How much should I pay a mechanic to fix our truck per hour?

Question

I wrote a week or so ago and asked about a 1973 Chevy 4WD that had a problem. My husband is working 7 days a week, he has too many houses to remodel- he's not a mechanic or good at diagnosis. I want to pay someone, we need the truck. I know of 3 people (one is a mechanical genious and unemployed-Tahoe job market...) anyway; It's cold out- 28 degrees to 45 and I do not have a garage to work in. Between this site and myself and friends, we came to the conclusion the Chevy may have jumped time or the dist. is bad. I was thinking $25.00 per hour, we pay for the parts.
Is that enough or not too much? I want it done right. Hypothetically speaking, also, should or if I pay up to $30.00 an hour and buy parts, is it still cheaper than a dealer or a licensed shop?
ALSO! approx. how long SHOULD it take for timimg belt replacement or distributor replacement, in hours or days?

It's a CHEVY 350- rebuilt, lift kit, new rims and tires and new tranny.

easter...
tell u exactly trucks history is:
1) glass company owned(ie: lift kit)
2) Sold to employee my husband knew 4- 15 yrs
3)he replaced tranny ($2700.00)& rebuilt motor-no specifics, I think it was rebuilt 2 or 3 yrs before we got it.
tranny replaced 6 mo. before we got it.
4)truck's big & UGLY every man we know, LOVES it. Jan. 07 we will have had it 3 yrs.
was stolen, hit a cop car-frontend had perfect telephone pole mark ,cause of it's mech. soundness,decided 2 fix (frame was fine) drove it for 14 mo. w/regular oil changes &1 complete tune-up.Put approx 5000 miles on it- 1 day he said it was starting to run sh***y. It progressively ran worse (over 2-3 months) sounds like a heli-coil let loose & a plug came out, but not as loud.did another full tune-up, still ran bad.before this problem it sounded and ran GREAT and strong-he climbed STEEP rocks in it,so steep-never went 4wheeling again,everyone would say"wow it sounds great" . It's Just a rochester.4 barrel & 350 basic.

had to shorten the text on last edit. I wanted to say it ran awesome and sounded awesome- I use to warm it up for him sometimes or just got in it if it was running and REV the engine, just to hear how good it sounded ( I am a woman, but I do appreciate a nice smooth, strong chevy 350) it also climbed STEEP rocks like nothing, with ease- That's why I bought nice rims and tires for it- it's the whole running progressively worse thing...we are stumped!

Answer 1

these trucks are easy to work on, you cant find an easier vehicle to work on than the old chevy trucks, i have owned billion of them and had millions of them apart, and currently own a 77 k-10 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/fast68/randys%20vehicles/stuffapril30001.jpg

i would first try to figure out what is wrong first, if it was rebuilt then someone didnt do a very good job of it if theres a problem, lots of ppl claim an engine is rebuilt, but they ararely are, most ppl just repaint them and say they are rebuilt,

need to set the number one piston to TDC of the compression stroke, remov ehte spark plug on number one its the front driver side plug, turn the engine by hand with a 5/8" socket on the crank pulley bolt head until you feel air pushing out of the spakr plug hole, keep turning until the timing mark on the balancer is on the 0 mark on the timing tab attached to the timing cover below the water pump

now remove the distributor cap and follow the number one spark plug wire to the cap and see if the rotor is pointing to that cap wire tower

if so then there is good ignition timing,

but this cant rule out a jumped cam timing, IE jumped chain

the only way the cam timing could have jumped is if the chain was worn really badly, and if the enigne was rebuilt then this cannot have happened, the timing chain set for these is dirt cheap and would have been replaced

has the engine ever run since it was "rebuilt" ?

has it ever ran good and strong and correctly ?

when did it start to run bad, after someone worked on it / or just for no reason one day, or ?

let us know

if the cam timing needs reset then it requires removing the water pump and timing chain cover and reinstalling the timing chain or replacing it, this isnt a hard job to do on a chevy v-8 engine it takes a couple hours, i would not pay more than 100 bucks to a private party to do it

makme sure they use black RVT in the squeeze tube on the lower part of the timing cover, these are 4 bucks a piece, need to use it to keep oil from leaking out where it meets the front of the block where the top of the oil pan is located

good luck

Answer 2

It is hard for me to put a price on another mans labor, if you can get it done for $30.00 an hour go for it, that is cheap.
It should not take long to change a distributor 30 minutes to an hour tops.
About the timing are you sure it has a belt, or a chain? You say it is a 1973 4WD does it have a 4 cylinder engine? A 4 cylinder has a belt, a 6 or 8 cylinder has a chain. If you are going to change a chain change the gears too. How long that will take depends on the ability of the person doing the work. If they know what they are doing and have what they did to do the job ,they should be able to do it in a day at least.

Answer 3

$30 an hour is a real deal. Most places are charging over $60 an hour. To check, just call the local dealership and ask what their hourly rate is? They would charge book rate, that is, if the book says 3 hours, they'll charge 3 hours whether it takes 1 hour or 5 hours, plus parts.
A distributor wouldn't be that hard a job to replace, and it wouldn't take that long.
A timing belt, on the other hand, while not difficult, is a job I wouldn't take if I had to do it out of doors in that weather. It will take a while.
Your best bet, if you decide to use the "mechanical genius" is to pay him a fair price to diagnose your problem. Then you can settle on a price to make the repairs.
If the timing belt jumped, you may have other problems, like bent valves, so be prepared for additional costs.

Answer 4

No, you pay a mechanic to decide what's incorrect which include your automobile and to fix it. you do not pay a mechanic to save watch over your automobile for some hours and promises it a wash and wax and an total tank of gas. If childcare companies might want to "fix" what's incorrect which include your baby in very few hours purely through replacing some organs and flushing some fluids, you are able to guess your *** that they could be charging so much better and that oldsters might want to pay it. A better correct evaluation between amenities is vehicle mechanics and baby therapists/psychiatrists (who fee quite a few hundred funds in protecting with hour), or in childcare companies and parking garages (who fee perchance $10 in protecting with hour). both way, having a automobile is a good purchase compared to having a baby. Pay scales are also about the tutorial and kit in contact, no longer purely how lengthy it takes to do the artwork. i'm constructive that very just about anybody might want to agree that you truly might want to carry close what you're doing to fix a automobile outstanding, yet even a goddamn fool who doesn't recognize **** about parenting can look after a baby for some hours. Childcare will be much better significant to society than vehicle fix, despite the indisputable fact that that isn't any longer as puzzling or complicated. If childcare companies raised their expenses, too many households does no longer be able to manage to pay for it, which may shrink shoppers and pressure down the agency's income.

Answer 5

It sounds like a pretty involved repair but if your friend knows what he is doing and is willing to work on your car then pay him according to what the average mechanic makes per hour not the shop rate, the shop rate includes all the over head. So to awnser your question I would pay him around $20-25 and hour and if he needs to replace the timing chain your looking at a couple of days to fix.

Answer 6

what exactly is the trucks problem i mean does the engine start is it running poorly i can only give u info but here's an easy check and possibly fix check plug wires that they are not unpluged or burnt because their touching exuast manifold if so connect if disconnected or replace a wire if it is burnt then start truck grab distributor turn clockwise and conter clockwise if distributor moves then thats the problem or part of it i need more info to be of more assistance