Stress, stress, and more stress..

Stress, stress, and more stress...
As this semester is coming to an end, I find myself extremely stressed out. From the amount of Mythology papers, resumes, power point projects, modules, finals next week and the everyday stresses of work and life in general. Everything seems to be piling up. Not to mention the amount of bullshit I have to deal with from my fellow classmates and teachers seems to be rapidly getting greater. You know, we get lectured on a daily basis about making sure we work as a "team".. Yeah well it's easier said than done. It's really hard to work with people that like to talk bad about their other "teammates" behind their back... And one thing that really pisses me off is when your "teammate" has a problem with you because you are a female and are "slower" than them, and you apparently don't know as much as they do... Well tough shit buddy, you will have to deal with women in the field for the rest of your time being in the Auto/Diesel world.. And for some reason the boys have it in their head that the females in the class get some kind of royal treatment or something. Well we DON'T. We get points taken off for not coming to class, being late, not wearing safety glasses, sleeping in class, non academic use of cell phones and not "supporting teammates".  I got a 0 for helping another student swap transfer cases in her truck and the teachers comment was "student chose not to attend class". We get graded just the same as them. It seems that the majority of males in our class have more dick in their personality than they do in their pants..

Since when does my gender dictate what I can and can't do?
I am so fed up with the stupid ass comments about women in the field. Yes, there are women in the field, and yes you will just have to deal with-it.. I've gotten numerous comments from men saying " I don't want a girl working on my car".. Well buddy if you know everything then please work on your own shit. It's not always easy being a women in what some of you may call a mans field, sometimes it's hard and sometimes we may want to give up. Here is some advice for other women in the field :
Be tough
Be ambitious
And know exactly what you want
And if that makes you a "bitch" than so be it...

This week

This week in class, we adjusted the valves on our ISX. This week things in our team went surprisingly smooth. After looking up the adjustment procedure, we got the hang of things and moved along quite nicely. We got out engine to bar over and set the exhaust valves to .027 and the intake valves to .014.

This is us using the .014 feeler guage to set valve lash on the intake valve 

Work: 
This week at work I was given the wonderful job of figuring out why the right turn signals would not work on a 2012 Chevy Silverado. First I gathered my wiring diagram and then I checked the fuses. The fuses were good, the bulbs were also good... I then managed to get to the lights and noticed a red wire had been spliced into the turn bulb. The wires were connected by what looked to be like some kind of rtv. This truck had been in some kind of accident, and they attempted to put the wires back together. They ran a red jumper wire straight from power to the bulb. I'm not sure what was going through their head when they were trying to fix the wiring issues. 

Isx engine brake adjustment

Isx engine brake adjustment:

Step 1- Locate the marks on the outside of the vibration damper 
The set marks are A,B, and C
Set A to adjust cylinder 1 or 6
Set B to adjust cylinder 2 or 5
Set C to adjust 3 or 4 

Note: The cylinders are are numbered from the front of the engine (1-2-3-4-5-6)
The firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4 

Step 2- Remove the oil fill connector from the lower gear case cover
Insert a 3/4 inch drive ratchet and extension into the air compressor drive.
Rotate the air compressor clockwise, as viewed from the front of the engine.



Each cylinder has four rocker levers: 

• The Exhaust valve rocker lever
• The Injector rocker lever
• The Intake valve rocker lever
• The engine brake rocker lever

Note: the intake valve rocker lever is always the long lever on the valve rocker lever shaft

Step 3- Check the valve rockers on the given cylinder to see if both intake and exhaust valves are closed.

Note:  Both sets of valves are closed when the rocker levers and the brake lever are loose. If both sets are not closed, rotate the compressor drive gear one complete revolution, and align the A mark on the front damper with the pointer again. 

Step 4- Loosen the locknut on the brake lever adjusting screw, and back out the adjusting screw one turn. The insert the feeler gauge between the bottom of the engine brake piston and the top of the exhaust valve pin on the exhaust valve crosshead. The brake lever specification is 0.276 in. 

Step 5- Tighten the adjusting screw until drag on the feeler gauge is felt. Proper drag means there is no motion of the brae lever camshaft follower against the cam lobe. Hold the brake lever adjusting screw, and tighten the locknut.

Torque value: 177 in-lb 

You will then check the running clearance.

Our group has not made it this far, we are still adjusting the engine brakes. We were having some difficulties getting the engine to rotate at first, and a few of my teammates would disappear for what seemed like hours at a time. But with the help of Cummins quickserve and one other determined teammate, we have started the process of adjusting the engine brakes and are moving along rather nicely. 

progress

This week we have been adjusting the engine brakes on an isx engine ( I didn't take pictures of this).
I have mentioned the 84 a few times, but here is the progress of what we have done so far: