September 2023 - 32
TOOL BRIEFING
Our average time for an alignment is now 15
to 20 minutes, not the 30 to 40 minutes when
the technicians were using their own tools.
p Figure 3 - Matco Ball Joint Press, No. BJP18100
Photo courtesy of Ross Colket
FIND THE TOOL
THAT WORKS FOR YOU
About a year ago we had a RAM 4500 in for
front ball joints. Now if you have not had
the pleasure of doing ball joints on one of
these trucks, avoid it like the plague unless
you have the right tooling. I am not sure if
it is the design because of the weight of the
truck, but the ball joints have an incredibly
tight fit. It took my two senior technicians
five hours one afternoon to do both sides
with a conventional ball joint press. They
used a conventional ball joint press along
with a mini sledgehammer, a torch, and an
air hammer. The fumes that came off the
ball joints themselves would literally take
your breath away if you breathed it in. To
this day I can't tell you how impressed I
was with their commitment to changing
those ball joints. They did get it done, but
I immediately reached out to my Matco
dealer to look for an alternative. I was not
going to ask my technicians to do another
job like that again.
He advised me that Matco tools had
just come out with a new design ball joint
press BJP18100 (Figure 3). It is a cantilever
design and provides two-to-one leverage.
Though buying a new tool may seem like
an expensive option since we technically
already had the equipment to do the job,
let's look at the math to see if it was worth
it. At that time our labor rate was $135,
so two technicians worked on this vehicle
for five hours each for a total of 10 hours
or $1,350. I essentially lost six hours of
time on that job or $810. In one job we
lost enough money to almost pay for the
tool. My one technician almost exclusively
uses this tool for servicing ball joints now.
TIME SAVINGS
With all the steering and suspension work
we are doing on our client's cars and body
shop cars; we replace a lot of inner tie rods.
We used to use an inner tie rod tool with
different crows' feet that locks in at one
end of the tool. We have since started using
Circle 53 on card or click " PTEN e-inquiry " on VehicleServicePros.com
32 PTEN SEPTEMBER 2023 www.VehicleServicePros.com
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September 2023
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2023
EDITOR'S NOTE
NEW PRODUCTS
DIAGNOSTIC TECH
TOOL BRIEFING
TOOL REVIEWS
INNOVATION AWARDS PROFILE
CATEGORY SPOTLIGHT
BIG-TIME BOXES
September 2023 - 1
September 2023 - 2
September 2023 - 3
September 2023 - 4
September 2023 - 5
September 2023 - 6
September 2023 - 7
September 2023 - EDITOR'S NOTE
September 2023 - 9
September 2023 - NEW PRODUCTS
September 2023 - RSC1
September 2023 - RSC2
September 2023 - 11
September 2023 - 12
September 2023 - 13
September 2023 - 14
September 2023 - 15
September 2023 - 16
September 2023 - 17
September 2023 - DIAGNOSTIC TECH
September 2023 - 19
September 2023 - 20
September 2023 - 21
September 2023 - 22
September 2023 - 23
September 2023 - 24
September 2023 - 25
September 2023 - 26
September 2023 - 27
September 2023 - TOOL BRIEFING
September 2023 - 29
September 2023 - 30
September 2023 - 31
September 2023 - 32
September 2023 - 33
September 2023 - 34
September 2023 - 35
September 2023 - 36
September 2023 - 37
September 2023 - TOOL REVIEWS
September 2023 - 39
September 2023 - 40
September 2023 - 41
September 2023 - INNOVATION AWARDS PROFILE
September 2023 - CATEGORY SPOTLIGHT
September 2023 - 44
September 2023 - 45
September 2023 - 46
September 2023 - 47
September 2023 - 48
September 2023 - 49
September 2023 - BIG-TIME BOXES
September 2023 - 51
September 2023 - 52
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