Here is a sneak peak at what the cylinders in an engine look like.

In this case, the timing belt had jumped, causing the engine timing to be out. The car was running very rough, and a compression check verified no compression in one of the cylinders. I striped the engine down, removing the intake, fuel injectors, fuel rail, exhaust, entire air induction system, timing belt and all electrical from the engine.  Once everything was out of the way,  I removed the cylinder head and found a broken valve.  Luckily, the valve caused no permanent engine damage to the cylinders or piston. The head had to get refinished and as for the block,  I just cleaned the matting surfaces between the engine and cylinder head and everything was ok.

A cylinder is where the air and fuel compress and ignites causing a contained explosion inside the cylinders.  The force of the explosion is what causes each piston to force down. The pistons are attached to a crankshaft, which rotates when pistons are forced up and down. Same principle as when you ride your bike. Your legs act as the pistons, going up and down, in turn, turning the crank. This job was one of the biggest jobs I took on as an apprentice, and I am most proud of.  With some experience behind me, I had no trouble taking it all apart, and putting it all back together. Doing a big job like this is definitely a learning experience. Only way to truly understand how a engine works it’s to take one apart, and see for yourself.  As an apprentice, you get plenty opportunities to see firsthand how things work.

Hi, sorry it has taken so long for me to post anything but we have been a little tied up at work. We had initially scheduled a transformer for maintenance a couple of weeks ago, but we have had some difficulties with other equipment to tend to first.

The transformer we are installing has been sitting in the loading bay and we have been able to do a little preliminary work on it, such as installing the bushings, climbing inside to make the connections, and using the crane to attach the rads. For the last two days we have been draining all of the oil out and tearing the old transformer apart piece by piece to get it ready to be lifted off the transformer pad.

In the next three weeks we are going to be connecting the new transformer, making some modifications that the old one didn’t have, replacing worn cables, installing new junction boxes, testing and retesting it, and a flurry of numerous other things and if all goes well we will be able to hand it back on schedule. I’m sure the month of June it going to fly by. I love being busy.

Trace.

I apologize for the lack of posts!  I was away on vacation in sunny Las Vegas.  I managed to visit the marvelous Hoover Dam, and now look forward to my work rotation through Manitoba’s own generating stations.

Manitoba Hydro’s power is generated up North in AC.  It travels to our sister converter stations and is converted into DC.  It travels approximately 900km along transmission lines to Dorsey, where it is converted back into AC, and distributed to various parts of Southern Manitoba.

The valves are, as the name might suggest, the heart of the operation.  Maintenance is required to ensure the best performance out of our valve groups.  The valves are always energized, so an outage is required to de-energize and provide safe working conditions.

Once the valve hall is cleared for entry, our work begins.  Maintenance involves anything from checking the cooling system, to replacing modules (gate units) or thyristors that are faulty.  9 times out of 10, we replace modules.  There are a lot of connections to be disconnected, and bits and pieces to be removed to get at the equipment.  It is a delicate process, and being the size that I am, allows me to fit into smaller spaces and access the parts easier.  Pictured above, I am testing the resistance of a new gate unit.  I feel it necessary at this point to remind anyone interested in this particular field, heights are part of the deal.

After the gate units are replaced, they are tested, and the valve group is returned to service.

Well it’s been a long 9 weeks of school.  I’ll be done my 3rd level at the end of the week I can see the end of the tunnel.  I’m looking forward to getting back to work and making money again.   But before I go back to work I’m heading on a little vacation to Cancun for a week to relax!!!   I don’t have much else to tell you except there’s been a lot of studying and reading.   But once I get back from my trip and back at work Ill have a lot to write about and tell you guys.

Kyle

Well two and a half weeks have come and gone and the floor joisting job is done.  It turned out good.  The company I was working for was happy with the results and the time it took for two guys.  I think that 5000 square feet in two and a half weeks for two guys is pretty good.  It was good too because it let me think a little more than putting up Hardie Board and I got to use a chainsaw a little more.  Lots of fun.  The guy I was working with has been framing for a while and was good to work with because he was a hard worker.  I like that because you can really get a lot done when it comes down to it.  It wasn’t a one man show either which was nice.  We both brought ideas to the table and never tried to make ourselves better then each other.  You have to respect the people you work with.  You can joke around but if you don’t respect them it shows in their work and slows you and them down.  Plus no one will want to work with you either and that’s no fun.  So I was happy to frame again and I’m sure the opportunity will come again.  Right now I’m building little parapet walls on a reno job.  Its work till I get to frame again.

Engines of all sizes and manufactures have more in common than you think.  They may look very different, but when you break them down, they are all the same.  With 4 simple strokes, intake, compression, ignition and exhaust combined with air, fuel and a spark creates that small combustion, sending the piston down, creating motion on the crankshaft.  Sounds simple enough, but the precision, design and components used and how they work together to allow all this to occur is something else.

The timing belt, found hidden beneath covers is the heart of the engine and is what allows everything to move together.  Engine timing is crucial and most important thing that allows the engine to run. The intake valves have to be timed perfectly to open as the piston travels downward on its intake stroke, and have to shut in perfect time to give the compression in the cylinder before the spark. If engine timing is out, the piston will hit valve due to opening at the wrong time and will cause major internal damage and very expensive repairs.  The valves are in the cylinder head which is on top of the block, with the pistons and crankshaft. The timing belt runs around the crank, and transfers the turning motion to the camshaft and the valves. Special timing marks are marked and used to make sure everything is timed perfect before installing the belt.

Since these belts are hidden and hard to change the often get neglected. Manufactures recommend your timing belt to be serviced around every 60,000 – 100,000 km. If you choose not to service, the belt becomes worn out and brittle will break.  In my past experience, I have seen numerous cases were timing belts have blown, and the results are never good. The easiest step to take was to replace the engine. The cost was high, and quick lesson learned to the customer.

This blog is exactly what the title suggests.  I’m talking about chainsaws and how handy they are on a job site.  Now a lot of guys say that if you use a chainsaw on a site that you are a hack and you do bad framing.  Depending on how well you can use a chainsaw, this can be true.  I’ve been using a chainsaw the past little while joisting the floor I’m working on and I’m getting a little better at cutting with it.  Practice does make perfect.  Usually you get to run your joist long and then when you get them all in place, you cut off the excess.  Chalk a line along the top and then square the line down. It’s important that you square the line because then you have a guide to follow as you cut it and if your hand is steady you can do a pretty nice cut on the joist.  Plus to its just a lot of fun standing on a wall with a chainsaw and it revving and making noise.  Nothing better.  So if you get a chance to try as much as you can to practice with it and you will be able to cut nice with it just like  with a regular circular saw.

Since the early 1900’s cars have roamed the streets. It was Henry Ford a car producer who began producing Ford’s in his own founded car factory in Dearborn, Michigan.  From that point on his sales skyrocketed, and he quickly became the world’s  fourth largest car automaker at that time based on the sales he made worldwide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ford_Motor_Company)

Vehicles come in many different shapes, sizes, different makes, models etc. The list never ends. Today GM, Ford, Dodge and especially imports such as Honda, Toyota, Mazda are everywhere now.  One problem with so many vehicles on the road,  is that they all break down and at some point need to be fixed. Where do they go?   Today, there are labour shortages in trades everywhere. Employers are always looking for Mechanics, Carpenters, Power Electricians, Power Supply workers and more.

A recent legislation has been passed for the apprenticeship programs.  Basically, this bill is recognizing all the labour shortages all over. Getting involved, viewing and learning your trade as an apprentice is the best way to go. With hands on experience, education and a guaranteed long lasting successful career, you can’t go wrong.  So as long as cars and trucks run the streets, planes roam the skies and ships sail the seas, there will always be work.  We need you!

Well this week at work I got to do some troubleshooting on our security system. We have had issues with our card swipes which allow access to different buildings, and a lot of the newer cards that were activated at a later date wouldn’t allow the user to enter one certain building.

The owner of the security firm came up north to hunt down the problem, and I got to trail him and ask all kinds of questions. We started at the computer terminals first and determined they were working just fine. Next he showed me a schematic on his computer and traced back from the problem area.  We then approached the problem in a very logical manner to keep progressing further down the line and checking each zones’ equipment. As we eliminated any problems with the hardware we would again move forward until we reached the end. Once all glitches were fixed, we rebooted the main computer and allowed for a full diagnostic check. After the diagnostic had run we checked the problem card swipes and VOILA! All the cards were re-activated.

I really enjoyed the detective work of looking for the source of the problem. And now I get to complete the maintenance write-up for any of the other technicians to refer to whenever there is a problem with the system again.

Stay tuned for next week when we start work on a transformer.

Trace.

Vehicle manuals are more useful than you think. Usually all vehicles have manuals somewhere in them. When a problem does occur, a majority of vehicles owners never read them, they’d rather bring the car to us to figure out.  There is nothing wrong with that, because its work that keeps us employed. All manuals contain very useful information on variety of systems throughout your vehicle. It describes how these systems work, parts included in these systems as well as wiring circuits and wiring diagrams through entire car. Manuals are always in full detain and describe proper techniques to diagnosing a problem, and procedures to repairing the problem.  As I discovered, manuals are a very useful tool to keep close by when working on a vehicle. When you’re unsure of something, you can quickly refer back to it and learn by reading.

In this case, it was a slower day and I installed a RV trailer plug on one of our trucks. I soon after discovered that there was no power to the plug for running lights or turn signals. From working on many of these trucks, I knew that from factory there is a separate circuit for the trailer plugs. These circuits contain their own fuses that often blow. Here, I was referring to the fuse panel diagram in the manual trying to figure out what fuse I was looking for.  I would have eventually found the fuse but with the manual handy, it saved me time.