I’ve been a bit busy, but now it’s time to relate another of my many stories about mechanics who don’t get the job done. I once took my 1979 Ford pickup truck to a local Denison garage, for some sort of repair. I cannot recall what I had done, but whatever it was required the removal of most of the engine’s vacuum lines. It was also a repair that I could have done; I was just kind of busy then, and opted to farm the job out. The first issue was, I waited several days but heard nothing from the folks at the garage. I went by to check on my truck. The mechanic told me he hadn’t been able to get to mine because he was working on several other vehicles. I asked him if ANY of those vehicles had come in before my truck. He said they had not, but he worked on them first because they were smaller jobs. We then had a serious discussion about customer-friendly service, and FIFO scheduling. I think he got the point. In a few days, someone called to let me know the repairs had been completed. I paid the cashier, got in my truck, and drove away - for a distance of one block. I promptly returned to the garage, and told the mechanic that the engine was running very rough. He said - now get this - “I didn’t know where to route all the vacuum lines.” I asked him why, if he didn’t know how they were to be reinstalled, he had not marked each line before removing them. He said that he didn’t think about it. WOW! And, he’s a mechanic??? Not in my book. I drove the rough-running thing home, where I had all the Ford service manuals for the truck. It took a good part of an afternoon but, using the manual’s vacuum diagrams, I was able to correctly route all the lines. The engine then ran fine. Ask me if I ever let that mechanic touch another of my vehicles. Yeah, right!
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 03:01:52 +0000