Originally Posted By Lee-online:
I did get the 627 done last week.  Did some troubleshooting on a 420D, needs an injection pump. Then got started on the next rebuild. An 836K with 22k hours.  Customer did drop all the pans and removed covers. They did an awesome job of washing it.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/101506/1000002004-3757057.jpg

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/101506/1000002001-3757059.jpg

Originally Posted By Dopple:
Pulled the drums off the camper.  Cleaned, inspected, repacked the bearings, new seals, everything looked good.  Batteries and propane installed.  Slathered some new sealant on the roof. I hate using that stuff, but until I can remove all of it, prime it, and use some quality stuff, it'll have to do.

Originally Posted By cat-mechanic:
I’d like to choke the fuck out of whatever engineer that designed the water tanks on Cat double drum rollers.

Remove cab.
Remove cab support.
Then you can remove tank.

I will say under the cab was a huge frame crack. So that’s a plus. What a mess.

Originally Posted By LittlePony:
Modern Cadillac is a joke, And it seems like they have been for a long time now.

This XT6 is like close to 80 grand.

And yet, when you push down on the dash controls, they squeak.

Intolerable.

Originally Posted By saturnstyl:
Its been a while.  Still doing diagnostic stuff.  Training some younger fellas.  Some get it, some don't.

I had a set of Hazet E torx sockets that went missing.  They don't make that set anymore and nobody makes an equivalent.  This set had overlap in the drive sizes.  Nobody makes a set like it, so you get like e4 to e8 in a 1/4" and e10 to e14 in 3/8, etc...  My set had through like e12 in 1/4 and e8 to e16 in 3/8 etc...  

Its cost me a fucking fortune to buy all the Hazet Etorx and there is nothing quite like them.  I don't like the finish or the incomplete sizes of anything else.  Tekton makes a set on a rail but you buy all three sets to get everything, and they are shiny chrome which I don't want.  

I've been going through my toolbox and replacing all my missing and broken tools.  I don't really turn wrenches much so its kinda easy to forget and I don't use any of these tools very much anymore.  It was a pretty good amount of stuff missing, but equally surprising was having every single bit to some of those screwdriver bit sets and stuff. Some of it was scattered but I recovered all of it and put it back in the case.  

So I've repaired and maintenanced everything and replaced everything and got a bunch of magnetic socket racks to better organize everything.  

Ebay has been a god send for individual sockets and other tools.  We only have good coverage from Mac.  He is there every monday without fail.  None of the other dealers come often or at all.  

Originally Posted By saturnstyl:
Its been a while.  Still doing diagnostic stuff.  Training some younger fellas.  Some get it, some don't.

I had a set of Hazet E torx sockets that went missing.  They don't make that set anymore and nobody makes an equivalent.  This set had overlap in the drive sizes.  Nobody makes a set like it, so you get like e4 to e8 in a 1/4" and e10 to e14 in 3/8, etc...  My set had through like e12 in 1/4 and e8 to e16 in 3/8 etc...  

Its cost me a fucking fortune to buy all the Hazet Etorx and there is nothing quite like them.  I don't like the finish or the incomplete sizes of anything else.  Tekton makes a set on a rail but you buy all three sets to get everything, and they are shiny chrome which I don't want.  

I've been going through my toolbox and replacing all my missing and broken tools.  I don't really turn wrenches much so its kinda easy to forget and I don't use any of these tools very much anymore.  It was a pretty good amount of stuff missing, but equally surprising was having every single bit to some of those screwdriver bit sets and stuff. Some of it was scattered but I recovered all of it and put it back in the case.  

So I've repaired and maintenanced everything and replaced everything and got a bunch of magnetic socket racks to better organize everything.  

Ebay has been a god send for individual sockets and other tools.  We only have good coverage from Mac.  He is there every monday without fail.  None of the other dealers come often or at all.  

Originally Posted By maslin02:



Do you still have a box in the shop? Or do you guys have like a CDT “area”?

I’m moving out of flagging hours as well, we have capacity in the shop to keep my junk in a box (we have built ins for a night shift). I’ll probably move from the middle down to an end box and thin things out, but a nice roller cart might be a better fit.

Originally Posted By saturnstyl:


I still have a box but I don't really ever get my hands dirty.  I have an apprentice that does stuff or I have other techs handle things.  See you in vegas?

Originally Posted By Lee-online:
I just unloaded a dead 140M, struck by lightning and everything got fried including the grade control. Looks like its going to be very expensive.

Not my problem though as I'm still working on the 936K.  I'm waiting on components, we'll put the new updated diffs in as there was a new service letter just released, got the two new $18K diffs but no availability on the new bolts that hold the ring gear on.

We are still swamped with rebuilds, currently doing an 836K, 988K 775F, 775G and a 982M, I'm doing another 836k as soon as i get this one done, same customer.
Two 775 are heading to the shop any day now,  a 990K towards the end of the year, an 826k is approved, a D11 and 777 are pending and another 982 and 775 are likely.  Next year a 988k and a 988XE are planned.
The 988XE with be one of the first to get a CPT. Maybe something a little different for a change.

Originally Posted By saturnstyl:
I spent the last few days at something called "National Dealer Technical Days" that Mercedes puts on at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas.  I had last been in 2019.

Monday was spent getting there.  Dinner at 6, and it was a long opening ceremony before dinner.  I was starving due to tight connecting flights and such and hadn't eaten since early that morning.  So it was probably 10pm my time before they unleashed the buffet.

I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a long time, and made a few more. Put faces to names.  

Mercedes seemed to spare no expense.  Maybachs everywhere.  Training stuff, assemblies, components, whatever.  They brought truckloads of stuff here.  They had the entirety of the convention center part of the hotel.  They probably spent more on snacks than the GDP of a small country.  Everything was top notch in my opinion.  

Time was the biggest constraint for me.  Badly jetlagged and in a very high bandwidth environment was working its magic on me.  Monday night I think I made bedtime at 1am my time, and I had to start the day at 6:30am vegas time which I believe is 3 hours later.  Probably not a big deal for the young guys but when I get locked in a routine it plays hell with my day when its disrupted like this.  Anyway 8am start time for classes.  Most classes are an hour, some are two, and they go until 5pm with a one hour lunch break.  

Drinking from a firehose of knowledge is all I can say.  They are sending out a ton of information very quickly in these breakout sessions.  Some are just sitting through death by powerpoint, others are hands on.  Demonstrating using multiple NVH sensors and how to locate noises with them was really cool.  Even when two sensors were just 3 inches apart, you could see which one was closest to the noise because the signal arrived first on the scope screen.

One of the things they have is called the "expo" and its a large room filled with vendors of various equipment selling there wares.  In between vendors the various Mercedes engineering departments had booths as well.  There were a lot of them.  Transmission booth, engine booth, brake booth, etc....  I saw a lot there, met a lot of people face to face, and learned so much in a short amount of time.  Highlights include a torn down M177Evo engine.  The M17x engines are a gigantic pain in the ass, and Mercedes made a lot of improvements to them.  Flat plane crankshaft, elimination of the "camtronic" variable cam lift system, and they eliminated piezo injectors which have been the bane of this engines existence since the beginning.  The transmission booth demonstrated a few neat things, like stripped teeth on a transfer case input shaft and a speed sensor pickup with reversed magnet polarity.  Lots of booths to visit and not nearly enough time to see it all.  

Classes are scheduled and an APP was used to track your schedule.  Some folks didn't follow it, they just did whatever.  I ended up in a class that was way over crowded and the content was not very engaging so rather than stand there for an hour I bounced out.  What I saw angered me.  There are guys out playing slots during class time.  Not many mind you, but that isn't what we are here for.  I ran up to my room and back, and spent the rest of the hour in the expo gathering all the information I could.  

That day ended and we met at a german restaurant across the street.  Mercedes hired security and we had crossing guards to get there.  It was 108 degrees outside, like stepping in to an oven.  The restaurant was fantastic.  More food than I could imagine.  We had a LOT of everything on the menu.  Soooo much foooooood.  Lots of waste.  The drinks started and just kept coming.  Appetizers to desert, everything.... lots of everything.  I cannot believe how much there was.  It was a good time.  

Wednesday I had to leave early to catch my flight so I grabbed a quick bite at lunch and took a ride to the airport to catch a flight that left at 2pm.  I got home around 1:30am thursday morning.  I have lots of notes and pictures to compile and share the information around.

Originally Posted By saturnstyl:
polished monoblocks rule the world