You can't reach that from here...

I was a very bad mechanic for Decker Harley-Davidson in Madison, Wisconsin from 1972 until 1974.

As discussed in another thread, there are problems with getting something apart for service. Talk to anyone who has spent time around engines and they have at least one horror story about an entire can of WD-40, a breaker bar, two hours of wasted time and sliced knuckles.

In fact, even in most modern vehicles, removing the water pump or a valve train gilmer belt requires some serious disassembling.

Why?

The Dodge Intrepid was designed entirely by a CAD computer program. No clay models were needed. Even the stress points were tested for strength using algorithms.

Why can't some assemblies and sub-assemblies be modular?

One night the blower motor on my home heater crapped. The heating and A/C guy came over--removed four bolts--and slid the motor out like opening a drawer.

Why can't you remove the serpentine belt on a car, loosen the fasteners, and slide out the entire radiator and fan to replace a water pump?

I once looked into getting a Paxton blower for either my Mustang or my 4.6 liter F-150 truck. The PR guy told me it only took "two guys a weekend" to install the unit.

That's four man days. To remove a belt. Retro-fit a new air cleaner duct. Screw in an air-pump.

I can reach every nut, bolt and lockwasher on my bike, and the major design evolves from 1936.

Am I missing something?

The CAD program can only be blamed for enabling the vehicle to be built without more hands on prototype testing, where someone might think there's a better way.

So, it's just the catylist that "enhances" the effects of poor designs arising from: more power, more features, in a smaller package [plus larger seating and trunk area with vehicles!], for less money all brought to market faster. Sprinkle in EPA and safety regulations to further detract focus from friendly repair...... perfect recipe for cars that need the engine pulled to change spark plugs!

Most of these items are not designed for maintenance. They are designed for ease of initial assembly.

Our motorcycles are no different.

The engine in most fwd cars is installed as an assembly with the transmission, from below while they are going down the line. With the engine/tranny assembly out of the chassis, replacing the belts wouldn't be that bad.

Your Rustang was the same only the motor/tranny went through the top, prior to most of the front clip and all of the other what-not around the radiator/ac/grill assembly going on.

No, if I built a car (or most other sane people who don't have to worry about seconds of assembly time on the line) it would be built with maintenance in mind. Just wait for OBD-IV to lock you hood making the dealer a mandatory element in any maintenance.

I always remember the friend who sold his wife's car when he found out that he had to jack it up and remove the front wheel to get to the battery. It was a Dodge if I remember correctly. Probably designed by CAD.

One point I forgot to add was the invention of what car manufacturers call "crumple zones." That is, in a wreck the frame and engine are designed to either fold up or get channeled away from the driver for safety.

Well, somebody had to design those modular units.

Now, I don't pretend to give Harley a free pass in this department. When my upper end was rebuilt last winter, my mechanic Ryan used a bolt cutters to remove the stock pushrods.

In fact, this year the back end is being updated. The tire, swingarm and chrome enhancements will require the exhaust pipes to be removed.

Now granted, exhaust pipes require only a few bolts. However, once an exhaust system is airtight, channeling gases and providing the correct back-pressure, it's usually a good idea to leave the pieces mated.

As for the common stuff like new filters and plugs, I gave Ryan one more paid hour of shop time in case he wants to run Betty on the dyno.

Computers? Motors in from the bottom? Batteries behind wheels? Bolt cutters?

I thought this brave new world was supposed to make life simpler. We have to use a five hundred dollar computer interface 'race module' just to get Betty to talk to us...

Someday a big red Space Odyessy eyeball is going to appear on the tachometer when I touch the starter button. A calm robotic voice is going to say, "Sorry, Tourist, I can't let you do that."

EastTexFrank said:

I always remember the friend who sold his wife's car when he found out that he had to jack it up and remove the front wheel to get to the battery. It was a Dodge if I remember correctly. Probably designed by CAD.

Click to expand...

My Mom's Chrysler Cirrus is like this (a Mitsubishi design). The driver's side inner fender has to come out to get at the battery.

The Tourist said:

One point I forgot to add was the invention of what car manufacturers call "crumple zones." That is, in a wreck the frame and engine are designed to either fold up or get channeled away from the driver for safety.

Click to expand...

For the safety police to buy off on these little beer cans, they must crush to absorb energy in a crash. By design, these can't be bolt on modules, but an integral part of the cars uni-body (frame).

Although much less durable for repair after a crash, they are in fact light years safer and more survivable than that old 6500#, full frame, 1/8" thick sheet metal, '64 Impala.

I think a fan belt change was brought up on this thread. I’m dead tired but want to give my two cents plus I had two brews.. GM makes the best thing I ever saw. To change a fan belt on a GM rig, You get a cheater bar that connects to a simple socket. You assert pressure and you can reinstall the fan belt with no tension problems. Did I also say that if your fan belt dies. It shuts down the engine and leaves you unable to get the hell out of the way.
One yey and one nay.. Hell I don’t know how to spell Yey..

That fan belt thing.....

I had a '93 Plymouth Voyager what had a bad tension pulley. The shop quoted me $250 to put one in. They said the book showed 2 hrs labor. Try as I might, I could only find the one bolt that held the darn thing on, and everything was in plain sight. So, for $120, I got the idler and belt. Changed everything in half an hour. Showed them, I did.

darroll said:

Hell I don’t know how to spell Yey..

Click to expand...

Yea..