Can you only imagine you quote a job to haul freight, then the customer says oh no you need to use my grandfather’s trailer and we supply the fuel all you got to do is wait there for us to get it to you.. When you get there to deliver there going to need cash from you to unload then will send you a post dated check for a discounted amount. Oh and if you get a flat tire give us a call and we’ll find a tire guy for you then we’ll send you the bill. Sounds like a trouble customer to me. How bout you just go pick the truck up and take it somewhere that suits your fancy. Nothing I hate worse than taking my rig to a shop for repairs. But when I did / Do I just pay the bill. They are running a business and I pulled into there parking lot. I’m usually so happy they can get me in right away that the parts up charge is irrelevant. Good luck on getting it fixed. But you ever cross my driveway I’ll tell you to “keep moving”.
Simple old man like me thought way back. If he spent as much time and energy actually working on solving his problem, truck would have been running making money.
I am under the impression the "going labor rate" in a typical "truck" shop is in the $175.00 to $188.00. Forklift and dozer places vary from that.
When you heat metal it expands. If you can restrain the expansion it will yield and then when it cools it will be smaller. This is how most if not all wide flange highway bridge beams are cambered and also works for arching trailers and straightening drive shafts. It’s not necessary to heat the part much over 500f to get it to change so you aren’t affecting any heat treatment or softening the steel. When I do this to the yoke I either use a vice or a massive c clamp to restrain the expansion. The end result is typically an out of round hole in the yoke that can then be bored or honed to the proper size and roundness. It’s not going to be feasible for a yoke with the holes wallowed out but one that is just getting loose is fixable.
Same basic way out of round connecting rods can be reconditioned and restored back to original roundness and tolerances. Cummins Recon has done this for years. I Had many old Pontiac rods done this way back before aftermarket makers started to supply them. The only other option was to use big block Chevy rods with a custom piston that had wrist pin in a different place as to not disrupt the stroke.