Pretty mentally toxic atmosphere to work in. Probably many places are today. I only experienced one. When I was still in school .

I worked 40 hours on the backshift loading and unloading trucks. Primarily because it was unionized and I needed the money.

I was totally amazed what the employees put up with. I eventually concluded they either did not know better. Or for their abilities it was a high paying job for the times. I was able to show many of them easier ways to do their job and the foreman kept clear of me. Just by example.

The fore man was an old driver type being very abrasive and unreasonable. To the vast majority. I still feel sorry for all those guys I left behind. The only relief was I suppose they did not know any better. Most had been there for years and the turnover was very small.

Deregulation eventually occurred. So I wonder today if that job is still unionized. If not it only would only pay about the same today as it did more than fifty years ago. With Canadian trucking regulations that industry made real money at that time.

Perhaps it was a watershed for me. It made me far more cognizant of others situations. You will find far better employers.

A mentor is sometimes available but probably pretty scarce today. To help guide a person along a path. We really do not have a effective official mentoring system of this nature in place to the extent of some countries.

Our fathers can sometimes help but in far too many cases cannot. When you add in the amount of single parent families in society today. Further reduces what can be instilled in children by parents.

It pretty has to be a one on one in person situation. As the mentor does an assessment of what a person can absorb and more accurately determine many other things. That have a substantial bearing on the situation. Advice otherwise is usually limited in it's effectiveness. It may or may not apply to a given individual. It is still usually better than nothing though.

Anything that makes a person reflect on things seems to me worthwhile.

There are also some hazards when changing tires on rims. Plus working around cars. Safety cages when inflating tires should be mandatory. There are at least ten shops that change tires on rims in town. Not one local machine has them.

I was just wondering if a rock solid commitment might be gotten by the forces to work and learn in a military service pool. They provide all the tools and educational classes. Or would you just get a promise and land up in a jungle somewhere with a weapon?

Much of their more modern military equipment will have most of the current electronics on board today. Heavy trucks for example would be good to bite your teeth on. I suspect without knowing that a heavier equipment type mechanic is generally better compensated than a car mechanic.

I have also worked in a toxic atmosphere. It isnt fun by any means but if it is how you get by, so be it. I spent 5-6 years at a terrible company because it was the only job i could get and it developed my resume. Now i have a job a lot of people would kill for, but it wasnt without a lot of sacrifice along the way. It sucks but maybe you need to bear with it for a bit. You dont get there on day, week, month, or year 1.

So after getting fired I got work at a temp agency doing construction.

I might see if I can work their full time, and the foreman is a good guy.

what did you get fired for :O ?

The way I read it, he told the manager to treat him with respect, and he used hearing protection which was "against company policy" to save his hearing. Probably did a lot of other things right too.

Yup, and I got CHEWED OUT for using a torque wrench.Low brow shop.

Why do I feel like there is a lot more to the story...?

I used a speed handle to drive the lugs and a torque wrench to finish, got chewed out. Simple as that, I disagreed with the manager but was shut down immediately by her.

That's all that happened.

Chaulk it up to experience and move on.

Also, wear those ear plugs in noisy environments. I've been working in paper mills for 30+ years and can still hear because I make a point to keep plugs in anytime I'm in a noisy environment.

Once you get experienced enough you can do it with an impact. If you also have a good impact gun you know hard to zip them in with an impact. You run them in by hand 3 threads with the socket and zip it on with the impact in the star pattern.

I was told to use a torque wrench repeatedly at Mercedes. The foreman threatened to write me up if I didn’t. I said to him, No, I know what I’m doing. If a wheel falls off and it was because I didn’t tighten the wheel enough I’ll eat the bill out of my check for damages. He said OK, fair enough. Never had a wheel fall off.

Much faster that way then using a speed handle and torque wrench. Time is money. Remember that.

The problem I see with that method is that it is possible to get them TOO TIGHT.

Never stripped one out. Once it’s tightened down the impact it’s them 3 clicks and it’s done. But I see your thought process and know exactly how easy it could be overtigbtened.

I see this done at tire shops all the time, and I have never seen the guy tighten a lug up to the setting on the torque wrench. It always clicks right away (tighter than the setting). If I had to use the factory lug wrench to change a wheel on the side of the road, I doubt that the lug wrench would work (not enough leverage to break them loose). If the tire guys would idle the impact so the lugs are a little more than hand tight, then the torque wrench will bring them to the PROPER torque, and no more. But again, they don't do it that way.

That's how the lugs on my 210 were over torqued. Eight of them snapped when removed. Cost someone a bundle.

Tire shop I go to uses torque sticks on the impact and then torques to spec with a torque wrench.

I try to always have something a lot stronger in the trunk than the factory lug nut wrench. Even if is just a piece of pipe to go over it. One seldom has flats today but those lug nuts can be difficult. Most places still hammer them in with air guns.

Yep, chain tire shop here that offers free rotations ever 4k over tightened mine. Flat at night back country road 7 miles from home, bent the lug wrench trying to change the tire, never broke loose, walked half way home before getting a ride from a passer by. I also alway flip the guy doing the service a fin, thought they would be a little more respective to the specs and not just shove you out the door as quickly as possible.

Tire Service
 

FWIW, tire service guys don't get much pay, often they're paid minimum wage so they don't have any incentive to do anything correctly .

Apart from making the wheel lugs impossible to loosen on the road, over torquing almost always warps the brake drum or disc, a thing they clearly don't care about as no delicacy with the chatter gun is equal to properly hand torquing .

Always stand there as they're tightening the lugs or you'll be sorry later .

This is the easiest way to do it right. No guessing here, or changing tools. However, I have not seen too many shops use these. I did see a rack of torque sticks in one shop, but they looked like they did not get used (full of dust).

I agree, I abandoned the torque wrench and started using a torque stick. I had a flat in the E320 a few weeks ago, I had the wrong size socket 18mm, 12 point, but was able to get it off EASILY because I torque down my wheels with a torque wrench.

If I had zapped it with a gun I would have been FUC*ED!!!! Another plus side is my lug nuts are nut worn down or deformed by repeated use of an impact.


Back on topic, it's good you have a flexible foreman, I would of got sent home to never come back if I did what you did lol.

There are torque limiting extensions that will prevent over-tightening with an impact driver. For example, the 110 ft lb extension prevents the socket from turning when that torque is reached.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007K92N7M/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B007K92N7M&pd_rd_w=bL3uf&pf_rd_p=80559f3c-f83b-49c1-8a72-40f936e9df7a&pd_rd_wg=H1qw1&pf_rd_r=6S02CTQT5YK8P4GM07XD&pd_rd_r=628bffd2-46ce-11e9-bf30-a9c66916e9f7

I had never heard of them until an email from Amazon. I went there to check on a tool and got a large number of email solicitations in response, including the one I posted.

Over tightening on the W210's can cause horrid problems. All five lug bolts on my right front wheel were tightened so that none of them could be removed. All broke when we tried to remove them, and we could not drill them out. We had to remove the whole wheel assembly and replace to hub, the brakes, and the wheel and tire. It cost me more than $600.

Those are the "Torque Sticks" mentioned in previous posts.

Keep your head up bud!

#1-Always use a torque wrench. Always.

#2-Get a zebralight headlamp. I like the AA models with "high cri"

#3-You always start on the bottom of the ladder. They had me sorting broken stuff from good stuff when I started here, that's normal.

Yeah I learned the hard way I need to shut my fuc*ing mouth, be humble and mind my own business.

I let my pride (arrogance?) get in the way, well time to start over.

Climbing The Ladder
 

Not to worry ;

You're young yet and beginning to understand to need to suffer and pay your dues .

I changed jobs a lot between age 14 when I began working and 35 or so, most of them I just got pissed off and quit, I made a point to always learn something from every place .