De Havilland Dragon Rapide Floatplane.

[NARSES2]

I've worked on enough machinery to realise that designers should have to have a go at maintaining what they design.

Especially computer programmers who should be made to try out new software/applications on older equipment, not just state of the art stuff 

[Wardukw]

I've worked on enough machinery to realise that designers should have to have a go at maintaining what they design.

Couldnt agree more Fred..just finished replacing a sway bar link and strut on toyota estima van..you cant even see where the struts hat bolts go into the strut tower cause its under the bloody dash..i tell mate 

[PR19_Kit]

'Kit's First Rule of Car Engineering' says that all the major decisions about where bits go and how they're fitted are taken by people who are SO far up the tree that they never do it themselves, they always have someone ELSE do it.

And they've forgotten how to do it anyway, if they ever did it before....

An example, the first Family 2 engines that Vauxhall fitted into the Mk 1 Astra had a very clever system that meant the clutch could be changed without removing the engine. The gearbox could be slid sideways about 6" leaving a gap large enough to do the job. When they 'upgraded' the car to the Mk 2 the engines and gearboxes were still very similar, but while the gearbox would have been capable of moving the 6" it wasn't possible because some numpty had decided to reposition some of the body structure so it couldn't happen any more!

[zenrat]

Two examples from my personal experience are;

1971 Triumph Trail Blazer.  These bikes are riddled with design issues but the one that pi**ed me off most was that there was a frame tube directly below the gearbox drain plug.  Oil would hit this tube and spray everywhere (although being a Triumph the ground under it would already be pretty oily).

Ford AU Falcon ute (six cylinder automatic). You can change the starter motor without dropping the engine & Trans but you have to either have an arm with an extra joint and an unnaturally small hand or be prepared to lose skin forcing your normal appendage into a very tight space.

[Devilfish]

Love it! 

[PR19_Kit]

'Kit's Second Rule of Car Engineering' says that if you drop a 1/2" bolt into the engine compartment of a car and it drops out the bottom onto the ground, then you have a fair chance if fixing anything that goes wrong with it.

If the bolt DOESN'T come out, you've got NO chance!

The first car I saw that failed that test was a V12 Jaguar XJS, but almost every car built in the last 20 years fails as well. 

[Old Wombat]

Two examples from my personal experience are;

1971 Triumph Trail Blazer.  These bikes are riddled with design issues but the one that pi**ed me off most was that there was a frame tube directly below the gearbox drain plug.  Oil would hit this tube and spray everywhere (although being a Triumph the ground under it would already be pretty oily).

Ford AU Falcon ute (six cylinder automatic). You can change the starter motor without dropping the engine & Trans but you have to either have an arm with an extra joint and an unnaturally small hand or be prepared to lose skin forcing your normal appendage into a very tight space.

Is that all?

I remember the joys of having to be a human pretzel to get into 90% of the crap stuffed in behind the engine of a Grumman Tracker!

The hydraulic Constant Speed Drives, for the generators, & the oils pumps were the funnest.

Both these items were the most likely to fail & both were high on the centre-line; you had to go up just off vertical to get past the engine mount frames, then horizontal, then slightly down then straight up; that got you to the CSD's, which you could just see between other lumps of metal; to get to the fuel pumps, you had to go around the CSD's & work in Braille; both would be full of oil, even after draining the systems; they both, also, had numerous nuts secured with locking wire that had to be removed with cutters, generally being manipulated between two fingers, then replaced & tightened with a tool for which there was barely enough space, let alone to pull the knobby thing at the back to get them to twist the wires tight; obviously manipulating the spanners required to remove & fit the units was .... challenging. You generally knew what the guy half-buried in the ancilliary systems space was doing by the frequency & volume of the swearing.

Fun times!

[Wardukw]

Phill's first rule of working on late model cars ...its going to suck and use good quality rubber gloves.
Yesterday i cut a perfectly good 3/8th ratchet in half just to be able to tighten the 3 nuts at the top of the strut..worked a treat but to undo them...that was a US made Champion spark plug ratchet with a 300mm extension with a 19mm socket being used as a power bar..oh the ratchet is also 300mm long and the amount of space?..bloody near zero and boys these buggers were super tight.
I know how they installed em ..it didnt have the dash fitted ..the air ducts are right on top of the nuts and i had to remove part of it and still i ended up with like 40mm to work in .
Fred funny you mentioned a AU ute..a few yrs ago we supercharged a AUII ute with a Paxton blower for a mate..it didnt last long as he ..well put dents in the foot well under the accelerator 
Its got a turbo Barra in it now and it still has the blower with intercooler and more than 1000HP at the wheels and yes..this engine has been built . 
Anyone whos spun a spanner has a nightmare story and theres going to be many more ..unless your lucky enough not to be still working on the bloody things 

[zenrat]

Today I installed a six cylinder engine into a '39 Chevy Monogram kitted with a blown V8.  Ironically there is a chassis member directly below the drain plug on the sump.  I hadn't noticed this before but as I had this thread fresh in my mind I did today.
I won't bother changing anything.  Makes it more realistic...

[Wardukw]

One thing is for damn sure Fred..its far cheaper putting a V8 into something 1/24th-1/25th scale than putting one into something 1/1 scale 
I do miss building model cars but this plane thing is getting out of control mate and model cars would as well cause i can never leave one stock..ever..since Guy sent me that plane ive got 7 more and Scot is sending more he dont want..its getting totally out of hand 
Bloody brilliant   
Bloody

[zenrat]

I build models because I don't have the money or the space to build these things for real.
I'd love a Hot Rod and a muscle car and a 56 Chevy gasser and a Skyline and a 1955 Chrysler Town & Country and a van and...

[Wardukw]

Oh we both in the same boat there Fred me ol mate..if the coins where there i would need at least 2 large warehouses for sure..cars and trucks in one ..military vehicles in the other.
The list for cars is extensive as is the military side and hell if money is no object at all there is one thing ive always wanted to do...set up a very large workshop and hire masters in the fields of aircraft and machine building because i would love to build machines which either dont fly or exist anymore or drive .
Like how many WW2 aircraft nuts out there would love to see a flying He 219 Owl or Ta152 or a Arado jet bomber or a ..ya know the list is pretty extensive 
Same with the military stuff..a Hunting Tiger..king tiger ..sherman jumbo..a M32 ARV Sherman and so on.

[zenrat]

I'd love to go and buy one of the over-restored cars I read about in  muscle car magazines, the ones with date accurate replacement parts (even if they used absolutely identical ones for years) and painstakingly applied chalk inspection marks on the undersides, the ones that cost so much to restore that they don't get driven, jump in it and do a huge smoky burnout in front of the seller before fanging is off down the road.

[PR19_Kit]

............... jump in it and do a huge smoky burnout in front of the seller before fanging is off down the road.

Hehehe, I LOVE that idea. 

[Wardukw]

Ohhhhh Freddy wants a full restored numbers matching car does he ?? 
Those are out there and surprisingly not hard to find but the prices will make parts of your body pucker.
Theres a few restorers out there who do that ..one guy has a show and all they do is Dodges..Chargers and that family and this guy is a walking encyclopedia on these cars..if you want to see high value custom builds check out Muscle Rod Shop..Jared and the guys build some amazing cars .
Its funny to think that 20yrs ago you could buy these cars are bugger all and now even for a wreck could cost tens of thousands.