becoming a professional mechanic

[yfz450bk]

What is a good school/university in the U.S. that is preferably close to the northeast that I can become an ATV and motorcyle mechanic? I've found a lot of school with just motorcylce mechanics, but not a lot of ATV mechanic classes.

[wishmasstir]

i took the harcourt education direct motorcycle technician class...its now penn foster ... heres the link

http://www.pennfoster.edu/motorcycle/index.html

[Architects]

From what I got from the penn foster page its an online class. Im sorry but you cannot learn how to become a mechanic without hands on experience. It just wont happen. Id check out MMI which I think wyotech just bought.


(MMI = motorcycle mechanics institute)

How do you become a pro race mechanic? Like for a pro race team

[wishmasstir]

they sent me the tools and the books...you just take the test online

it didn't matter for me with it being hands on because i already did pretty much everything in the books. they insist that you practice the exercises on a bike/atv as you go along though. its simple and spelled out nicely, good course to take for a couple hundred bucks...it pays for the tools they send you

[Architects]

Being enrolled in an auto technology course myself I can say hands on is the key to learning. Its one thing to read it in a book than it is to actually go out and do it. Things never go as planned. You have to deal with Rusted and siezed bolts, stripped threads, Connectors breaking, and a whole list of things that can make something sound easy in a book turn into a nightmare. Just for example:
I was doing a brake job on a truck once. It took me 45 minutes to get all 4 tires off. I hammered away with a 1/2 inch impact gun and Some Pb Blaster. After no success I had to get out a 3/4 inch impact and ended up snapping several of the lug studs off.

Another example. I just put a a new transmission in a 95 pontiac grand am. The car had come in with the trans being diagnosed as bad from another shop but you can never trust anyone elses work so I diagnosed it as a bad trans myself and my teacher agreed. It wasnt shifting right and felt like it was slipping or had a bad torque converter. Replace the trans and torque converter. Test drive it. Still has the same problem. Now Im puzzled. Motor seems fine. Revs good in neutral. Vacuum is good. Test the Fuel presure. Good. Fuel volume test good. Get out an oscilliscope and test 02 Sensor and fuel injectors. All good. Test the Map sensor. Good. TPS sensor tested and is good. Check for a plugged cat and again its good. As of now Im still stumped as to whats wrong with the car but Im working on it again on monday.


Anyways these are just some of the things that can go wrong and you really have to know how to save your *** if something goes wrong which really cant be learned in a book. Ive also learned that I have no interist in this field anymore and am unsure what my next step is. Now im rambling:scary:

[yfz450bk]

yea i do almost all of my mechanic work also...i just figured it cant hurt to get a degree. It will help with other professional and lets face it...no body knows absoluty everthing....thanks for the responses guys i'll check out that link

[flyin#5]

i go to mmi (just got done with class actually) and so far it seems like its a good school. i've been working on stuff for quite a while now and had a very good understanding of how things work... we actually rechambered my head, ported and more to my motor a couple years ago.. since then i've done porting on 400ex's, scooters... ect. and im still learning a lot. but what you have to remember is that they are giving you a factory based training... so it really helps to have a knowledge of the aftermarket world and there reasoning behind things, then take in what mmi gives you aswell. that way you can keep a level head.

of course mmi isnt in the northeast... quite the oposite actually. i made the haul out to phoenix (they also have an orlando campus) from wisconsin... and there are a lot of people that come from far away here. we have a japanese kid named moto in our class... haha.