Self taught.... Me too. Seven months on a cold wet washrack before I was given the "opportunity" to become the PM guy. I ended up fired from 2 jobs after that as a young mechanic. Took a job driving a truck while I went to Vo Tech for Industrial Instrumentation. Early 80's, no jobs inthis field- but ended up as a road tech for the White Dealership (I am pretty sure that their hiring criteria was pretty lax:)). But, intrument training opened my eyes to some applied science and physics- which of course we all use. Ended up working at the Clark dealership about '83- and we had Al Kemp. Retired army, methodical, "what's the system?" he would ask of the young techs smart enough to realize that this man could show you how to troubleshoot and fix things. We never looked on a service manual- we just asked Al. 355 steer cylinders, hydratorque transmissions, steer axle jobs with new center pins we replaced. Great training. A few years later when I made the move to the Cat dealership I realized they had books you could read to find answers. Imagine that!