How good are your diagnostic skills? Could you do better?
Discussion
How good are you at diagnosing faults?
I was minding the spare parts department of a large merchant house in Rabaul New Guinea, while their spare parts manager went on 2 months long leave.
One of their dozen or so brands was Daihatsu, a Toyota subsidiary. They sold a lot of their 1500cc diesel table top trucks. Most of these were used as PMVs [personnel motor vehicles]. A 2" water pipe rail 3Ft high down the center of the tray, with a seat height bench down either side of the rail, & you had a bus to bring native workers in from the villages. These were mostly owned by the villagers.
One day when the service manager & the foreman were both away for a day or two, the workshop came & got a starter motor for one, this was just after they had got a battery.
Next thing the mechanic in charge that day, a new chum from civilization, minding the workshop in the experienced bloke’s absence asked me to help him.
A local had come in & told the mechanic, “dis pella truck belong me, him no giup”, [get up/start]. The truck, about 7 months old, was parked out front of the workshop, which alone should have raised suspicions, how did it get there? There was no response to the ignition, so he fitted the battery. Still nothing, so fitted the starter. Still no response, so asked for help.
I reached under & touched the starter, it was hot enough to burn. Checked dip stick, bone dry. Opened the drain tap on the radiator, & got just a little brown dust. It was seized solid. No one had explained to the local that he had to service a truck. No one had explained to the new chum mechanic, a pom with a few years in OZ, that the locals would not volunteer information, particularly when they had no idea it might be important.
They had not lied to the poor mechanic, but had not thought to tell him the truck had not gone for a month, & had been towed in 18 miles behind another PMV. Being a new chum, he had no idea of how to interpret what a local meant. They had no idea that it would require a different approach for an engine that had stopped weeks ago, to one that would not start after being driven that morning.
When I went through the records to make up a stock order I found they sold 3 or 4 crankshafts a month for these little trucks, but had never sold a wheel bearing, or any brake parts. None lasted long enough to need any of them.
Could you have done any better than our poor mechanic?
I was minding the spare parts department of a large merchant house in Rabaul New Guinea, while their spare parts manager went on 2 months long leave.
One of their dozen or so brands was Daihatsu, a Toyota subsidiary. They sold a lot of their 1500cc diesel table top trucks. Most of these were used as PMVs [personnel motor vehicles]. A 2" water pipe rail 3Ft high down the center of the tray, with a seat height bench down either side of the rail, & you had a bus to bring native workers in from the villages. These were mostly owned by the villagers.
One day when the service manager & the foreman were both away for a day or two, the workshop came & got a starter motor for one, this was just after they had got a battery.
Next thing the mechanic in charge that day, a new chum from civilization, minding the workshop in the experienced bloke’s absence asked me to help him.
A local had come in & told the mechanic, “dis pella truck belong me, him no giup”, [get up/start]. The truck, about 7 months old, was parked out front of the workshop, which alone should have raised suspicions, how did it get there? There was no response to the ignition, so he fitted the battery. Still nothing, so fitted the starter. Still no response, so asked for help.
I reached under & touched the starter, it was hot enough to burn. Checked dip stick, bone dry. Opened the drain tap on the radiator, & got just a little brown dust. It was seized solid. No one had explained to the local that he had to service a truck. No one had explained to the new chum mechanic, a pom with a few years in OZ, that the locals would not volunteer information, particularly when they had no idea it might be important.
They had not lied to the poor mechanic, but had not thought to tell him the truck had not gone for a month, & had been towed in 18 miles behind another PMV. Being a new chum, he had no idea of how to interpret what a local meant. They had no idea that it would require a different approach for an engine that had stopped weeks ago, to one that would not start after being driven that morning.
When I went through the records to make up a stock order I found they sold 3 or 4 crankshafts a month for these little trucks, but had never sold a wheel bearing, or any brake parts. None lasted long enough to need any of them.
Could you have done any better than our poor mechanic?
Doesn't say much for Diahatu, you should expect that. When a piston header came to live in KL, he did not believe me about how carefull you needed to be when you buy a car and the lack of servicing until a girl in his office asked him to look at her 'new'car, which would not start, turned out to be two years old never had the oil checked or a service as it was 'new', as above no oil. It was a Proton. does this make a proton 3 tmes as good as a Dihatsu?
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