SECTION I. GENERAL - TB-43-0002-860002

TB 43-0002-86

SECTION VII. REFERENCES

7-1 Department of Army Publications

SECTION VIII. EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS

8-1 Department of Army Acronyms

9-2 General

9-2 Explanation of Columns

APPENDIX A. MEL FACTORS FOR FSC Class 4310

SECTION I. GENERAL

1-1. This Technical Bulletin (TB) prescribes the Maintenance Expenditure Limits (MEL) which applicable

support maintenance level technical inspectors will use to determine repair eligibility or disposition when in-

spections are performed on equipment received for repair to a serviceable condition and return to user, trans-

fer, or for turn-in. These limits do not apply to Department of Army (DA) directed repair programs. The materiel

proponent (U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command) is responsible for specifying the MEL percentage found in

the appropriate appendix in this TB.

1-2. This TB applies to all active Army, Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve applicable

support level maintenance units including Army depot activities, when performing repair-and-return-to-user

service. It does not apply to unit level or programmed depot repair. A decision concerning the eligibility/suit-

ability of materiel for depot repair or disposal is made by materiel proponents prior to programming repair. Unit

level maintenance is limited by the repair authorized in the appropriate Technical Manual (TM) and need not

consider dollar expenditures.

SECTION II. DETERMINING EXPENDITURE LIMITS

2-1. Procedures. A determination to ensure that the expenditure limits will not be exceeded is required each

time an item is received at the applicable maintenance level or at depot level on a repair to user basis. Repair

will not be broken into separate jobs to reduce total cost. Whenever cost to repair exceeds the MEL, the item

must be reported for disposition or a waiver to repair must be obtained. To determine limits:

a. The MEL percentage factors identified in the appropriate appendix in the TB will be used to de-

termine the maximum dollar amount which can be expended to return an item to a serviceable condition.

The dollar amount is the limit of repair authorized. This limit is compared with the estimated cost of repair.

Repair is not authorized if the estimated cost exceeds the MEL, unless a waiver is granted to exceed

MEL.

b. An inspection is performed to determine the extent of the maintenance effort required for restor-

ing the item to prescribed conditions or serviceability and determine if the item is economically repairable.

The estimated repair cost is obtained during this process by computing the cost/elements which are re-

quired to repair an item to the standards specified in the appropriate TM. Procedures are in Section III of

this TB.

c. The dollar expenditure limit is obtained by multiplying the appropriate percentage factor obtained

in the TB by the current unit replacement price of the item being repaired. Current unit replacement prices

for end items are contained in SB 710-1-1, Chapter 7. Replacement prices in the Army Master Data File

(AMDF) will be used for secondary items. The average cost to repair assemblies or components may be

used at direct support and general support where repairs are accomplished by batch or production line

processes.