I'm here (Bellingham) now. My son admitted that it looked like a slow month for his mechanic.

I'll vouch for that! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

This past summer a ticket was 315 round trip to sea-tac from jfk on northwest airlines for 1-3 week duration <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

There is some serious padding in that estimate.

It may well cost the $750 to change the timing belt, waterpump and seals on the engine.
But when in there the valve covers are about ¢ hour and $20 parts. He is hitting you real hard there.

I would confirm that you actually have a coolant leak. In 20K you sure should not need a waterpump and if you do I would look into the warranty on the previous one.

Cracked spark plugs, Interesting, does the engine run at this time? It must not if it has cracked spark plugs.

Is your battery bad?

Full tune up. Hoax. Just change your own plugs & wires. Even with ND Iridium plugs and good wires you will have $70 in that. At a slow pace it is an hours work.

The rear brakes last a long time on these. The drums can be tough to pull off if they are rusted on. Out your way they might not be rusted. But for him to claim you need new shoes he must have pulled the drums to check, Right.

All this work and I do not see any mention of greasing the truck. There are many grease fittings that need a squirt.

I would not consider this to be a trust worthy shop.

A tune up is easy like everyone said 2hours tops, replacing the battery and terminal 15 min, rear brakes cake, he is taking you for a ride!!!! get a second opinion

My son had it tuned up. The idle is now 1200RPM. I'll attend to that and do the brakes next week when I get to Portland. Off to E.Oregon.....

sorry I haven't read all the post,,no time... but if you are concerned about the 1200 idle , I had this problem after having battery disconected. It was pointed out to me in the front of the FSM about resetting idle.start engine , run 5 min. click off and run another 5 min. Each time you do this the idle goes down about 100 rpm . got mine between 700-900. mine goes up and down a bit like a vacuum leak , but that's mine.
sorry if this isn't what your talking about , i'll delete it later..

I've driven it several times, but I haven't done a 5 minute on/off thing. I'll check it out down the road.

It won't do it by driving, at least not right away.
You have to sit there and burn gas for 10-15 min.