About This Career

Diagnoses, adjusts, repairs, or overhauls buses and trucks, or maintains and repairs any type of diesel engines. Includes mechanics working primarily with automobile or marine diesel engines.

This career is part of the Energy cluster.

A person in this career:

• Uses handtools, such as screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, pressure gauges, or precision instruments, as well as power tools, such as pneumatic wrenches, lathes, welding equipment, or jacks and hoists.
• Inspects brake systems, steering mechanisms, wheel bearings, and other important parts to ensure that they are in proper operating condition.
• Raises trucks, buses, and heavy parts or equipment using hydraulic jacks or hoists.
• Adjusts and relines brakes, aligns wheels, tightens bolts and screws, and reassembles equipment.
• Attaches test instruments to equipment, and reads dials and gauges to diagnose malfunctions.
• Performs routine maintenance such as changing oil, checking batteries, and lubricating equipment and machinery.
• Examines and adjusts protective guards, loose bolts, and specified safety devices.
• Inspects, tests, and listens to defective equipment to diagnose malfunctions, using test instruments such as handheld computers, motor analyzers, chassis charts, or pressure gauges.
• Rewires ignition systems, lights, and instrument panels.
• Tests drive trucks and buses to diagnose malfunctions or to ensure that they are working properly.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves bending or twisting your body more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Requires getting into awkward positions
• Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Work in this occupation involves kneeling, crouching, stooping, and/or crawling more than one-third of the time
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves walking or running more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Judging how far away an object is, or which of several objects is closer or farther away
• Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
• Seeing clearly at a distance
• Detecting sounds and hearing the differences between sounds of different pitch and loudness
• Seeing clearly up close
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel