Thread: BADLY DESIGNED

Dave,

Not many old mechanics had to work on a vehicle with mine blast protection

maybe you need a tethered spanner

The above post illustrates how things have become much more difficult than this early example. An old bloke I did a job for around 20 years ago worked in a Ford dealership after he left school. Anyway, he reckoned that soon after A model Fords came out - 1928 I think, they were recalled to replace crook rings under warranty. With reasonable organisation, no problem with the owners driving them in at opening time in the morning and collecting them at lunch time. Not surprising. Someone underneath could probably remove and replace the sump without even draining the oil and big ends should be easily accessable. Meanwhile, for someone else up top, shouldn't take long to remove and replace the head on a 4 cylinder side valve motor with nothing much around it. So compared with modern vehicles, not much work before and after removing the piston /conrod assemblies, changing the rings and replacing them.

you now know why I like working on series landrovers....

A Leyland bus chassis bodied by the Watt Bros. of Wooloongabba. We found out the hard way that to get the radiator out, the body had to be lifted off.

A mate working at a local dealer, showed me pics of a TDV8 RR sport he had lifted the body off.........To replace a turbo line

Sometimes you can save work, at least for future dismantling jobs it you cut things to allow access, even if bits need to be made to cover holes and /or retain structural strength. Those doing it would be generally more inclined doing it on their own vehicles /machines than someone elses, especially if they have not seen it done elsewhere to model their ideas on.

A couple of examples: I have seen a Series I where a hole had been cut in the firewall to replace the leaking rear welch plug. Far easier to do this, then make a respectable cover than remove and replace the motor. Also have seen Series LR's where a piece has been cut out of the middle of the seat base to get the gearbox out without removing the whole seat base. ie Below the handbrake holes and above them to the corners of the hole with removable cover under the middle seat.

On my Defender, after finding it difficult to get the transmission tunnel off even after unbolting the fuse panel, I cut the (plastic) tunnel in half lengthways. It is now easy to get off in two halves or only one if that provides access for whatever I want to get at. The rubber moulding /floormat covers the short cuts in front of and behind the gear lever rubber boot.

Originally Posted by INDABA

I am not talking aboutCamry, mitsubishi, Nissan or anything else
I am talking about our L/R`s
These ******* have had 60yrs to get stuff like this right, AND we still get bollocks like this, BAD

Well you did talk about jap stuff in your first post actually and anyway it is fun to recount tales of horror.

As for the "60 years" I think you are being unfair; they have got an awful lot right over the years,

Cheers Charlie

Wellone who is complaining about the thermostat housing on a 200Tdi which hasnt been built since......what 1995 or so, so more than likely it is around 13 to 20 years old I dont think will be happy with anything.

Saying that after 20 years or so that something that has been working faultlessly that whole time should be redesigned is a joke.

Obviously the way you look at how things should be is what should be looked at as the thermostat housing works well and if fitted properly will last another 15 to 20 years so you wont have to worry about it anymore.

I work on golf course machinery and up until Txtron took over Ransomes there had to have been a blind man on the design team who was incharge of making things completely unservicable.

A Ransomes 3510 fairway mower for instance has a flat plate that runs the complete length under the machine.

It has an access panel for the oil filter which was designed for a Mitsubishi engine which was spec'd for the UK......but we got a Kubota....oil filter on the other side.

The other thing was that it then used to suck dust and grass seed etc through the radiator and into the engine bay and then fall to the bottom on top of the plate.

This would then build up until it hit the exhaust pipe and subsequently cause a fire.

The other great part of this plate was to remove it to clean it out you had to remove the centre lift arm and cutting unit which you had to lift the machine about a foot to be able to slide them out and then you could remove the 20 or so bolts to take it out....if they hadnt rusted in.

If you left it out then all the cut grass would go up in and around the hyrdraulic hoses and rot them out as you couldnt get int here to clean it out.

Thus there are not many of these machines around any more, they either got burned to the ground, engine was granaded due to lack of maintenance or parked due to it not being worth (as far as $ go) repairing a hydraulic leak.

Another that comes to mind is the latest model Astra or vectra, one of them.

I was at a mates auto elec shop the other day and he was trying to get the alternator out.

He already had the brake master cylinder and a few ancillaries out and still didnt have enough room to remove it.

He ended up having to lift the engine a bit to get it out.

The holden dealer had quoted $1000+ to do the job and had said that it would be a month wait to get the new alternator.

They then suggested to take it to an auto elec as they may be able to fix it....probably knowing that it was a bugger of a job.