Warning bodger at work

[John Rudd]

I wouldn't normally criticise other folk when going about their business, but couldn't help myself.........

Neighbours across the road had a visit from British Gas for their washing machine..
It appears the bearings had gone in the spider for the drum....He was outside resting the spider on two blocks of wood, while driving the bearings out with a hammer and punch!!!
Then he proceeded to fit the new bearings the same way!!
Craftsman my a*s*......I'm glad it wasn't us that needed an appliance repairing 

[lordedmond]

How else do you do it 


no seriously thats how we uses to do it with the large motors that I used to repair I am talking 100 HP ones not toothpicks

we used a puller to get the old ones off , but to put the new ones on we heated the bearing up and slid them up the shaft and set them home with a length of key steel and a 1 and a half pound hammer.

these motors were a fair size and mostly DC so a press would have been difficult to say the least

before anyone asks why key steel , its tuff , it dose not mushroom up to quickly , and last thats the way I was taught when I did my apprenticeship which included armature and stator winding

some times we had to do a bearing change in the pipe spinning shop whislt the other machines were on full production so it was "get er done"

but I will add one rider its how you use your tools that count used properly the method works but it is not for every one
now there is no way I do a spindle bearing that way its a clean working environment and a press every time as well as controlled heat to ease the job along

Stuart

by gad it was a long time ago when I was doing that job 52 years ago

[Meldonmech]

  Hi John
                  Years ago a gas fitter came to my house to change my boiler to north sea gas.  I watched him for some time, and  asked how long he had worked for the gas board, he replied "one month", so I asked if he was a fully trained craftsman he replied "oh yes I've been on a weeks course".  "What job were you doing before" ,he replied "green grocer".
                  For a month after his departure,  my boiler blew out with the slightest breeze, and re lighting was a nightmare, in fact boiler became a dirty word,  and would send me crazy every time my wife mentioned it.  Eventually I stripped  the boiler down and the cause was obvious,  [craftsman]  had been supplied with a 2inch wadge of various thickness packers to ensure the pilot light was beneath the thermocouple.  Oh yes he had!!, inserted the whole wadge.

                                                              So I am not surprised
                                                                                                    Cheers David   

                                                                                                 

[John Rudd]

What surprises me is that they use brute force methods and don't have even the basic of equipment....
Even for fitting the bearing, some drawing gear.... A length of screwed rod and spacers, but no a hammer a drift ....

[hermetic]

Moved my central heating boiler position and fitted a new boiler, ran the gas main to the new position, (this was at the instruction of my "gas man"......."You fit it all, i'll come and connect it up and commission it"). He came, connected it up, only had three joints to solder............they ALL leaked! Moral? Having a certificate  means you once got it right for 1 1/2 hours!!

[vtsteam]

He must have been out of soap solution himself and was too considerate to borrow some dish soap. At least they teach them manners! 

[velocette]

Hi John
I too use the Term Bodger Alas how the english language is in a constant change had a bit of a look around the interweb for the term "Bodger"
and came up with this and many other refferences.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23011838@N00/

Eric

[S. Heslop]

Honestly I have alot of respect for anyone who could repair a washing machine, regardless of the methods. I've only ever taken washing machines apart to keep anything useful, and they're never easy to dismantle even when you don't need to put it back together. Especially with the amount of corrosion and gunk the spiders usually accumulate.

On one machine I bought a set of torx drivers to try cleanly get the spider off the drum, and only two screws came out. The rest all deformed, even after trying penetrating oils, heat, tapping with a hammer, etc.

[Jonny]

I would love to see that gas man change the bearings in a Miele.
For those that don't know theyre built like brick s..t houses, two man job just to skid it down the drive no joke. Drums are wrapped in thick concrete, I did have a look when new. Touch wood not a single problem in 11 years. Normally Hotpoints many, Hoovers, Zanusi and the like last 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years as a comparison.
Which leads me on to Hoover guarantee 7 months in greeted with repair bill by authorised repairer and never worked right after with two more callouts, until I had a go.

[Arbalist]

Unlike most other washing machine manufacturers Miele don't use concrete in their machines, they have cast iron hoops at the front and back of the drum according to the Miele engineer who worked on ours a few weeks ago.

He said the biggest cause of problems (for other makes) is concrete dust getting into bearings etc. Some manufacturers apparently coat the concrete blocks in plastic now to help prevent this.

[DavidA]

Re fitting things with a hammer and punch.
It all depends upon how you do it.

I have fit many bearings using a hammer and a (usually) brass drift. Often a bit of steel pipe.
And I have never had any problems.

Here is an example of the type of thing that does bother me.

My car failed the MOT due to 'insufficient water' from the screen washer.  The pump wasn't working.
So, I had a new pump handy and fit it; after testing it. Still no water. No power coming down to the pump. No power at the plug.
Possibly the switch or the relay. Or a broken connection.

As you have to remove the steering wheel to get at the switch,  and it has an air bag, I thought that just for once I would get the Citroen main agent to do it. I hadn't had to spend much on the car over the last three years.
On the phone they I told them I suspected the switch. they told me that they would have to get the switch ordered and that if it turned out not to be faulty I was stuck with it,  no returns.  It cost £55.

So, takes the car in. 'Would I like to wait ?' "how long", 'about an hour'.  I'll wait.
Three quarters of an hour later the car is ready. 'That will be £76 if you please'.

That's £101.33 per hour.

So I paid the man,  got in the car, tried the washer.  Nothing.

Back inside. 'It doesn't work'.

'You only asked us to fit the switch'.

'NO,  I said I suspected the switch. and if that wasn't the problem we would have to look further. Also,  do your mechanics not try their repairs to see if they work or not ?'

'We'll do a diagnostic on it'.

Ten minutes later.

'The pump is dead,  you need to take it back to whoever fit it'

'No it isn't, I fit it and I have been fitting things to cars for more than fifty years so I do know what I am talking about'.

'Well,  the technician says that power is getting to the pump but not getting back'

(??)

At this stage I gave up. Took the car home and two hours later found a break in one of the supply wires right at the point where it goes into the pump. Hidden inside the insulation.

So, I paid £131 for nothing.

If you want to meet some real bodgers,  go to Citroen.

Dave.

[modeng200023]

Sounds familiar

John

[vtsteam]

Seems when Citroen has too many job applicants, the overflow goes to Honda. As apprentices mechanics they join the design team, then graduate to the shop floor.

Our 6 year old Fit had lock problems. The engine would start only after carefully positioning the key and jiggling it for a minute. Honda quoted $400 for replacement of the ignition switch alone, which because of digital encoding would not match the doors. So we would need two keys.

But the passenger door latch stopped accepting a key at all (these are all mechanical keys -- not radio). My wife, whose car it was,  was having to enter the passenger door and climb over the shifter to get to the driver's side to start the ignition jiggling routine, which became something of an irritation for her.

To load groceries she had to lower the rear seat back and reach them over because, the hatch back key had jammed and even unlocked the latch had jammed. This irritated her further. No idea why.

So we had a quote of $1400 for replacing all of the locks in the car. This also didn't set well with my wife. So she called the dealership manager and started to explain her irritation to him in unmistakable terms. He excused himself and  said he had to talk to the Honda district manager and would call her back. He failed to call her after a week, so she continued to call him, reaching his message machine several times before finally reaching him and resuming the conversation. Finally he asked her what she thought would be a fair price for the work, and she said "nothing", but would be able to manage $250 if only the car now worked. He said he'd have to ask the district manager again and would get back to her.

After another week of crawling through the passenger door to start the car by jiggling keys and shifting groceries over the back seat, her constant calls to the manager paid off. They would indeed change defective locks for the paltry sum of $250.

When the car was done my wife jumped aboard via the passenger door and tried the ignition. It worked! She and my 8 year old daughter had waited in the shop for 5 hours they were anxious to leave. They drove the half hour back home. But when she tried to open the rear hatch, it still wouldn't open.

She called the dealership to express her concern in familiar terms to the manager. He said that they had re-keyed the hatch lock, but had not freed the latch itself. That would be a different job. After another round of phone calls he finally agreed to fix the latch for an additional $50. Another half day and the job was finished. You can now open the doors and start the car. And we're only out $300.

Honda may understand engines, but lock design is still a puzzle to them.

[S. Heslop]

Seems when Citroen has too many job applicants, the overflow goes to Honda. As apprentices mechanics they join the design team, then graduate to the shop floor.

Our 6 year old Fit had lock problems. The engine would start only after carefully positioning the key and jiggling it for a minute. Honda quoted $400 for replacement of the ignition switch alone, which because of digital encoding would not match the doors. So we would need two keys.

But the passenger door latch stopped accepting a key at all (these are all mechanical keys -- not radio). My wife, whose car it was,  was having to enter the passenger door and climb over the shifter to get to the driver's side to start the ignition jiggling routine, which became something of an irritation for her.

To load groceries she had to lower the rear seat back and reach them over because, the hatch back key had jammed and even unlocked the latch had jammed. This irritated her further. No idea why.

So we had a quote of $1400 for replacing all of the locks in the car. This also didn't set well with my wife. So she called the dealership manager and started to explain her irritation to him in unmistakable terms. He excused himself and  said he had to talk to the Honda district manager and would call her back. He failed to call her after a week, so she continued to call him, reaching his message machine several times before finally reaching him and resuming the conversation. Finally he asked her what she thought would be a fair price for the work, and she said "nothing", but would be able to manage $250 if only the car now worked. He said he'd have to ask the district manager again and would get back to her.

After another week of crawling through the passenger door to start the car by jiggling keys and shifting groceries over the back seat, her constant calls to the manager paid off. They would indeed change defective locks for the paltry sum of $250.

When the car was done my wife jumped aboard via the passenger door and tried the ignition. It worked! She and my 8 year old daughter had waited in the shop for 5 hours they were anxious to leave. They drove the half hour back home. But when she tried to open the rear hatch, it still wouldn't open.

She called the dealership to express her concern in familiar terms to the manager. He said that they had re-keyed the hatch lock, but had not freed the latch itself. That would be a different job. After another round of phone calls he finally agreed to fix the latch for an additional $50. Another half day and the job was finished. You can now open the doors and start the car. And we're only out $300.

Honda may understand engines, but lock design is still a puzzle to them.

It's no secret that dealerships are dodgy!

Reminds me of the story with my dad's company car, a Vauxhall. Because it was a company car he'd take it to the dealership to get repaired and the company paid for it.

It was having electric problems. Everything just cut out occasionally, even happened once on the motorway and almost killed him. So he took it in and they replaced the catalytic converter, which we all know is a VITAL electronic component in cars. It of course continued to break down and they replaced it a second time. Broke down once more when we were in it in the middle of the countryside, the same night Michael Jackson died coincidentally. We almost went into a stone wall.

Anyways they finally fixed the fault, the distributor I think. It bothers me because while I can accept them being dodgy an making money off of people who don't know any better, in this instance they were risking our lives to make a little on the side selling the old converters for scrap.