Occupational Skills and Safety
Domain focus
This domain tests the shop-floor skills that support every repair: personal protection, hazardous-materials handling, tool and fastener selection, measurement, lifting, and environmental control. Questions often place a safety decision inside a realistic task rather than asking for a definition.
Core rules
- PPE is task-specific: safety glasses with side shields for all shop work; hearing protection around air tools, impact guns, and running engines; nitrile gloves for solvents and brake fluid; steel-toe boots for dropped components.
- Fuel, solvent, and aerosol vapours are toxic and flammable. Use ventilation, keep ignition sources out, and bond and ground metal containers when dispensing flammable liquids.
- WHMIS labels and safety data sheets govern storage, spill response, and first aid. Never decant chemicals into unlabelled food or drink containers.
- Use the right fastener and torque. Metric property classes 8.8, 10.9, and 12.9 and SAE grades 5 and 8 have different strength; torque is a proxy for clamp load and changes with lubrication.
- Lock out bench grinders, tire changers, and other powered equipment before service; remove the key or tag the disconnect.
- Drain oil, coolant, brake fluid, and fork oil into approved containers. Do not mix waste streams; batteries and tires have separate recycling paths.
- Lift with the load close, back straight, and knees bent; use a team lift or hoist above comfortable single-person limits.
Worked example
A manual specifies 45 N·m for a steel axle pinch bolt with dry threads. The technician's click-type wrench reads 20–100 N·m and was calibrated six months ago. Convert: 45 N·m × 0.7376 = 33 lb·ft. The value sits mid-scale, preferable to using the extreme end. Clean the threads, confirm the specified bolt grade, and tighten in the specified sequence. If anti-seize were applied, the same 45 N·m would produce higher clamp load because friction drops; that can stretch or break the bolt. Lubricate only when the manual says so.
Traps
Using compressed air on skin or clothing; assuming a coloured container is safe; ignoring SDS first-aid instructions; torquing a dirty or damaged fastener; using a cheater bar on a torque wrench; storing a click wrench at a random setting; lifting a bike by its plastic bodywork; and treating all red shop rags as non-hazardous.