Andrew Markel
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Viewpoint: Mr. Not Me!

In the newspaper comics section, there is a strip called Family Circus. Either you hate the strip for its sappiness and blunt humor that cuts like a dull butter knife, or you love it for its simple wit. Either way, you probably will wind up reading the strip out of spite or curiosity. The strip

Runout Report

Dial Indicator 101

Viewpoint: Cat Burglars and the Converter Cartel

How many catalytic converters can a battery-powered reciprocating saw cut from a dealer’s lot before the battery runs out? The answer is 18, according to news reports. In one night, 18 converters were removed at a Mentor, OH, Mitsubishi dealership. Other dealerships have been hit, with an average of 15 converters cut loose per night.

Selecting the Right Friction Material

How do you select the right brake pad for a vehicle? And, how do you select the right friction line to stock at your shop or have as your first call? These are difficult questions to answer. Every time your shop installs a set of brake pads on a vehicle you are taking a gamble

Twin-Piston Calipers: Are Two Pistons Better than One?

generate more torque. More torque means more stopping power. Also, by using the floating caliper design instead of an opposing piston design, engineers are able to avoid wheel clearance issues and other robust design features of the floating caliper. With a single-piston caliper, the footprint of pad is limited in some ways to the diameter

Viewpoint: Empathy and Old Ladies

In 1994, I was working at major chain repair/tire shop in Birmingham MI, as a service writer. I had not been there too long and was just learning the ropes. The shop was located in an affluent suburb of Detroit. The customers were a mixture of old money, new money and retiree money from folks

Tire Tech

Coupled Forces Why using less weight is not a shortcut In our July issue on page 26, the article titled “Less Weight, Great Balance” (or at www.brakeandfrontend.com) answered a lot of questions, but it also brought up some new ones. The article was on the new technology that many new balancers are featuring that can

High-Performance Brake Pads

Friction and Fiction “I would like a more aggressive or high-performance brake pad.” If you work at a typical shop you will hear this statement at least once a week. It is a complex request that requires a line of questioning to flush out what the customer wants, needs and expects. “Aggressive”, “high performance” and

Viewpoint: Salary and Benefits Survey

The automotive repair industry beats national averages. I recently received the preliminary results for our 2006 industry survey and the results are very promising for our industry. The full results will be in the September issue of BRAKE & FRONT END, but I am going to share with you the results that receive the most

Travel Troubles En Route to the Big Easy

It sounds like a bad barroom bet: Buy a $250 car and drive it from New York to New Orleans and back. This is what a recent cross-country rally did when it challenged 28 competitors to take on the roads in a junker, jalopy or beater for the top prize of $1,500. The inaugural running

Viewpoint: Net Neutrality

Bigger issue than Right to Repair? Imagine that you are logging onto your usual websites for repair and parts information to fix a vehicle. OEM vehicle repair websites and other resources are crawling along or do not even work at all. When you try to access your parts supplier website, it does not come up

Viewpoint: Borrowing Brains

Can I borrow one of your tools? When you work as a technician, you hear this phrase far too often. Sometimes, it is a legitimate need. They may be asking for a tool that they need in a pinch and they might buy the tool for next time. But, you always have the chronic borrowers.