PB 308 new page 14-18.indd - Plymouth Club

The Oddball
Tech ech
Service The Plymouth mechanics – not
that they were oddballs – had
information that was less than
great to keep our wonderful toys on the
highways and byways. Stay with me on
this one, because we are going to cover,
on the run, seventy-odd (did I just say
that?) years of various stuff.
Nineteen thirty-four was the first
year that a customer/dealer repair or
service manual was printed by Chrysler
Corporation. Prior to that, the owner’s
manual was it, except for service bulletins,
etc., and the mechanic’s basic
common sense. Some help did come in
the form of bulletins that were included
in items sent out for Chrysler and
Dodge dealers. The early years found
these bulletins mostly printed on orange
sheets although a few on blue paper
were put out by Dodge. The first
Plymouth-only version started in 1933,
Service Awards
Year No. Award
1949 *** Lucite Tech Guy paper weight
? ? Zippo lighter
1954 6 Knife w/5 accessories and leather case
1955 7 Sterling silver belt buckle
1955 7L Brass/leather pad holder * Leadership
1957 10th Member ring
1960 12 K-D 5-piece tool kit w/leather case
1962 1st Combination box/open-end wrench set
1963 2nd TW-1 (ft-lb torque wrench)
1964 3rd TW-2 (in-lb torque wrench)
1965 4th T-3 Loc-Rite wrench set
1966 5th T-4 1/4" Bonney socket set
1967 6th T-5 Utica pliers set
1968 7th T-6 Aja punch set
1969 8th T-7 Central one-inch micrometer
1970 9th T-8 Central two-inch micrometer
1971 10th T-9 Bonney 3/8" socket set
1972 11th T-10 3/8" spark plug socket set
1973 12th Jacket
1974 13th Deep-socket wrenches
1975 14th 1/2"-drive socket set
1976 15th 1/2"-drive ratchet
1977 16th Analog voltmeter
1978 17th Metric sockets
wards
with #1 and ended somewhere around
1951. Some of what was out there is
the 1936 Chrysler Corporation Service
Reporter, the post-war (1946) Product
Information News, MoPar Parts
Progress, Reporter and Topics, the 1949
General Service Letters, 1951 Shop
Talk, Progressive Repairman, the 1954
Service Siren and Parts & Service
Facts.
From there on Chrysler Corporation
began flooding the field with titles like
Spark Lines, Customer Care Topics,
Plymouth Technical Product
Information, Service & Parts Scene,
Important Service Information, etc.
About 1958, Chrysler Corporation started
with Chrysler-Plymouth Information
Bulletins that were set up as 1958-1, 2,
3; 1959-1, 2, 3; and so on, right on up to
the end. The later years’ bulletins were
sent throughout the year as loose leaf
-20-
pages and then offered as bound editions.
My first service record and filmstrip
is from1936 and is entitled A Good
Steer. Again, after the war, Master
Technician Service was started with
records and filmstrips and reel-to-reel
tapes which progressed from there on to
Beta and VHS tapes and, I believe, a
laser format.
This is where I digress. In order to
entice the mechanic to improve skills,
Chrysler Corporation went into the
Tech Service Awards, a program in
which they would school mechanics on
various subjects each month. The
mechanics would be tested, and at the
end of the year, if a passing grade were
maintained, they would get that year’s
award. The Tech Service Awards were
different for the mechanic and for the
dealership. I will list and picture what I
have for the early years as well as the
Gold Tool Award program which was
started in 1963. The awards were excellent
quality tools that were often used
by the members.
So, ‘til we meet again, keep looking for
the “Oddball.”
– Andy Weimann
weimann@snet.net
1979 18th Ratcheting metric box wrench set
1980 19th Channel-lock pliers set
1981 20th 5-piece metric wrench set
1982 21st Audible circuit tracer
1983 22nd Vice Grip pliers set
1984 23rd 10-piece nut driver set
1985 24th 8-piece screwdriver set
1986 25th Digital volt/ohm meter (DVOM)
1986-C 25th Canada screwdriver set
1987 26th Cordless screwdriver and bit set
1987-C 26th Canada manual ratchet/5 sockets
1988 27th Soldering gun set
1989 28th Stubby shop light and flashlight
1990 29th Stubby ratchet and socket set
1991 30th 5-piece metric flex-socket set
1992 31st 12-piece Torx bit set
1993 32nd Audiotech probe Model AT100
1994 33rd Buck-type knife w/wood box
1995 34th Bernz-O-Matic TS 2000 torch head
1996 35th Snap-On 3-piece comb wrench Set
1997 36th Multifunction tool w/case
1998 37th Snap On mini tool box w/screwdriver
1999 38th Wristwatch
2000 39th 7-piece electronic screwdriver set
2001 40th Digital meter
2001 40th Plymouth production stopped