andybcumming112 wrote:Bad thing is at our ship customer only gets charged 45 minutes when clean carb and rebuild. Plus clean tank and line. 60.00 hour labor charges. But it takes longer than 45 minutes his way. Reason I was asking is he leaving shop for me to run. He is tired of small engines after 40 years. I am just trying to find ways to speed up as it is only me working at shop. Right now is not bad we are slow. But when spring comes I don't have time to clean every tank. Do y'all have many problems when you don't clean the entire fuel system including tank. All our gas has seafoam in fuel. Just trying to vent as this is way I was taught.
Sounds like he was going by the Briggs time analysis used for warranty repairs. The problem using it for all repairs is that there will be additional problems to resolve on older engines. Things like fuel lines having to be replaced due age and environment related failures, rusted or corroded bolts, etc. A good inspection should cover most things. Yes you will problems that take longer and there will be times it take less. The guideline that Briggs published is just a guide based on average reported repair times for a particular repair job.
Here is example of time that one piece of equipment required a lot of extra time recently. A toy motorize ATV was brought in with carburetor problems, a very expensive little carburetor the btw. It took several hours to R and R it including the cleaning time. It actually spent over 2 hour in the ultrasonic cleaner that I had at the time. It was that badly clogged. Most times a carburetor take less than 1/2 in it to clean. The actual removal and replacement only took 1/2 hour so I did charge considerable less than the actual 3+ hours I spent on it but still charged for 1-1/2 hours labor and customer still came out better by not having to pay for a $250 carburetor.
When busy and your doubting the fuel line condition, it best to replace it in order to better manage your shop time. When running an one person shop there is a lot more to do that is not actual repair time. Here I use a minimum 1 hour fee for all work except very simple things like a starter rope replacement. A good shared of my time is in the procurement of parts and shop related paperwork. Having a good shop computer program helps a lot especially for record keeping. I still use paper back-up files but most of the info are available via my shop computer as long as I keep it up to date. The paper files are for the tax people to go through if they wish.
One thing that helps prevent returns here is on the smaller engines with fuel tanks is to install at least one of those pancake filters on those don't a have filter in the fuel line and don't forget put clamps on the lines. Customers here is always getting trash in their fuel tanks from poorly maintain fuel containers.
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