Author’s note: General Motors recently changed their logo, so in respect to their wishes, using lower case gm throughout this article is intentional.

In 2019, gm rolled out new diagnostic software that combined all the software technicians commonly use (programing, diagnostic, service information, etc.) into one platform. The concept sounded exciting, but computer gaming taught me one never wanted to buy first editions because they are usually buggy, at least two patches are required to get them running well, and this is after extensive beta testing. The rollout of TechLine Connect (TLC) was phased, and the first users began reporting fatal errors before it was even available to me. “Did they even test this before they released it?” I asked. The old system worked well, but it was built in outdated programming language and gm stated it presented security loopholes, so must be replaced. They did not immediately take it away, so I chose not to switch.

If you understand how most technicians are paid, you can skip this paragraph. With few exceptions, techs are paid on a system called “flat rate”, which means the tech earns a set amount for each job. For instance, when first released, the last generation of Chevrolet trucks paid 2.3 hours to replace the condenser, plus add time for evacuating and recharging the air conditioning refrigerant. Changing an engine paid 18.3 hours, plus a couple add times. These times are set by the manufacturer (conflict of interest) and are subject to change. This system is supposed to encourage productivity by rewarding those who can accomplish the job faster and punishing those who dillydally.

There is no labor op (a code submitted through the warranty pay system) for issues with gm’s software package. From the comments on the forum, it quickly became evident that the new software package, now dubbed TechLine DisConnect (TLDC) by frustrated technicians, was in late Alpha testing or very early Beta testing. I once participated in Beta testing a PC game and it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience, but at least I was compensated after the game was released and sold well. There is no compensation for lost time on TLDC.

In November 2020, gm announced a phased removal of the old diagnostic software in December and January, with a final removal of the programming software in July 2021. I switched but it didn’t take me long to grow to hate it. It kept crashing, erroring out, and twice I had to delete the whole thing and reinstall. A late January patch helped but there is still no labor op for software that doesn’t work, so the hours spent fighting it are uncompensated.

Auto repair is broken into various subsets, each with its own set of skills, ranging from basic to advanced. These include light maintenance, suspension and steering, brakes, light engine, driveline, body systems, interior, manual transmission, drivability, diesel drivability, electrical, automatic transmission, and heavy engine (AKA heavy line). Very few technicians are skilled in all areas, rather each is gifted in certain tasks while they struggle in others. I started in light maintenance, and then learned suspension and steering, before deciding auto repair wasn’t for me. After a hiatus of 10 years, in which I learned there were much worse jobs (infantry), I got a job in a bumper-to-bumper shop, where I learned the skills I enjoy most are interior, electrical, and body systems. I most disliked heavy line.

Next Steps

By August 2020, evidence began mounting that caused me to believe my time in Arkansas was ending. We had never found a good local mission or church home, and I was struggling at work, in the shop six days a week and not breaking 40 hours. One of the independent shop owners in town was visiting with the parts manager when I happened to be in the room, and he asked if I wanted a job because my bosses were trying to recruit his gm technician. Then my wife came to me about our children’s homeschool and said, “I do not know these things the kids are learning, and I can’t help them.” Our debt free journey was winding down, so I gathered this to mean it was time for them to go to one of our schools.

The last thing I wanted was to put my children in a boarding only school because we believe the home is the best place for them to stay, and because I remember the negative influences in the dorms that I wasn’t confronted with as a village student when I attended Fletcher Academy. I printed out a list of every Adventist institution on Wikipedia and set parameters that interested us: 1st, no city institutions, 2nd, work study program, 3rd, affordable housing and job for me in the area, 4th, a farm program, and finally, no sports emphasis. I then proceeded to cross off everything in California. Over the course of two days, we narrowed the list down from overwhelming to manageable.

During this time, I was struggling with a vehicle with an intermittent harsh 3-2 downshift, and after 3 times removing and going through the valve body, I finally pinned down the source of the trouble to a failed differential bearing (nothing in Service Information pointed me in that direction) and was informed I would be doing the 18-hour repair for free because I failed to identify the root cause at the beginning. Furious might be too mild to describe my emotion. I intended to quit that day, but I am not the type to quit by text and my boss would not take my call, so I left my shop key in my toolbox and went home. Yet that weekend from three different sources I heard, “Hold the fort”, and “Stay the course”. So, Sunday the Service Manager (SM) let me into the building, and I went to work repairing the transmission. The following Thursday and Friday I had off (previously planned), so I started looking and near our top choice for school, found a Buick GMC dealer that was hiring, so we stopped to visit. By the end of Thursday, I was sure the school would be good, and I had a job.

Sabbath, God came down on me, and I battled Him all day about my choice. Was my motive the best interest of my children, or revenge against my current employer? In my heart I knew this was about revenge, even though I didn’t want to admit it. Finally, late in the evening I surrendered it to God, and had peace about the move.

I started the new job September 14, 2020. The following Sabbath I had a speaking engagement in Clinton, AR, where we met a family from Russellville, AR, who had a wheelchair bound daughter my daughter hit it off with. For the first time since moving to Arkansas I felt like my family had a mission field to minister to. Yet we were supposed to move to Tennessee.

I couldn’t find housing in Tennessee, however, no rental, nothing to buy, not even the guy with raw land and a hunting trailer would rent to me. We ran out of gm products to work on, so I offered to work on Fords since their techs were covered up. One needed a reseal, so I got the parts I needed and went to work. As I was winding down, one of the last projects was to replace the camshaft actuator seals, spark plug tube seals, and camshaft cover perimeter gasket. I started with the spark plug tube seals, and the last one slipped through without holding. I turned the camshaft cover over and investigated closely, finding a small crack in the plastic. Nothing to do but get a new one.

When the new camshaft cover came in, I found it already loaded with all seals and gaskets. So, I didn’t need the two actuator seals and the perimeter gasket. I attempted to return these to parts, but they refused to take them back. “We don’t take back any special-order parts.” What? One place I worked at charged me a restocking fee, but no place billed a customer for something that wasn’t used. I went to the service manager and told him, “If this is the policy of this company, I can’t work here.” He made some calls, told me to go see a certain individual, and they would take care of it. They took the parts off, only to have the owner of the dealership order that they be put back on the ticket. At this point I was ready to walk. The fixed operations manager got involved, and I agreed that I would do a thorough inspection prior to ordering parts and only order what was needed, and in exchange they would not bill the customer for these parts.

The next big job I took all the way down to make sure it did not need an engine, but I could rather replace just the pistons and rings, confirmed what I needed, and ordered only those parts. When I got my box of parts, there were half a dozen things in the box I didn’t need and hadn’t asked for. How could I be a man of my word if I couldn’t even trust the parts department to only give me what I asked for? Truly there can be no compromise with evil.

With a mission field opening in Arkansas, and closed doors in Tennessee, on October 14, I left Tennessee with no idea where I was going or what I was going to be doing. I found that quite unnerving, and for the first time, I walked into several gm dealerships and didn’t get a job. That is, until I applied at the dealership in Russellville, AR. God really did seem to have a mission field for us still in Arkansas.

He Teacheth My Hands

When my job was war, one of my favorite texts was Psalm 144:1, which says, “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.” War is no longer my business, but as I contemplated my new career, I pondered, “If God can teach one’s hands to war, surely He can also teach one to mechanic.” When I don’t know what to do, I take my problem to God in prayer.

I ended up with a leaky Cadillac in February and had to perform major disassembly to access the parts that needed to be resealed. These cars have a V8 engine turned sideways and crammed into a front wheel drive platform, so the front exhaust manifold exits down into a pipe that goes under the oil pan, turns and goes over the transmission, and then into a Y-pipe from the rear exhaust manifold. There shouldn’t be any play in the setup, but as with all mechanical things, there seems to be a little, and when I was ready to install the Y-pipe, nothing I could do would make that thing line up. I couldn’t access the bolts to loosen them, I couldn’t force the pipe to line up using pry bars. I even asked the shop’s Cadillac expert for help, and he fought with it until he said, “I don’t know, man. It won’t budge.”

“I have one more thing to try. I’m going to pray about it.” So, I went and knelt under the car. “Father in heaven, I have done all I know to do. I cannot get this part to line up, no matter what I try. Will you help?” I stood up, pushed slightly on the flange into which the bolt was supposed to screw, and started that bolt by hand. As I’m turning it, I looked over at the Cadillac expert and said, “I’m screwing it in by hand.”

“Really?”

All day I felt the glow of love for my Father who cares enough for His child that He would help with a silly little thing like lining up an exhaust pipe. The next day as we were winding down the day, another mechanic came over to talk, and I started telling him about that Cadillac and the impossible exhaust. The Cadillac expert heard me start telling and piped up, “You gotta hear this.” It touched my heart even more that God could use this event to touch the lives of other men and open the door just a little to share His love with them.

A Warning Not Heeded

Traveling home from work one Friday in January, I ended up leaving Russellville on hwy 64 west, rather than on I-40. As I came to the end of the causeway over the Illinois Bayou, I felt this strong impression to go straight, rather than to hop on the interstate. “That’s just stupid,” I thought. “It’s so much faster to go home at 75 miles per hour, no towns, than go 55 miles per hour with two towns.” So, I whipped onto the interstate and roared toward home, that is until I rounded the corner just across Piney Creek and found solid brake lights. 45 minutes later I crept toward the Knoxville exit (two miles) where I found the police had the interstate closed and were routing everyone off the highway. That is, until I was about 12 cars from getting off. Then the cops hopped in their cars, and took off, letting the traffic stream into the empty roadway. Meanwhile, I followed a slow rolling cattle hauler that went the same direction I did. Had I listened, I would have been home significantly earlier than I arrived.

A Warning Heeded

I was working on a big diesel project for a customer who puts 125,000 miles a year on his vehicle. He needed it to get back to work and I was under pressure. As I worked, I was impressed, “Check for the coolant crossover pipe seals.” It was Thursday a little after one, and cutoff time was two, but I was on a roll, things were happening, and I didn’t want to stop. However, I remembered the ignored impression to go straight, so I stopped, went to my box, and laid out my parts. Sure enough, no seals. I grabbed the RO, went to parts, and ordered the seals.

The following day I found myself short three seals for the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) cooler bypass pipe. I went to parts again, and was told, “Well, we only have two.”

“Can you pull them, please.”

The parts man disappeared in the back, came back a moment later with three seals in hand. “It’s your lucky day.”

“No, I’m blessed.”

I finished the job, and the truck ran beautifully.

Unrecognized Blessing

My first few weeks working in Russellville I was given work by all the advisors, and as they learned what I liked to do, I caught a lot of those things I did well. However, after a few weeks, they had to let one of the advisors go, and moved the cashier into his spot. With this reorganization, the SM decided to divide the technicians up by advisor. He placed me under a girl who had only worked as an advisor for 6 months, writing mostly quick lube, so I was anything but encouraged. Furthermore, being under one advisor only, and being her most experienced tech (our hourly trainee is her other tech), rather than catching what I’m good at, I catch only what she got in, mainly the heavy line I so dislike. Bitterness crept in like a poison, and though I tried, the work was not done with all my heart as unto the Lord.

One Thursday, some of the fellow forum users were discussing the issues they were having with gm’s latest update, and God shown a light into the darkness of my mind. “I was kind of upset when they loaded me down with heavy line not long after I started here, but the more I see you all talking about the disaster you're dealing with, the more thankful I am for all the heavy line.” What I had considered a curse because it wasn’t something I liked to do was actually a blessing because I am still working, unhampered by the big issues with gm’s new software.

There once was a farmer who’s mare ran away. His neighbor came over to console him for his loss, to which the farmer responded, “All things work together.”

The following day, the mare returned followed by a beautiful stallion. His neighbor came over to compliment his good luck, to which the farmer responded, “All things work together.”

A few days later, the farmer’s son was working to train the stallion when he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbor came over to sympathize with the farmer and his son, to which the farmer said, “All things work together.”

The following week the army showed up conscripting boys to fight in the war, but because the farmer’s son had a broken leg, he didn’t have to go. The neighbor came over to congratulate their good fortune, to which the farmer responded, “All things work together.”

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).