How Good Are You ? Fun With Factory Flat Rate Times.

Taking apart a Jeep in under 60 seconds. • r/interestingasfuck

 

Those times look great. I'm a mechanic at a Chevrolet dealer and warranty times are ridiculous. Back then people took responsibility of there vehicles and maintained them. Today they drive them till they drop then haul it in for warranty.

 

I like this. Good stuff, Jim. Thanks for sharing it. No way I could ever come close to making those times. I wouldn't have the Dana 18 out and apart in 3 hours, let alone repaired/rebuilt and back in.

I've often wondered how it all compares.......the amount of time provided in the book vs. the time it really takes vs. the time billed vs. the time the mech gets paid for. Hypothetically, Joe the mechanic is brought in for one job today. It's the only thing he's going to do and get paid for today. The book allows 4 hours to remove and replace the right side fender bearing. It actually takes him 4.5 hours. Does Joe get paid for 4 hours or 4.5 hours?

 

In a flat rate shop Joe gets paid 4 hours.

 

And if he's done in 3 hours he gets paid for 4, right? And how does the customer get billed in either of those scenarios.....done early or took longer?

 

Yup and if you beat it you still get 4 heck that fender bearing only needs two of the four bolts. This is why I gave up doing flat rate work years ago

 

"And while we were in there we found some other stuff so we went ahead and fixed that too… but we're only going to charge you for six hours…."

 

Remember the disparity that existed back then between the factory labor time/rate and the customer pay time/rate.
Nowadays, most dealers (mechanics) get paid the same rate for warranty work as they do customer pay, along with a 30%-40% markup on the parts.
Otherwise, you couldn't get a mechanic to do the warranty pay jobs....
In 1963 this factory labor guide shows the labor rates anywhere between $4 hr and $14 hr. with $6.50 hr in red.
So multiply that 4 hr job x $6.50; usually the mechanic would get 50% of the labor charge to pocket.

 

Here is where the factory explains to the dealer how the times were calculated.

 

F4-134 engine times

 

Wonder why 6 hours difference between the 2 FC models ????

 

4 cyl fc150 vs 6 cyl fc170?

What's an FJ-3A? Jeepster?

 

I spent part of a season on an AMA Pro flat track motorcycle pit crew. It was up to me to have the bike ready for each heat race, change the gearing etc., I hated the pressure. Some guys loved it, I'm much happier taking my time on any mechanical job. I'd starve as a by the hour mechanic.

 

Fleetvan

 

I had a 1996 GMC 4x4 pick up that needed a transmission. A good friend is a professional mechanic and the book time was 8 hours. He had it on the ground running in 3 1/2. I had to replace it a second time and it took me 3 days in my driveway! If I had taken it to his shop I would have been charged 8 hours labor at $110 per. He is a salaried employee so it doesn't matter to him how long it takes.

 

Now mechanics get 20-30% of the labor charge.

 

When I worked at a Jeep dealership, charges to the customer were the posted hourly rate times exactly what the book said. They only had a few mechanics at a time (sometimes only one) and the best one could make over 40 hours a week, sometimes as much as 60 hours. Many of the jobs were routine, and the mechanics (now called technicians) get practiced and can do the common jobs very efficiently. The cars never left the shop sooner than the flat rate time though ... if the job paid 2 hours and it was done in a half hour, the car sat in the shop (behind the privacy of the roll-up door) for at least another hour and a half.

 

How many times have I told myself, after struggling on a first-time-I've-ever-done-it repair, that the next time I could cut that time by 90%? Sometimes it's buying or building a specific tool, but mostly it's just familiarity.

 

Familiarity is key to all of this, especially after you have the right tools. One of the worst tools we have at work, weighs around 62,000 lbs, the first time we had it a part it took a crew of 3 with the rights tools 16hrs to take it apart to repair it. That same crew can do it now in 3 hrs or less. We know exactly what needs to come apart and in what order, I would bet that all 3 of us can tell you exactly what size bolts and how many there are and what tools (specifically) that will you need to do the job. We have now had that same tool a part more than 60 times.

As far as working on cars, a lift and impact tools makes a huge difference in time. I can take a dana 18 completely a part now in under 15 minutes, I bet I can rebuild one in under 2 hrs including setting bearing preload. I can't do that on axles because I have not done that many, I can rebuild a t14 in under 2 hrs after its removed from the vehicle. I'm sure doing what I do for a living helps greatly but mainly being familiar with how its put together is the answer.