I drove my 1976 Ford LN750 water truck into Cobre Valley Motors and asked them to check and replace my rear wheel seals. I had been working for the Forest Service and needed to have my truck repaired quickly. I figgured a dealership "Truck Shop" would have the tools and expertise to get the job done.
The Mechanic took the spindle nut off with a 1" impact wrench, stripping the threads, He tried to take the inner lug nuts off with a worn socket and rounded them off, he welded the outer nut on them to take them off.
They didn't have a thread chaser tool to rethread the spindle. I bought one, went there and rethreaded the spindle myself, and asked them to file the points off the threads so the nuts would go on easier (I didn't have a file with me), 4 days later they called me and told me they couldn't get the bearing on...
I told them I would tow the truck home and complete the repairs myself. They had my truck for 10 days. I filed the threads and reassembled the truck in about 6 hours. It cost me about $200 in tool and parts to do the job...
Here's the rub. Cobre Valley Motors charged me $600 for taking it apart. They did no repairs... It should have taken a good mechanic 2 hours to do the work they did, not 8 hours.
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