Monday April 30, 2007

We started the day off by changing the end rods on a Ford Focus and then completing a four wheel alignment on it once the end rods were replaced. After that, it was taken for a road test and it was perfect so it was ready to be delivered to the customer. Later on, we did an alignment on a Mustang which was easy and was finished quickly, which was followed by a road test. After that, we took a vehicle out for a road test because the owner was complaining about a load grinding noise from the rear, the alignment was off and several other small things. Once we returned to the shop, we found the source of the grinding noise. The rear tires were severely cupped and needed replacing. That took up pretty much the whole day, tomorow we should pick up on what we left off on.

Thursday April 26, 2007

Today, I arrived as Richard was leaving for lunch. A mechanic named Jason, did not take his lunch and I watched him change a P.T.U. in a Ford Escape. A P.T.U. is a Power Take Off Unit, which assists in hard acceleration. I drained the old unit and watched the new one get installed. By the time this was done, Richard came back so I left to help him. We worked on a car that had been repaired earlier in the week. We needed to replace the steering rack then align it. After the alignment, we took it for a road test which revealed finer tuning was required. We returned to the shop and fixed it. This took all day, tomorow is an integration day so I will not be attending co-op tomorow

Wednesday April 25, 2007

Today I started where I finished off yesterday. I did an alignment on the car that I did the tire swap on. Then we took the car out for a road test and this revealed that a little more fine tuning was required before we could release the car to the customer. Later, I took off the front diff cover and cleaned it and refilled the diff with gear oil. Following this, an alignment was done to the same truck. That was all the time we had to work today, tomorow I hope that there is more work to do.

Tuesday April 24, 2007

Today Richard came back. To start off the day, I was told to change tires from a car that was going to the scrap yard to a customers car. This did not take long and Richard was not done lunch when I had finished. So, I just cleaned up some tools until he returned. After that was done, he took the car out and brought in a new one. I set up a Ford Edge for alignment after i rotated the tires on it. After the alignment we took it on a roadtest which revealed that the car pulled to the right. We changed a bolt on one side and the tire pressures on the other and this solved the problem. After that, I took out a cotter pin and a nut from a tie rod, then it was time to leave.

Monday April 23, 2007

Today Richard was away so I did not have much to do. I just went to the FastLane part where I started out at and just watched them do some work. It was easy work like changing fuel filters and rotating tires. Eventually, I was given some work. I changed tires on rims, from winter to summer tires. This was most of the work that I did. Tomorow Richard is supposed to come back so hopefully there is more work for me tomorow.

April 16- April 20 2007

At my placement, I feel very comfortable to try new things and to ask questions because I do not receive much criticism. But, when I do get criticized, I take their point seriously and try to improve on the next time. An example of when I have received constructive criticism is when I was removing the tire from the rim. When I was breaking the bead, I was doing it at the wrong place and they told me there could be a sensor there so I should do it in another spot. I took this to my mind and now I do it exactly as they showed me everytime. When something is difficult, I seek assistance and the mechanics are very accepting that I am learning and never hesitate to help me. I would consider this whole week to be a positive experience because everyday, the amount of work that I do increases. My whole work experience is an intersting one. I never do the same thing two days in a row and there is always a different twist to every unique job. My supervisor expects that I show up to work on time and everyday. He also wants me to always try my hardest and to enjoy my co-op experience at Oak-Land.

Friday April 20, 2007

Today was a busy day. I started the day out by sanding and grindaing rust and other impurities off of brake rotors and the fron hubs on a Ford Escape. This was done while Richard was on lunch. When he returned, we changed the tires on the Escape. This was a fairly easy job so I was told to do this. Once this was completed, the wheels were remounted in the truck. This was followed by a roadtest and then it was ready for delivery to the customer. After this job was completed, we needed to replace the powersteering pump on an older Ford van. This was taking longer than expected and was not completed by the time I left.

Thursday April 19, 2007

This day was a rather slow day. It was the slowest I have seen it for a month or so. But we still managed to find work for ourselves. We started off by doing some simple tire rotations. After there were no more tire rotations, we decided the start doing some P.D.I.'s. We did about 4 P.D.I.'s, this took up the rest of the day. Hopefully tomorow the amount of work is greater.

Wednesday April 18, 2007

Today, there was a meeting at Oak-Land Ford, so I did not have to return until 1:00 when the meeting was over. Since there was a meeting at the beginning of the day, there was no work for us to do. Since there was no work, we used this time to make the shop spotless. Also, I talked to some mechanics about possible career paths that I could take. Tomorow there is no meeting, so hopefully there is some work for us to do.

Tuesday April 17, 2007

When I arrived, everybody had already left for lunch so I did not have much to do. I just cleaned up some messes of tools around Richard's area until he returned. When he returned, there was lots of work to do. We started off with a transmission fluid flush. Once this was done, we did a complete brake job on a focus which included changing brake pads, machining the rotors and lubricating neccesary parts. Overall, I think that today was a very producitve day.

Monday April 16, 2007

Today was not quite as busy as the rest when I arrived. I did not have much to do when the guys went to eat, so I just cleaned up the area. When Richard got back we did an alignment on a Ford F-150. I have done alot of alignments, but never really explained what I do on them. First of all, I put on all the reflective heads on the wheels. After that, I go to the computerand start the alignment. After the alignment is complete, I make the necessary adjustments to the tie rods on the car. After the alignment, he brought in a truck that needed its driver side mirror replaced and had a leaking tire. Richard asked me if i could do the whole thing myself and I did. To replace the mirror you must remove the door panel and the door speaker. Once the panel is off, you can remove the bolts holding in the mirror and replace it. Once that is done, put everything back together. Once it was all back together, I checked for the leak in the tire, which was caused by a nail in the tire. Once that was done, I had to remoce the tires and calipers from a truck in order to measure the rotors to see if they needed replacing, which they did. After that, we I removed and cleaned the diff cover because we needed to rebuild the rear diff on the truck. We got a lot of work done today and I feel very satisfied with my work today. Hopefully tomorow is the same.

April 10 - April 13

Learning in the workplace is very different than working in school. THis is because I find that school is very theoretical and very practical. Sure, being taught how to do something is great, but actually being able to do it is a different thing. Co-op provides me with the opportunity to work in the workplace and get actual hands-on experience which is awesome. I reallly learning about anything that they teach me. They teach me a variety of things, from basic tire changing to special tricks of the trade that they use to make things easier. I would really like to know more about everything. Although I have learned alot at co-op, I still do not know everything. Next week, I hope the weather gets better so more people bring out their Mustangs to work on, because I really enjoy working on Mustangs.

Friday April 13, 2007

Today when I arrived Richard told me that we had a lot of work to do today. WE had to rebuild a differential out of a truck. It had a posi traction rear end and the clutch packs needed replacing since the car was jumping when it turned. This job consisted of removing the diff cover and cleaning it and removing the old gasket and replacing it with a new one. We also took out the whole differential so we could take out the gear in order to change the clutchpacks. This took the whole day and it was time to leave by the time we finished.

Thursday April 12, 2007

Today I arrived just as the lucnh truck came, so Richard gave me a job to do while they were eating. I had to change the tires on a car. The old tires were very bald so we put on new Pirelli P6's which are very good tires. After they returned from lunch we got to work on a Mustang. We replaced the tie rod on it. We took a break from the mustang once we finished the tie rod and aligned another car. After that alignment and road test, we aligned the mustang then did a road test on it. The road test revealed that the mustang was not steering straight so we did another alignment. This took up all day and it was time for me to leave.

Wednesday April 11, 2007

Today was a busy day. It started out with a Pre Delivery Inspection and a road test on the new vehicle. Upon arriving back from the road test, it was lunch time, so I just cleaned up while they were eating. After Richard came back, we did an alignment on a customers vehicle. After that, we had to replace an endlink on a customer's truck. It was a fairly easy job since I have done it before at Oak-Land. Since we changed a front end component, we had to do an alignment and take it for a road test. After this, the day was over. I can't wait to come back tomorow.

Tuesday April 10, 2007

Finally I am able to get back to work at Oak-Land. Today was a busy day. We started the day off by changing the end rods on a Ford Focus and then completing a four wheel alignment on it once the end rods were replaced. After that, it was taken for a road test and it was perfect so it was ready to be delivered to the customer. Later on, we did an alignment on a Mustang which was easy and was finished quickly, which was followed by a road test. After that, we took a vehicle out for a road test because the owner was complaining about a load grinding noise from the rear, the alignment was off and several other small things. Once we returned to the shop, we found the source of the grinding noise. The rear tires were severely cupped and needed replacing. That took up pretty much the whole day, tomorow we should pick up on what we left off on.

April 2- April 5

It's been over a month since I began co-op and I really like it. I think it is a good experience for me. It gives me a really good idea of what it is like to be in the trade, which I want to be in. At Oak- Land Ford, I always feel a part of the team. Everyone there treats just as they treat everyone else which makes me feel equal to them which creates a good atmosphere for me. There is no one aspect of the job I like the best. But, if I had to choose one it would be the people. I know that if I was working with different people, the experience would be totally different. I would like to be able to do more work on my own, but since I am a co-op student I expect to not have a lot of work to do on my own. I am suprised with the amount of work that I get though. Sometimes it can get a little stressful at my co-op, so when it gets stressful I usually just go grab a drink or a short 2 minute break or something like that. I received a compliment when I completed a bunch of tasks faster than they thought I would do it. ASking questions on the job is essential. First of all for safety, if you don't know how to use something, ask. Secondly, co-op is a learning experience and how can you learn if you don't ask questions.

Wednesday April 4, 2007

Today when I arrived, Richard was still working on that steering rack from yesterday. He had got the old one out and the new one in. But in the process of re-assembly the threads became stripped and it had to be taken out and re threaded. This was repeated again because it did not work the first time. In the midst of this, another mechanic brought in a mustang to work on. I like these cars so I left Richard for a little bit to go watch the work on the mustang. It was very interesting. It was at about this point that Mr. Grace came in to do my evaluation. After that, another mechanic needed help checking out the front end of an excursion, so I went to help him. After this, it was already 3 o'clock and it was time to leave.

Tuesday April 3, 2007

Today when I arrived, Richard was working on a job that he did not like. He had to replace a steering rack on a Mercury Cougar. He said that this job was very tricky to do. He did not like working on it so he was assigned some other jobs. We did an alignment on a van as well as a power steering fluid flush on a van. After that, we went back to working on the Cougar for a bit. After that we went to work on another customer's car. We replaced the lower control arms on both sides of the vehicle. Later, a customer brought in his mustang complaining of a harsh noise, but after a roadtest, the noise was not evident and the vehicle was returned to the customer.After this was done, it was time to leave.

Monday April 2, 2007

The day started out like usual, with something for me to do. I had to remove a tire from the rim because there was a nail in the tire and it needed to be replaced. Also, we did some P.D.I.'s today. In addition to that, there was a car that had been brought in because the owner was complaining of a rattling noise. After a road test, we raised it up on the lift and a broken bracket turned out to be the source of the rattle. This was an easy fix, all we had to do was remove the bracket and out the door the car went. Today the workload as pretty light, hopefully tomorow there is more work to be done.