Technical WORST MECHANIC EVER............

Who is the worst mechanic you ever saw or dealt with..............

I used to think it was me back when I was 16 years old, but today I think someone took my title and it wasn't even close. I decided it would be nice to pick up a 350 core to save for someday. Perused the local Facebook Marketplace and found a likely candidate. Sent the guy an offer.
Then I saw another one that had an aluminum intake with it. So I shot him an offer too. Both guys accepted. First guy was moving and wanted to unload it. Fairly knowledgeable guy with a neat 51 Chevy coupe he was driving while modifying. Already had a 350 in it.
Second guy was much younger. Worked as a mechanic (* don't know what else to call him) at a tool rental place. Very nice guy. He explained that the block had new cam bearings he had installed, honed the cylinders, new rings and bearings (I think) and one new (used ?) piston. Anyway he was pressing a pin into the rod/piston and managed to ruin the piston, so he got frustarated and decide to scrap the project.
Now I'm not complaining cause I got everything for $200 and I figure the aluminum Weiand intake is probably worth a hundred. The thing that amazed me was the complete lack of effort to build the engine in a manner that would even give a marginal chance for it to survive for 5 minutes......... Below are the photographic details.











And we wonder why camshafts fail........


Does anyone know what this stands for?

 

A college friend brought her car to a guy who kept repeating that it'll be "the best car in town" after he fixed it.

This car had a rats nest of radio wiring and he was about to pull the car's whole wiring harness and he was swearing that the harness needed to be replaced so that it could be "the best car in town.

I called a pal who knew a lot about these cars, he was a fanatic for the brand, and I told him the symptoms. He gave me a couple different relays and I headed over to the shop with her.

We chatted and he verified his favorite expression several more times. My friend politely said she would prefer to pay him for his time and take the car. He stammered, deflated and confused but walked her over to the door of the garage. I popped in one of the relays and it fired up immediately!

It took all of the little self control I had back then not to slap the fender and yell, "you're right, it is the best car in town."

She later sold the car to my mother and I worked on that pile at least one weekend a month. It was NOT the best car in town.

 

I nominate myself. Body of work is far too extensive to list here...

 

TDL is 1980 350 truck engine, 155 horse, 4 V

 

My buddy R.. (RIP) We used to say he did tune-downs - everything he touched ran worse after he "dinked with it". Never read a set of directions or a service manual, and never left anything alone, even if it ran perfectly

 

My buddy would lock me out of my own shop when he was putting my motors together. He used to say me just being there was enough to fuck it up. I just wanted it to make it thru Saturday nite, he wanted it to last at least half a season.

 

I´m not a good body man either, but my wife´s suburban had both more and worse body"work" done to it in it´s past than I ever could have imagined. Still far from " good", but somewhat safed and back from the dead.

 

I had the long saga of the gearshift linkage on my DD. It's not so much a case of the worst mechanic, but of the failure of even otherwise good mechanics to think analytically. Background, when the original 1297 needed a rebore, I decided rather than to spend a lot of money on it instead to swap in a 1781. I noticed later that one arm of the gearshift linkage had been relieved quite heavily to clear the exhaust pipe just below where it attaches to the exhaust manifold. Even so, various people would subsequently struggle in vain to get the linkage adjusted just right: the stick was always a bit too far forward, and it was impossible to get into second and fourth all the way. I was repeatedly told by a variety of mechanics that the problem was with the shift forks and such inside the gearbox, leading me eventually to source a second-hand gearbox and have that fitted — to no avail.

Turns out, the 1781 had come out of a Golf Mk.3, which had a different exhaust manifold which placed the exhaust pipe further to the left than where it is on a Mk.1. Instead of swapping the exhaust manifold from the 1297 — AFAIK EA827 exhaust manifolds don't differ according to the engine capacity — the guys who did the swap ground a relief in the linkage arm. Now, there are so many Golf Mk.1s in South Africa that there should be at least one on a lift in every motor repair shop in the country. Why did it not occur to anyone to look under another Mk.1 to see why the gearshift linkage on mine was hitting the exhaust pipe? It required me doing that, literally years later. The answer was clear as daylight once I did.

Fitting a tubular header solved the problem — albeit one redundant replacement gearbox later.

 

I’ve seen a few and probably been involved in a couple myself .

I think the funniest/ worst one I ever had the pleasure of dealing with was when I was at a jag a mid 80’s XJS gets towed in needing “ full wire harness replacement “

the previous mechanic had the entire interior out of the car, dash, seats carpet. Most of the trunk removed and parts of the engine bay to replace the “ complete harness “ I poked around for a couple hours and discovered the key switch was the issue.

 

It always amazes me why so many has so much trouble solving electrical problems. Even among good mechanics there are many who just fire the parts cannon until the problem is gone, instead of spending a little time with a meter to narrow down what & where the problem is.

 

The parts changer one with out diagnostic skills. A local dealership replaced $900 dollars worth of parts to figure out the no start condition was a bad ignition switch. This was on a $2500 car.

 

It's really easy to spend other peoples money.

 

Use of households products vs correct is one of the major flaws I see. Extension cord wiring, drywall screws / roofing flashing / expandable foam for bodywork.

Rebuilding a SBC. There's so much info out there, you have to be pretty stubborn not to look at any of it.

 

IMO, It's a Problem to find a good/great mechanic along with the other Many Services we need through our lifetime. We all like to think we are dealing with professionals in all areas, BUT Sadly we are Not, again IMO in any area, 10% top notch, 20/30 % good to fair, 10% acceptable barely, the last 50% incompetent in their chosen field. I'm finding this especially true dealing with the medical problems associated with age, it'a a bitch getting old, but still walking/talking and making sense most of the time. LOL

 

Everyone has to start somewhere. Like Smokey Unlock said, everything is a learning curve. Give the kid a break.

 

I guess that's why I always end up taking apart the cars I buy from other people. I try not to, but it snowballs. Some folks just have no real ethics.

This was in the rockers of a car I paid good money for, so that I didn't have to start from scratch. So much for that...

 

I will.... its self evident with a look around... and yea its getting very important to talk about as hot rods in the not so distant future may be a moot point...

 

I have many stories of total failures with mechanical work under warranty on new vehicles through the years. IMO very few MR. Good Wrench guys I came across. The best vehicles were good from delivery, any problems seem to be a nightmare. #1 Back in 78/79 purchased a new GM cargo van set for a conversion, took it to CustomCraft, they did a nice job. The battery goes dead, jump it, take to dealer, check it out, can't find problem, battery dead again, again dealer can't find problem, blamed conversion company, again dead battery, take to a racing buddy's garage, finds bad connector on alternator within 5 minutes, problem fixed, 6 months later running poorly, dealer found the cam wore out, common problem that year, replaced under warranty, new cam/lifters, engine pukes just out of warranty, 12 months, 12000 miles, dealer and all the way up GM warranty ladder told me too bad, they didn't cover it, so now I had to build a 350 for it, that lasted 150,000 mile before I replaced it. #2 1988 buy a new Suburban and tranny pukes at 5000 miles, salesman at dealer tells service manager I'm hauling a racer around, too much weight, so I get a Suburban like mine from dealer (dealer owner good guy, sponsored race cars) load trailer with all contents, car etc. we go to gravel pit with service manager to weigh it, 5000# gross well under 6000# gross trailer for vehicle. Then I was asked why I took trans cooler off, now I'm really pissed, apparently it came off assembly line without it, it had a hose loop where it was supposed to be. The dealer owner speaks to rep and they fix ix under warranty, THEN about 6 months later we went to Chilli bowl, Tulsa Ok. ran it back non stop except for gas/potty stops, extremely cold that year and heater quit, ran it out of water, never noticed any thing till the next day, I dropped it at dealer, said engine noise. they called me, no questions/problems, put complete new engine in, found out common problem with bad head gaskets. So.......... I'm a SBS/BBC GM guy and had some great GM cars but was not always lucky buying their junk. LOL

 

You need to learn to walk before you can run.

you should always be learning in this trade and life in general.

strive to do the best you can.

but for some folks doing the shittiest half-assed job possible is what they strive for. Unfortunately the good and decent among us need to deal with shit sacks in all avenues of life.
It pisses me off to no end at work with some of the guys calling me for “ tech support “ and they simply want to know what part to throw at the unit. If there is any kind of diagnostic involved they throw up there hands snd say fuck it.
I’ve had guys call me on the way to customer site and flat out ask “ I got a fork lift with this code what part do I change “ I have now started to simply hang up the phone on them. Fuck em if you don’t want to even attempt to try and learn. And if it was the new guys I would not have an issue to correct this behaviour and teach them, but more often then not it’s the “ seasoned guys “ that have been doing this for years that are lazy snd don’t care.
Completely infuriating!!!!

 

There was a gent who worked in a local tire shop, nice guy but goofy and gabby. Watched them show him how to use the tire balancer several times, but he would always revert back- as he reached for the recommended weights, he would lean on and roll the tire about a quarter turn, then put the weight in the wrong place, run the balancer again, still out of balance, do it again and again, pretty soon would have 10 or 12 weights on it. Whitewalls/ white letters on the wrong side, cross-threaded lug nuts... His crowning achievement was when a very rich local brought in his Jensen-Healey, which is a pretty rare piece, for 5 new tires. Car was pampered perfect in every way, and the tires had been special ordered to match the originals. So they're not gonna let him mount n balance, just remove and replace, slow and careful. Get the four off and over to the machines OK, then, the spare- which has a retainer with a factory lock. So his solution is the hacksaw... Wheels back on, but the spare- they finally come over to see why he's still futzing with it, and the fit hits the shan- and then the owner shows up. And of course the key was in the glove box the whole time. Ever try to find a spare tire bracket for a Jensen-Healey? This before the Internet. They asked me to help, and a month and 30 phone calls later found one in a yard back east

 

I do most of the service work on my F-350 PSD 7.3 CC Dually & my custom enclosed car hauler trailer
because a warranty on the road means nothing
to me - being able to get up every day and drive
without incident - I would rather spend money on good food …..

Right now I am enjoying a good breakfast at
Keene Cafe - right off Hwy 58 just outside
of Tehachapi , California ….



A couple years ago I had a bank of injectors
replaced on my truck ( I don’t do injectors )
at a shop in Tucumcari, New Mexico right
across kitty corner from The Flying J.

Picked up the truck & noticed the fuel gauge
dropping & smelled diesel inside the cab.

Took it back - they said they fixed it - problem
still was there - I was headed west on I-40
so the next place I found was recommended
to me was in Winslow, AZ where I stopped
at O’Reilly Auto Parts for a recommendation.

And that is how I met Rudy - he met me at
O’Reilly’s and found the source of the diesel
fuel leak - fixed it in 20 minutes.

Rudy is now one of my trusted mechanics
that I need to travel the lower (48) states
transporting vehicles ….



Jim


Click Here To See Where I Am Today
What My Actual Customers Say Click Here
Click Here To See Vehicles I Have Hauled

 

a real mechanic

 

My Dad had a Datsun pickup years ago that developed a miss. His mechanic kept telling him different stories and replacing parts. One day my brother and I looked at it, and found that the mechanic wasn't even replacing the parts he charged Dad for, just cleaned them up and reinstalled them. We figured that out when my brother pulled the "new" distributor cap off and found it was well worn and burned up inside. When we pulled the rotor button, we found the source of the problem: a pinhole in the middle of the button, causing it to ground out through the distributor shaft rather than fire the next cylinder.

 

There used to be guilds, master craftsmen, mentors, and apprentices, etc. Nowadays, we have online trade schools that throw out 'lesson plans' that teach foregone, straight-line conclusions rather than critical thinking. Most schools crank out peeps that are educated beyond their intelligence.
Businesses will skimp on investing in on-the-job training because it's a loss to the bottom line today and to hell with the gain for tomorrow. Sole ownership, mom-n-pop shops that cared about their community and customers were once the norm. But those have been killed off and replaced by corporate stores with professional managers that have never worked in production. A "good employee" at a corp. store is one that can spit out a task in a shorter time than the estimate.

 

That story reminds me of a Linda Ronstadt song. (Willin)

 

That 350 looks like it was worked on by one of the kids would be in the Honda motorcycle shop I worked in during the summer of 1964 buying rings and gaskets for their Honda 50 or Honda 90 or other small bike and then Mom and little brother would show up on Monday with the bike laying in the back of a station wagon and the motor torn apart and in boxes or a dish pan with leaves mixed in. It was my job to take all the parts out of the boxes and clean and sort them and lay them out on the bench so that the mechanic could see what the real damage was. I told them that they should post a sign saying that there was an additional % fee added to the repair bill of any bike that was brought in in parts to be put back together and I think that there is still a sign to that effect over the parts counter in that shop.

The first task I had when I went to work for JT Carpenter in Waco Tx in the early 70's was putting back together a car that a kid he had hired out of a wrecking yard had pulled the engine out of. He had told the kid to pull the engine out of the customer's car and 15 minutes later the kid was back and said he had it out. Sure enough he had done just as he had done in the wrecking yard and cut every hose, wire and pipe to get it out. Luckily it was a pretty plain car that only had a couple dozen wires to patch back together and a few hoses to replace. Word was that that kid was back out working in the wrecking yard the same day JT fired him after he had worked a total of 15 minutes.

 

Pheeew, I thought you were calling me out...................

 

@ekimneirbo In your original post you said you wanted a core. It looks to me like that's what you got.

 

I ran into the worst mechanic in the world, back when I started out as a line mechanic! A OT Ford pickup six cylinder came in as a “ no start” . He drew it. Boss said give it a tune up, done, no start! Ground on that starter! So he replaces the carb! No start! Grind some more. He decides the engine doesn’t have enough compression to run! Engine gets overhauled! More starter grinding, no start! Now it needs a new starter and battery! This went on fo a week!Charlie , the mechanic next to me , and I would snicker, hearing thst starter grinding away! Finely, the boss puts Charlie, probably the best mechanic in the world, on it! Charlie had it running in about ten minutes! The first mechanic never changed the condenser! He said condensers never go bad! Two dollar condenser vs $1200 overhaul! That’s my candidate for worst mechanic ever!






Bones