This is Haiti - Axle

It only took one day to have another "this is Haiti" moment. I was working on finding and fixing a brake leak on our Mistubishi Canter and the former lead mechanic (who was a former driver for the Mission and is becoming a driver once again) showed me how he took the back wheels off on the driver's side (and probably both sides. He told me that I didn't have to remove the wheels. So I sat back and watched. He removed the cap from the hub, removed the axle, bearings, shims and everything that held the hub together. After that, the wheel and drum for the brake came right off. I questioned him on whether it would have been faster to remove the six lugs from the inner wheel and he said no. It was definitely dirtier/greasier to do it this way. I took pictures, but only so I could remember how it went back together so they wouldn't be interesting enough for the blog.

The next time I do this, I'll find out for myself what is easier because I'll try it my way. My feeling is that this is something that was demonstrated to him and he never thought about a better, easier way to do it. He was/is a driver, after all, and not a mechanic. For a driver, I think he may make a decent mechanic.