DIY Discouragement

Does anyone have any advice about feeling discouraged about your abilities, especially early on? It just seems like nothing goes right when I'm doing a job, and I beat myself up over it and feel stupid.

I don't mean this to be a topic about a repair, but just some background. Now that it's warming up outside, I want to take care of some minor nitpicky issues with my truck, a 97 K1500 5.7L. I've been working on the AC lately, which has blown warm since I've had it. So over the winter, little by little I gathered up tools and parts for it plus parts for a top end refresh on my 2000 Mustang (yep, I have a Chevy truck and a Ford car....), and shop manuals for both vehicles.

Anyway, I got the manifold gauges, the vacuum pump, an accumulator/drier, and a seal kit for my compressor, which showed a huge leak when I ran dye through it. Figured I'd try that first. Spent most of Saturday and a few hours Sunday on it. I couldn't get the hub plate back on with the installer kit I bought. Went to HF and got an SAE and a metric tap & die set to try and bore out the installer, so it could fit over the shaft threads. Still nothing. Eventually I ended up just giving it love taps with my rubber mallet and a block of wood, and pulling it back out until I got the air gap at least close to spec.

Then finally last night, I was going to try Paul's compressed air method to see if there were still leaks. I got out my new manifold gauge set, and saw that the high side QC coupler ring had fallen off, and it was missing several of the little ball bearings. (The case also has a bad latch, making it hard to close, but I could live with that.) So now I have to send that back. And that was the tool I spent the most on, I didn't want to go cheap with manifold gauges.

There's other examples of things going wrong, but you get the point. Everything is always a struggle. I know that jobs rarely go 100% smoothly, but with me, there seems to always be a hurdle every single step of the way, and I wonder sometimes if I'm too stupid to breathe, let alone try and fix cars. Maybe if I had all the money in the world, I'd just pay someone else to do it. After all, if I had money, I probably wouldn't need the self-esteem boost I'm seeking out now from fixing my cars.

I've gone on too long, and I know I don't post here much. I just needed to vent and see if anyone else understands.

"As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

It all adds up to experience. The more experience you get, the better you will be. A quote that I have always remembered when times get tough is:

"The past is where you learned the lesson. The future is where you will apply the lesson. Don't give up in the middle."

Hang in there.

You must first fail before you can succeed!!!!! It's all part of life. Keep on keeping on. Things will get easy with life lessons

I have a bad habit of getting down on myself, it's hard to get around a block when you're there one standing in your own way. It's easy to get frustrated and feel like you're not doing a good job or being productive enough, even if that is not actually the case.
One thing that helps me is trying to remember that everything is hard.
It probably sounds stupid to other people, but it kind of puts jobs into perspective for me.
Instead of thinking, "man, what a pain in the ass", I try to flip it. Of course it's a pain in the ass, that's why they need me to do it.

Ignore the clock and work on the hard bolts first.

I can definitely relate. I think it's the nature of the work that makes it tough. Bad/wrong parts, not having the right tools, experience and knowledge.

Part of what separates those who get the jobs don't and who don't is persistence. The obstacles come up, and as they do, handle one at a time. I get overwhelmed by this sometimes.

My wife knows not to ask how long it will be. Before long it looks like I dumped my tool box on the floor around me. Orgnaization can help. Allowing enough time can help. Stepping away when things get frustrating can help.

There isn't much you can do about wrong parts it seems. Just finished d a place you trust and stick with them.

I recently had a nightmare with this. Went into work on my day off (a month into working there) to do a steering rack on a Honda CR-V. My plan was to use the scissor lift thing to drop the subframe on and make it easy. Well I got to the point where I was going to do that and the foreman was using it for a transmission job. Well, I couldn't tell him I needed it for a side job, so I tried everythibg I could to get it out another way and failed. One of the other techs saw me struggling and brought out some tall stands and helped me drop it.

I got the new rack in at the end of the day to find out it was the wrong part. The tie rods were way too long. I couldn't even connect one side because the toe was so far off. I had to get this thing off of my lift for work the next day but it wasn't even in a pushable state.

My first mistake was to not confirm I had the right part in the beginning. The next morning 5 of us tried using some cheap dollies that didn't work in the parking lot. We tried a jack. Fail. One of the guys anded up dragging it out with his truck. The whole shop was watching and I felt like a total idiot.

I ended up pushing it through the shop for the repair. We ordered another rack and it was also the wrong one. I had the wrong part number...it finally got done and had to come back again, but it's all good now.

So, this stuff happens. Your ego can take a hit, but that's really all, as long as nobody gets hurt. Maybe money too.

Whenever I'm beating myself up, I try to remember that nothing is as bad as it seems. Once the work is off your plate for one reason or another, you won't care at all anymore.

Stick with it!

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk

One of the things I have learned in 50+ years of working on cars is things rarely go according to plan. You will always come across a nut or screw that won't budge, can't be reached or won't fit your tools, new parts that are wrong or special tools that don't work. The things bitter experience taught me were have any parts you might possibly might need ready, don't change other parts for the sake of it and make sure you have the tools to tackle any unusual sized bolt and torx heads. Even with all that s*** happens.

Well, just as an update, today I finally did manage to fix the AC, on an unseasonably cool day here in PA. I had exchanged for a new manifold gauge set, but still wouldn't hold compressed air on the high side, so I never did get to do the soap and water part of Paul's test. But when I did put air through it, I could feel air coming out of suction/discharge hose assembly where it bolts to the compressor, which is notorious for failing on those 90's GMs. I felt like I had no other choice than to bite the bullet, fire up the parts cannon, and change everything under the hood. One Delco compressor and condenser to evap hose, TYC condenser, and UAC manifold hose later, the AC is holding at a brisk 45-46 degrees.

Anyway, the truck fought me every step of the way and made me feel like I couldn't fix the proverbial sandwich, but at least I can cross this off the list. There are still a few more things on it that I need to take care of, not to mention finishing the top end refresh on the Mustang. Tomorrow I'll go back to feeling like I can't do anything right, but for tonight I feel good.

Just went through this myself with a no code and no misfire data dead miss at idle. Called a bad head gasket because it was blowing between adjacent cylinders. Still had the miss. Thought for a while that I had no business doing the diagnostic and making the call on job like this.Turned out the bad head gasket obscured the burnt exhaust valve. Only after fixing the head gasket, I was able to get air to leak out the exhaust pipe. Ended up being able to lap in the valves and avoid the machine shop. Feel pretty good about the fix, but still disappointed I missed the call.

Currently working on a 10th anniversary present for my wife that involves some polished aluminum. I'm having a nightmare of a time trying to get it to shine. This one doesn't come as a surprise. It falls into the "artistic" side of things which is my biggest weakness. Its war at this point. I will beat this one!

pole71 wrote: "The passed is where you learned the lesson. The future is where you will apply the lesson. Don't give up in the middle."

And the saga continues.....

Took the truck for inspection today. It needed new tie-rod ends and a center link. Gave the go-ahead since it was already there, and after fighting with the AC and front brakes (pads, rotors, calipers, master cylinder), I needed a break from working on it. Drove it out of the shop and went for gas a couple of miles up the highway, and I hear a whistling sound lasting about 5 seconds, like the sound of air being let out of a balloon, and now the AC is blowing hot again like it did before. I had a thermometer in one of the vents, and stayed around 90-100. Messaged the shop on FB and they just replied as I was writing this, saying they'd look at it tomorrow if I brought it back.

Fingers crossed. This is the first comeback as a customer that I can recall. Hopefully they can help. Small shop, husband in the shop, wife at the desk. Very much like Mr. & Mrs. O at SMA. They were nice and apologetic about the wait today. He said the truck fought him every step of the way. I was just like, I understand, BELIEVE me, I understand. So I want to give them a chance. I'm rambling now, so I'll stop. Just needed to vent.