I have to thank Eric and Mrs. O for fixing this car as for it is my girlfriend's car. Eric did a great job for us and We won't use any other mechanic

I have 4 sisters and they all come to me to fix their cars. They are so grateful that I can save them money but if wasn't for kind people like you I would have a very hard time finding out myself how to fix their cars. Thank you so much. Your video was very detailed and I got the job done. God bless you friend.

“Should have hit it with my purse”…..👜 😂

I was laughing when you started talking about the seal being on permanent back order and giving it back to the customer to drive until it came in. Many years ago I was replacing a U-joint in a small European Ford car and when I pulled the slip yoke the OEM seal from the back of the transmission came with it. The seal was pretty chewed up and had been leaking for quite some time from the amount of oil on the underside of the car so I called the customer and asked if they wanted to replace it. The customer told me they knew about the seal and if I could find one I should go ahead and do it. He told me he had tried to get one before and it was a no go. Since my Ford dealer was located about a block away I took the seal over to them only to find they did not have one and yes, it was on the universal parts list. You know the one, the list of parts never to be found in this universe. Now this was back in the days long before computers so the parts man phoned a few other dealers around to see if any of them had the seal which of course none of them did. So now we were stumped and I was not looking forward to telling my customer about it. Right around then a fellow came in with a delivery from another Ford dealer. He heard part of our conversation and came over and asked if he could see the seal. I handed to him and he looked at it and asked if he could use the phone to call his shop. The parts man told him he had already called there but the delivery driver, who was actually a parts man himself said, "Which parts department did you talk to?" My parts man said, "Why, do you have more than one?" The driver said, "Yes, we have two. One for automotive and one for farm equipment." So the driver phoned his dealership, talked to someone and gave the parts description to them, and hey presto, they had five of them. He asked if I wanted one and I told him, "Hell yes." so he placed the order. When he got off the phone I asked him what the seal came off in his world. Turns out they were used on some model of Ford farm equipment and he had recognized it when he saw it because he worked in the Tractor department at his shop. He had also had his guy check it against the Hollander manual to ensure that it was the right one and it was listed for several Ford vehicles. For those of you who don't know about Hollander manuals, they were manuals that you could purchase that gave you parts numbers and then listed all of the vehicles that used them along with their parts numbers. They were sort of a printed data base and they were in valuable as a cross reference. Unfortunately they don't make them any more and Hollander publishing went out of business. As I recall there were 7 or 8 manuals in a series and there were 4 or 5 different series based on different industries like automotive, heavy equipment, heavy trucks, stationary equipment etc. The books were about $50 to $100 each so many dealerships didn't have them simply due to the cost. Remember, back in those days, you could purchase a brand new car for $2000. The new part was delivered about an hour later and it fit like a glove. Gawd I miss Hollander manuals and the old days when experienced Parts men where a valued asset at any dealership. Computers are great to a point but they cannot replace someone with a good eye and lots of time in the business.

That chrome cap surely wanted it’s full 15 minutes of fame.

BJ means ball joint. You learn something new every day.

"It's got four little fingers on it and it's green." What a wasted opportunity for a Kermit/Miss Piggy joke!

Always nice to see Mrs O's cameo appearance. A magician needs a good assistant.

Mr. O.: "When I nod my head, you hit it." (The lovely) Mrs O.: Okay! 🤣

Mr. O, you are a brave man talking trash to Mrs. O, working girl😂😂😂. Such a pleasure to see you two work together.

You don't do work you ain't being paid for. Staying in business 101. 👍

You have the talent for taking a normal maintenance task and making it informative and interesting. A revelation. Even a hammer has a hammer side :)

My wife would never help me under a car. She would tell me “that’s why I gave you a son”. 😂

As a former AAA guy, I’ve hammered my fair share of sockets onto swollen nuts 🤘

When the hammering started, I immediately thought McCoy was helping, then a couple seconds later, saw the jewelry and nice nails then heard the voice. :) You're a great team, Mr & Mrs. O!

The level of snarkiness in this video made me happy.

Dr. O had to call in the Big Gun. Mrs. O for the win.

You gota put Mrs O in camera more often, because it's always nice to see Mrs.O.

"Should have hit it with my purse" Killed me!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Love the neon check engine light on the wall. It should have a dollar sign in the middle.

Speaking of torque wrenches, there's a guy in Canada that rebuilds jet engines. He has a special hydraulic wrench with a torque display. One nut, the spec is 3,000 foot-pounds! Wowsers!

Mrs. O's cookin' channel ever gonna happen? Seemed like a good idea.

Like you Eric I followed in my Fathers footsteps as a mechanic. When you got Josh's bigger plastic/dead blow hammer reminded me of one of his favorite sayings; "Never Force Anything, Just Get A Bigger Hammer"

Listen fella, thanks to you and yours, Avoca is no small town any more! You've made that property look VERY GOOD and have only inspired your neighborhood! Im happy to have seen it in person!!... I hope they have a bronze statue of you ,and a year-round ice cream joint by the DG and gas station one day!! Drink in the beauty of the Upstate area regardless of the politics. Thank you for letting us look over your shoulder all these years and taking the time to produce this content. Your legacy shall be preserved on YT, and some day...Someone will say "thats my grandparents place...Im proud to be related to them!!!".. Ever forward sir......NJ

I really need to have my wife watch these videos so she will approve the purchase of that air hammer and necessary bits.

Eric O's videos remind me of the main reason I love living in Tennessee and of 1 more reason why I say that snow is a dirty word. I have a 2004 Toyota Corolla with 263000 miles on it that is still running the original brake rotors, brake drums, and CV axles. No rotten framework, no rusted out oil pan and all the original lug nuts with no swelling. I had the brake rotors turned when I put a set of pads on about 7 or 8 years ago because I was getting a little brake shudder. What's even more fun is that the car was officially totaled almost 10 years ago. The only thing I fixed then was to knock the bottom of the left rear door opening down a little so the door wouldn't drag when opening or closing. Yes, I get my money's worth out of a car.

Not only the best mechanic on YT but the nicest shop as well. Thanks for sharing.

“Shoulda hit it with my purse” is going home with me.

Thanks for the upload.... watching from Tokyo before ending the evening. Enjoying the classic drive shaft replacement complete with Eric’s famous sense of humor. Total enjoyment!

"should have hit it with my purse" made me lol

It's a good day when Eric brings THOR out to play!

Relieved to see Mrs. O back in supervising mode. I worried that somehow she had been recycled or something.

when I bought my new Ford the first thing I did was get rid of the chrome cap pot metal lug nuts and put chrome steel ones on.

Good video! 🤣 Surprised that Ms O doesn’t chew your azz out for not wearing safety squints when running that air hammer….but we do have two eyes, lol.

Mrs O wielding the hammer 🔨 👌 sweet. Also, it's always interesting to see how much a-huffin' and puffin' is avoided by having the air tools. Thanks folks 🎉❤

The more videos like this that I watch, the more I'm reminded of the "snap-tite" model cars and trucks that I put together as a 6 year old! I was raised on S-K hand tools so, needless to say, I was extremely disappointed when the company was sold to China! I still have and use S-K that were purchased by my dad and grandpa. These days, I buy the good stuff at garage/estate sales and flea markets anytime I see them. Also, since I'm not running a shop, any time I run across those crappy, "capped" lug nuts, I just automatically add the cost of a whole set of real ones to my repair cost. To me, since I mainly work on my own stuff, even an extra $100 for solid lugs on my 8 lug trucks more than offsets the cost of the frustration if I can't get the junk ones off to start with!

Love the behind-the-back action to install and tighten the nut! Great video, as usual, and also nice to see Mrs. O again.

So nice to see someone who ACTUALLY knows how to use a torque wrench! Too many approach the torque too fast, they hear the beep, or click in older or cheaper wrenches but are way over the value because they passed it up going too fast or hard.

You all with southern cars have no idea how good you have it

The pry bar and large axle nut sockets are impressive specialty tools you won't find in a typical home garage!

Love your judo “ chop “ you sail those axles like you have done them a FEW times 😂

LOL........"oh that's not how you use an air hammer?" Love your sense of humor. You may have been a stand up comedian in a previous life !

Finally a great carnage video. One of your better ones for sure. Having Venessa sling the hammer is brutal. Thanks Eric O.

I have started giving the exposed steel on outer CV joints a clean up and a light coat of paint to help prevent rust flakes causing problems with magnetic speed sensor rings

That is one job you wouldn't want to do in the driveway with the car on jack stands. Eric makes it look easy.

Think Mr O fixed every Chevy finally on to the fords for now

I watch Eric poking that cv shaft back in its socket. Makes it look easy. Interesting tidbits along the way. All in a good days work.

Eric O. You are a very lucky guy married to a wonderful wife and mechanic. Nothing meant by it but nice to see Vanessa again, never moody, always a smile. Brilliant channel keep them coming. Dave in Guernsey, Channel Islanmds. 70 miles south of the UK.

Thanks Eric, SOO nice to see you do a SOLO style video that"s 0ver 30 mins long, I loved it !❤

Love the check engine money shop light there, First time noticing it 👍👍👍

Now you can keep the old axles, take the inner half of the right axle shaft and make a perfect seal driver for this job. Easy Peazy..

Oh man this narration was top notch! Lol i loved it

My wife had a 2016 Ford Escape. I ended replacing the lug nuts with solid stainless ones for pretty cheap

Thanks for sharing your day with us Mr. O. And remember, if you can do it, you can have fun doing it. Have a great day!

Nice work and master craftsmonship (as always) and Thank the wife for the Cameo!

I’ve made a lot of special tools over the years, they are all called “Special Tool #29”.

I don't know if you have ever experienced this or any of the other people watching your videos. So i owned a 2008 Chevy Silverado half ton, i was driving in south Florida looking for a business that had moved. Anyway as i was driving in heavy traffic my truck was doing some weird things. It kept trying to turn the engine off and on, the door locks would lock and unlock. And finally I found the place i was looking for and I wasn't sure if I turned it off if it would start again. It started so I told my wife I was going to the Chevy dealership to see what in the heck was going on. They checked both battery cables and said they were bad and of course they would have to order them. Quite costly at around 800 bucks and I thought surely they were gold plated. That solved the problem. Wherever they ordered them came the same day but they had already drove me home. So I said I would get it tomorrow and they said they would come and pick me up, which they did. Amazing!

Mrs. O is a car star when it comes to mechanics! Eric‘s garage princess

I know how to do the work but I still watch for the commentary 😂

I love your Check engine sign on the wall you may need to plug in for diagnostic to check faults I love your videos the are best ones 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Love the content on South Main Auto! Always informative and helpful tips for DIY car enthusiasts like myself. Keep up the great work, looking forward to more videos!

It was an interesting coincidence to have this as the first recommended video today when I got home. One of the guys was struggling with some of those foil cap lugnuts at the end of the day. I was surprised when the customer said just replace them all with solid ones because he had the same problem trying to change the brakes.

I'm always happy to see a new SMA video pop up 😊 That job looked to be a pisser for sure. I've never had to deal with that type of setup and hopefully never will.

Mrs. O does a great job. She did not hit her fingers. Hit it again, harder, harder! Mrs. O is great to see. Great job on this repair.

Mr. O thank you for your time in recording your work, you and your shop is the one of the best I have seen to day....

My dad had a 54 ford that he put nearly 300,000 miles on and it eventually went to the junk yard with the original set of lug nuts. I bought a 2016 Ford F150 and had to replace the lug nuts at 68,000 miles.

I'm glad you rotated that shaft and showed us that outer seal cover AKA dust shield actually rotated because I thought maybe you took too much medication this morning.

I'd love to get my hands on the engineer that decided 2 piece lug nuts was a good idea..

Amazing how you always put Never sieze on the axle splines to make it easy for the next guy for removal. Strange thing is, you never are the next guy!

Eric, little did they know they came to axles are us! Nice clean job!

It is nice to see your capable auto assistant/office executive was able to help you in this service. You are a very lucky man!

Graingers will warranty SK tools. I bought a lot of SK stuff when I first started in the 90s. A couple years ago, I had a pile of broken sockets. Drove down to Grainger's, they sent them back. About a week later they called when they came in. No problem at all.

Oh wow mrs O , I had to wait a half watchin you fumble with axel shafts before you couldn't do it w/o her. Been so long I almost forgot how damn lucky you are that she keeps hangin aroun'. Such a wonderful woman. !

You are sir, a damned good mechanic.👍👍

Cold rainy weather here in Socal day off new video from Mr. O getting a hot cup of coffee oh yeah can't get any better than this

I like the way you talk because it makes some people mad

Oh yeah, I liked that combo move. Behind the head with a reach around, to tighten nut on top of bearing strap. Double points for that.

Mornin Eric.

13:55 "CTA Tools 4221 Lug Nut Flip Socket" Having both 18.5 & 19.5 on the same socket is real helpful. Really helps with those swollen nuts! 😁

I respect the mechanic working on my ride and usually wash it for him so that he doesn't get all that road dirt falling on him and in his eyes.

Eric! I love those videos. I laugh, I cry, I hold my breath, and then I get a Popeye's cigeritt when the job is done.

Love your videos and your “tell it like it is” style.

Went with aftermarket CV Axles for my own car and now wonder if I'll regret it 😂. It is a 2004 though so maybe not lol. The OEM ones had ~160k on them and the right side snapped and left me stranded. Easy peasy job though.

Glad to see you back. Missed you last week & Mrs. O. Another great job.

I’m soooo spoiled with my Toyota vehicles. I can’t imagine having these major service requirements so soon in a vehicle’s life. Great video as always Eric! Thank you.

Great job Mr. O. Nice to see Mrs. O also. Hope the new axles solve the problem.

Another quality video, two thumbs up.

Glad you still keep Mrs. O working in the shop. You need to keep a qualified technician to teach you a thing or two. 😂. Keep up the great videos always learn a few tricks from watching your videos. See ya on the next one.

Here for Mr & Mrs O banter! 😂

I just replaced my cv axle last year and it's already broken, this time I'm getting oem parts, always enjoy your vids

Nice "Plan-B". Thanks for demonstrating!

my ford dealer wantedl over 200.00 to replace swollen nuts ( they wouldn't do tire rotation until replaced). Bought a good set of solid nuts for 30.00 and had my tire provider install with free tire rotation.

That flip socket for the lug nuts with swollen caps is a CTA Tools 4221. Eric O. showed that in one of his previous videos and I picked one up. Handy to have on hand in the tool box.

"That escalated quickly!" I laughed out loud. 😂

Thank You Mr. & Mrs. O for the video.

Good to see Mrs O Looking lovely as usual

SK tools, from what I understand, was purchased by some Chinese company. They were down for a long time. Couldn't even buy something from them Glad to hear they are back up. Hopefully still in the good ole USA.

Eric O doing his best Jimi Hendrix impersonation while installing the bearing cap.

Dang. That is a pretty good flashlight thing. Dropped it, still works.

Missed your "mechanical" vids ... enjoyed it and thanks a bunch ... from a Texan way over here in the Riviera. And yes, I hate those chrome nut covers ... but big business doesn't do a thing if you don't prove a "cost savings" to them ... like the fact it takes more chrome plating surface on the stupid covers instead of direct plating to the nut. Not much of a savings ... until you multiply it times MILLIONS of them. Less than 1 cent per and you're there.