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Shop Experiences

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Shop Experiences Empty Shop Experiences




So one of the things I like about working in the Automotive Servicing Technology program is that every day is unique and different. Today stands out as one of the more interesting and amusing days.

Starting off with this morning I was told to figure out why one of the school's trucks (a 1999 GMC Sierra 1500 w/5.3L V8, Regular Cab, Long Bed) was displaying an check engine light with a code pertaining to an emissions thingy. I had previously diagnosed this problem as a unplugged, possibly missing altogether, connector at the component the code relates to. Since I suspected the connector was either missing or tucked where it cannot be easily reached from underneath the truck, I asked for permission to have the truck's 8 foot bed removed.

Although my instructor worked at a GM dealership for years, he never removed a truck bed despite how many mechanics swear by removing the bed for any work regarding the fuel tank and it's surrounding components. Instead he usually dropped the fuel tank, which is fine in itself, but is often a pain in the butt when it comes time to disconnect everything from the tank. And may God help you if that tank has any significant amount of fuel inside, even a third of a tank can create great difficulty once it starts sloshing about.

My instructor granted me permission and advised me to consult the Auto Body instructor as he has lots of experience with removing truck beds. But first, we had to move the Sierra out to allow another truck into the shop and get to our alignment rack for brake work. This truck was a Chevy Silverado with a crewcab and mid-sized bed. I volunteered to move the Sierra in part because I wanted to redeem myself after a terrible parking job with it last week after executing the same move I was about to do. The move in question is a S turn from the shop to a space in our parking lot just beyond the doors. I have a generously wide spot to work with, but the last time I did it I had done the S too narrow and ended up parking at an angle and too close to one of the neighboring vehicles. This time I pulled off the maneuver perfectly and after the Silverado entered the shop, I pulled the Sierra in behind it.

After asking the Auto Body instructor for advice, I unplugged two connectors, removed eight bolts, and with the help of four other guys, removed the bed. I'm quite happy that I choose that route because I had so much room to work with and had easy access to the wiring harness routed alongside the frame. The problem quickly revealed itself to be that the connector and much of it's wiring (known as a pig tail) was missing. The way to fix it was to pull up the entire harness from the cab back, pull it out to the side where I had more room to work on the affected area, and solder on a new connector.

That replacement connector came from another truck in the school's collection, a Chevy S10 Compact Pickup destined for the scrapper. Because this truck was already stripped of most of the valuable components, we had to push it up into the shop. First though, I had to move another truck that was in the way. This one was a Chevy 3500, complete with a crew cab and long bed. This massive heavy-duty pickup truck was in for some repairs to the wipers. Of particular interest to me was that this truck was equipped with GM's V8 Diesel, known as the Duramax. I happily got to move the truck a few feet forward. Of note I did this without being told to.

So after we cannibalized the S10 for the connector we needed, I got started on prepping for soldering while the S10 was put back outside. Now it was time for the heavy duty pickup to come into the shop. By this point the shop parking lot was getting rather crowded due to the arrive of a Jeep for a foglight replacement. Combined with the cars (and truck bed, we left it outside the shop) parked outside the shop doors, there was a tight squeeze for such a large truck (seriously this thing is almost as big as they come, only trucks with 4 tires on one axle are larger) and I stood at the front of the bay to spot the truck inside to ensure the driver didn't hit the lift and destroy one of the large tires.

In the process of backing the truck up for the turn into the shop, the driver (who was a fellow student in my class, but did not own the truck) backed into another car. The massive truck shrugged off the low speed impact like it was nothing. Unfortunately the car did not and the truck's high bumper had rammed into left rear corner of the car, leaving a dent the size of a football and badly cracking the left taillight housing. Worse still, the car isn't owned by the school and now my instructor has to contact the owners and explain to them what happened. Adding insult to injury, once the truck was finally inside, we discovered the student initially assigned to fix the truck outside before being reassigned to do the work on the Silverado had already fixed the truck. Thus we practicality damaged the car for no reason.

Apart from having a bad soldering iron, the rest of day passed without much incident. Until about 10 minutes before dismissal when we realized what would have to be done in that time. The Silverado needed to leave the shop, but the Sierra and its' bed needed to move first. The bed was being left off the truck due to both time reasons and because the instructor wanted to later demonstrate some smoke testing due to wonderful opportunity presented by having the bed off. Due to the time eaten up by bad soldering irons, my instructor had us move the Sierra's bed out of the way, then instructed us to then move the Sierra.

Time was then lost when the Sierra died after starting. After it failed to start on a second attempt and noting a change in the sound of the engine being cranked, I quickly checked the computer and found a code for the fuel system. I already was wondering if the truck was suffering fuel starvation as the tank is usually kept really low to avoid wasting fuel should it sour sitting in the tank for too long. I then checked the electrical hardness and found that I had forgotten to tighten a ground I had removed earlier. After fixing that issue, the truck started up just fine and then ran without issue. After some more shuffling, the truck returned inside the shop, but the bed had to be left outside due to a lack of manpower to bring it in (class had been dismissed by the bell), somewhat precariously perched upon some stands.

All and all an interesting day. Oh yeah, I also got to show off my new PowerProbe to my teacher and found it quite helpful while repairing the harness. He said after seeing this tool in action first hand, he now wants to get one.
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