll tongue it next time. 

Hours 261

Major air leaks

Today a truck was about to take a load and when he started his truck he noticed there was a major air leak after the governor cut off. And only one air tank was building air. So I told him bring it in the shop. Right off the bat I noticed a hose that was half way off on top of the air compressor I thought easy fix. But that was just one problem. Then after trying to figure out the problem for a while I asked Vladimir for help. So for the rest of the day I worked with him. He said to pull a piece off of the air compressor on top. Here are some pictures. 

After I pulled the top off we found that the gasket was broken. 

You can see the gasket right there. So then I made another gasket with the gasket material as you can see. But this that was the least of my worries because as I was pulled the top off I accidentally broke one of the bolts inside the air compressor.....

As you can see the far hole has the bolt in it still. It really sucked. So vlad and I used a chisels and hammer to try to rotate the bolt out. That did not work. So vlad had the idea of heating it up here is a picture 

This worked well we used the chisel after heating it up and it came out perfectly. Thank god vlad was there to save the day it would have been a bad day if it didn't come out the boss would have been very pissed off. But this wasn't the end of our problems. The problem wasn't fixed we still had a major air leak. By then the boss came to the shop and was pissed off that the truck wasn't fixed so we explained to him what we did and he said change the turbo valve, governor, and the filter. Just change more parts..... Vlad tried to explain to him that changing parts isn't going to fix the problem we are trying to find the problem. The turbo valve and governor don't need to be changed. But I changed the parts any ways while vlad tried finding the real problem. 

Here are the parts I changed. And it didn't help the problem at all. When the boss found out he thought I did it wrong.... Haha but I did it the right way thank god. But the boss was at a point where he didn't care anymore he said he doesn't care the truck is fine still builds air in one tank. The truck went to work. All in all not the best day. It doesn't help when your foreman doesn't understand it takes time to fix these things. It took about 6 hours and two mechanics and the problem still wasn't fixed. But he is the boss nothing we can do. What I leanred is to stay calm and have patients no matter what people say. Getting mad doesn't help. Vlad thought me that. And sometimes to take a stand and say no to the boss because you are the mechanic and to explain why you are right. And after they can do what they want. In our case today he let the truck go on the road to Idaho. It would suck if the truck broke down completely on the road. We will see what happens tomorrow. But other then that a good smooth week. 

Hours 216