|
NCWayne
08-03-2008 15:57:38
|
I normally try to keep my posts and replys non personal but you crossed a line in your response calling me a "jackleg with a hammer and a cresent wrench and vice grips". I'm 40 and have worked on equipment all my life. I grew up working on local farm equipment and heavy equipment with Dad, spent 6 years in the Navy (got out an E6 based soley on what I knew not who I blew) here I work on steam turbines, 1200 psi boilers, heat exchangers, 4 different types of air compressors, pneumatic systems, pumps, valves, etc. Then spent about 6 years after getting out doing industrial maintenance, and working on equipment on the side, before going into it full time about 10 years ago. I might be a jackleg but three years back I did nearly a complete rewire of an AC125H American crane using nothing but an sorry, partially incorrect factory schematic (yes it was drawn wrong from the factory) and plenty of phone calls to the factory rep. If I hadn't had the industrial experience I would have been lost there because it had all Cutler hammer stack type switches. Try using a schematic that's not the best in the world anyway and figuring all that mess out after someone who obviously didn't know anything about wiring had been messing with it and had dozens of wires crossed up until it would only function partially in one of 5 modes, and that because they lucked out and had the mode selector swiches stacked wrong so they all opened their respective circuits at the same time. I never claimed to be the best but when it comes to troubleshooting I am damm good because I take the time to understand how the system is supposed to work so I know where to start looking and what to look for. Computer be dammed, the brain is the best tool for troubleshooting ever invented. Don't believe it I'll be glad to give you numbers and you can call and you can ask any one of the customers that I've repaired machines for over the years and ask them why they still call back when they have problems. Dad and I don't advertise but we stay busy by word of mouth alone, and that doesn't happen if your a jackleg. Based on what I see in the field if I had to make an assumption here I'd say obviously you couldn't troubleshoot your self out of a wet paper bag or you wouldn't have made the less than enlightened comments you did saying basically that trouble shooting anything was as easy as plugging a computer in and changing a part. So, enlighten me, what was the last piece of newer or older equipment you did any kind of troubleshooting on and how long did it take to figure out what was wrong and repair it, not just guess and change a part? That was my biggest complaint, you can get a machine running nowdays and not feel like you really "repaired it" because the only choice you had was to replace a part and you never really know what was wrong beyond a trouble code that disappeared. NO, I don't have the CAT softward for the machine I was working on and didn't need software to do the tests I was doing. The machine is nearly 10 years old and the only "software" needed is imbedded in the machines computer. If I did have "software" I could have plugged in my laptop and the machines computer would tell my laptop exactly what it shows on the machines display, code for code, nothing more, nothing less. If you think the dealerships guys could do any better spend a little time in the field with me and listen to the customers talk about the many "technicians" from the dealerships that don't know their head from a hole in the ground. Many can plug in a computer and change a part but they can't really troubleshoot to save them because they don't have a clue how the machine's different operate or what they are supposed to be doing in the first place. I know several really good guys at the a couple of the dealerships and they have no problem telling me the problems they see on and swapping info with me just as I do with them. Us real mechanics are a fairely small community and we have no problem sharing info when needed on problems we see. You see and learn something new each and every day and when you see someone with the same problem you help and in the end we all learn. Problem is most don't want to learn, the want to plug in and change parts.... Every dealership guy I know would tell you the same thing I'm telling you except for the fact that they can't really talk bad about their respective brands to a customer and expect to keep that customer using their machines or possibly lose their own jobs when their boss found out about their talking trash about their brand. All that aside, and onto the machine you seem to think I tackled with a hammer and a cresent wrench and vice grips and you seem to know how to work on. In lieu of software they have a service manual for the 320B that's nearly 6 inches thick and it's chock full of troubleshooting flow charts for the codes the computer spits out. One code, no problem, several codes maybe no problem. Get beyond that and you don't always know if one problem is causing another or if you replace the part to clear one code if another is gonna come, or anything beyond what the machines computer, the service manual, and your test meter can tell you. All I can tell you is if you can figure out how to climb inside one or more of a hundred different wires and figure out which two are shorted and exactly where in the harness the short is, or exactly what component or components are throwing the bad signal, based on a code which can have half a dozen different causes you'll be THE BEST MECHANIC EVER. If you can master that feat and write a book for all us jacklegs I for one will gladly buy one, and recommend them to all my dealership buddies also, and you'll soon be a millionaire and can finally quit going out in the heat and the cold, the dust and the mud, and sit back and laugh at the rest of us. Man I wish I could do that sometimes. You think terchnology saves fuel, maybe it does in some cases. Ask our customer that stopped using a 9570 Northwest friction crane for draglining and started using a newer Linkbelt. The NW's Murphy, using twenties/thirtys technology moved X amount of material a day using 30-40 gal of fuel. The Linkbelt moved less than X, slightly more than half we were told, and used 130 -140 gallons a day. That came straight from the operator whom we've known for nearly 8 years now, and his only praise for the newer machine was that it had A/C. Still even $10000 in fuel saved over years by technology -vs- $7000 spent in parts and another several thousand spent in labor troubleshooting, $14,000 last year on a new engine, seems to me the fuel savings due to electronics just don't add up to the cost of replacing those electronics unless the machinecan run for ALOT of years completely trouble free. As for regressing back to the '80's, many of the things being tried on the new machines had their roots in the 70's and 80's. Electric over hydraulic controls, CAT with their new AC electric driven D7 due to appear in '09, and I'm sure their are others I could think ofgiven time. They didn't work then becuase of technology hadn't progressed far enough, and they are having problems now because the technology is still now far enough along to be as bullet proof as is being claimed. Spend time in the field and really listen to what is being said vs just what you see in the trade publications coming from the corprate "suits" and you'll soon have a very different view of technology. But that's just the ravings of one of us jacklegs..... .
|
|
|
|
