This pickup was running fine until the key was shut off.

Complaint was that it would not start.

Symptoms are:

• Did not hear fuel pump kick in
• EASE Scantool shows that there are 28.1 gallons, yet the gauge reads less then 1/4 tank

At this point I’m suspecting the fuel pump, or fuel pump relay or even a fuse, but I ran out of daylight so will look at it tomorrow if it doesn’t rain.

What I wouldn’t give for a decent shop at this point.

Posted on March 7th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: 5.9L | No Comments »

This has been an interesting one and a good learning experience for me to get my skills up to date.

The driver complained that it would die when you shifted into reverse.

When I first looked at it, the air filter was filthy and the breather filter was missing so I immediately replaced both of those believing that lack of air would cause the problem.

Unfortunately it did not, so after studying the Mitchel Ondemand5 software for awhile, I decided to clean the throttle body and see if that was part of the problem.

While removing the breather hoses to get access to the throttle body, I noticed a vacuum hose that looked like it had a spot that had nearly burned through it, so I replaced that and sprayed the throttle body on the engine and put a can of Berryman Throttle Body and Carb cleaner in the gas tank and took it out and aired it out for about 10 miles.

At about the mid point, I put it into reverse and it still died and I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I needed to go back to my old navy six step troubleshooting training and thats when I pulled up a wiring diagram.

If you will look at this diagram, you will see that the transmission sensor switch goes to page 2 on pin 31.

When I pull up page 2, I see that there are only 3 sensors that are on this line, so I says to myself.
Idiot, why are you wasting time looking at all of the other possibilities when these are the only components that are affected when you shift into reverse:

• Transmission Fluid Temperature Sensor
• EGR Valve Positions Sensor
• Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor
• Throttle Position Sensor
• Intake Air Temperature Sensor

Now my electronic and computer skills tell me that the only possible one that is going to affect anything is the EGR Valve Position Sensor or the Throttle Position Sensor, so that is what I need to be focusing on and I will update this page as soon as I complete the repair as I need to order a set of OBD1 cables for my new EASE Scan tool as it only came with OBD2 cables for 1996 and newer.

I decided to look up some things to get an idea what it would cost if this actually is the component and NAPA has one for about 35 dollars.

Figure an hour labor and you’re not looking at too high of a repair charge, but I wanted to know how to verify that this part was actually bad and that led me to the following article that you can read by clicking here.

Its raining out today and I don’t have a shop yet, so I thought about hooking up my multimeter to it and testing that way.

But after reading the testing info again, I realized I don’t have a vacuum pump yet, so I will have to wait until I can buy a vacuum pum or the cables mentioned above.

I guess you know where my next available money is going now as I can’t fix these problems without tools.

Posted on March 7th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: 5.8L | No Comments »

Client found a replacement mirror on ebay for about 65 dollars.

Removed Door Panel and speaker so I could get at the wiring harness and removed mirror.

Took about 1 hour to replace the mirror and reassemble and test the mirror

Posted on February 25th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Ford | No Comments »

Placed the order last week and should receive them next week sometime and then I will put them in the mail.

Posting here for those that might not receive one in the mail and remember, pickup and delivery for lawn mowers and computers is available to Kerrville and Fredericksburg

Click on the picture to zoom in

Posted on February 21st, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Mailouts | No Comments »

I desperately need a shop to work out of.

Preferably on one of the main streets in Harper and I’m even willing to consider Kerrville or Fredericksburg.

Don’t have a lot of money.

Don’t have hardly any.

But given the chance, I believe I can build a business that will give my customers the most bang for their buck and bring some much needed jobs to Harper

Posted on February 19th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Escan Pro that we described the other day allows us to fix drivability problems because it allows us to see how the fuel injection and the catalytic converter are working together on your car.

But we still need a way to have bi-directional communications with the computers in your car and the EASE system will do give us that ability.

What does this mean to you?

Say for instance the fuel gauge quit working on your car.

With this new tool we can increase and decrease the fuel gauge to verify that it works.

We can turn on and turn off the fuel pump to verify that it works.

And if they both work, but the gauge still isn’t working correctly, we have the Mitchel Wiring diagrams to help us trace the wiring on your car.

If you’re having check engine light problems that nobody has been able to fix, give me a chance because even though I have 30 years experience working with electronic and computer systems of all types, I still need to become proficient with these test tools and that takes time and lots of cars to work on.

Posted on February 19th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

As many of you know, it is my intent to focus on the diagnostic portion of auto repair.

In other words, I want to be the guy that the mechanic shops between here and San Antonio and maybe even Austin call when they get a tough repair job that they cannot figure out.

Basically a “I diagnose them and you fix them and there is no charge if I don’t give you the right diagnosis”

This way it is a win / win situation for both of us.

Win for me because it allows me to make a living without a shop (none available here in Harper)

Win for you because it frees up your time so that you can focus on what you know best which is mechanic work.

I have received the first piece of software necessary to do this (Escan Pro) and I should be receiving the Ease Scan package next week sometime.

These two packages will allow me to diagnose drivability problems (Escan Pro) and the Ease package will give me the same capabilities that a Genisys or Snapon tool would give me, meaning that I will be able to have bi-directional control of all components.

Not going to lie to you because even though I have an electronics background and a computer background, I still need to learn how to interpret the results and this means that I need to work on lots of cars because this experience will allow me to start to see trends.

If you’re having problems diagnosing those tough repair jobs and you don’t have the time to become the expert on the computer systems in todays cars, give me a try because there is no charge if the information I give you does not allow you to fix the problem.

Posted on February 2nd, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Diagnosis | No Comments »

This riding mower was brought in with the mower portion not engaging.

Even though it says it is a Husky, I found that it was actually manufactured by MTD under the model number of 13AD771G731.

There is a “L” shaped bracket that mounts to the mower deck and the tension spring is mounted to this bracket.

The mounting screw was bent and would not tighten down.

This bracket also has a little hole punched through it that will fit through a hole in the deck to keep it in position.

Because the mounting bolt would not tighten down and I was worried about stripping it out, I added a bolt and a lock nut through the positioning hole to lock it in place.

After repairing that, the belt would still not tension properly so I verified that the new belt was the correct belt and then I noticed that there was another hole about 1 inch past where the tension spring was attached and I moved the spring to that hole which fixed it.

This tension spring operates an assembly that has two pulley wheels on it for the belt and it normally slides back and forth, but it was binding up so I sprayed it with WD40 and that took care of the problem.

Tested the mower and noticed that it did not release properly when you turned the mower portion off, so I adjusted the front tension bolt to let the belt disengage when mower portion is turned off and tested.

Posted on January 5th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Riding Mower | No Comments »

Posted on January 1st, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sent 156 post cards out that looked like this

click to zoom in

Click to zoom in

Posted on December 18th, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Mailouts | No Comments »