As another week end

draws to a close I'm reflecting on the week that has passed. It was a very good week for me. I learned some things at work, which is always a good thing, and in the process I didn't even take too much of a beating for the lesson I learned.....lol It seems the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. I'm not sure if that is just a sign of me getting older or what! But I now realize that I only know 20% of what I did when I was 18 and I suspect that percentage is shrinking every year!

A few days this week it was kind of slow at work so the asked me if I've ever worked on a thingamabob. I replied that I didn't even know what that was. They kind of chuckled and said "Well thats about to change, we need you to go fix this thingamabob." 4.5 hours later it was fixed. Needless to say, I was pleased.

I also was sent to look at a unit that had been going through alternators.This thing was charging at 15.5 to 17 volts. Anything over about 15 volts and you start getting codes and the idiot lights come on.

Note: The term "Idiot/Dummy Light" is no longer acceptable.....When in school and my instructor asked me what would happen if x,y and z happened I raised my hand and said that the "Idiot Light" would come on. The look on his face was priceless. After as short lecture on political correctness I agreed to not use that term again....in his class at least!

When I called my service manager to give him the run down on this truck and to pick his brain for ideas(we had already replaced the alternator and regulator two times) he said that he had the factory service rep with him and they wanted to come help...that means watch.... me. So at this point I'm under no pressure what so ever....lol.
I decided to start shooting wires, for lack of being able to figure out what else to do. Not really expecting to find anything, I actually found a piece of, for lack of a better word, fuzz caught between two connectors. How a peice of fuzz gets in between to connectors that are in constant contact with each other I'll never know, but after removing it and thinking "That couldn't be the problem" I was happy to see that it was the problem!

My apprentiship at Fords taught me two valuable lessons for being a mechanic:
1. Keep it simple
2. If you can't figure it out, start over. You probably missed something.
This is my additional rule:
3. Repeat #1 and #2 as needed until fixed!