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I went to switch the thermo switch on the stbd cylinder bank on my 250TXR motors tonight. The thermo switch is held in with a simple sheetmetal tab and a single bolt. It "should" be a 5 minute job.
Stupid design #1 - The engineer never checked for clearance to remove the bolt holding the restraining tab. It was about 2 threads too long to clear the temp sender, but was easily twice as long as it needed to be to hold the tab.
So, I had to remove the temp sender to get clearance for the bolt. Should be a minor PITA but...
Stupid design #2 - The lead to the temp sender goes to a different electrical chest than the leads to the thermo switch. They also route "behind" the starter.
It is now up to a major PITA task. I managed to follow the wiring behind the starter and other leads, into the electrical chest. It is routed "behind" the main battery connections and the leads to the voltage regulator. After much pushing and prodding I managed to get the connector to an open enough space to insert two fingers and separate the connector.
Stupid design #3 - Next I discover that the connector is too big to slide behind the other electrical components to get to where it exits the electrical chest cover. I had to remove the starter relay to get clearance for the plug, and just to complete things the screw holding the relay bracket is "under" the main battery leads.
So, what should have been a simple 5 minute job is turned into an hour of inventing new swear words while drowning in sweat. All because some first year "C" student was too incompentant to check for basic bolt and tool clearance, let alone figure out a competant wire routing!
-Greg
Stupid design #1 - The engineer never checked for clearance to remove the bolt holding the restraining tab. It was about 2 threads too long to clear the temp sender, but was easily twice as long as it needed to be to hold the tab.
So, I had to remove the temp sender to get clearance for the bolt. Should be a minor PITA but...
Stupid design #2 - The lead to the temp sender goes to a different electrical chest than the leads to the thermo switch. They also route "behind" the starter.
It is now up to a major PITA task. I managed to follow the wiring behind the starter and other leads, into the electrical chest. It is routed "behind" the main battery connections and the leads to the voltage regulator. After much pushing and prodding I managed to get the connector to an open enough space to insert two fingers and separate the connector.
Stupid design #3 - Next I discover that the connector is too big to slide behind the other electrical components to get to where it exits the electrical chest cover. I had to remove the starter relay to get clearance for the plug, and just to complete things the screw holding the relay bracket is "under" the main battery leads.
So, what should have been a simple 5 minute job is turned into an hour of inventing new swear words while drowning in sweat. All because some first year "C" student was too incompentant to check for basic bolt and tool clearance, let alone figure out a competant wire routing!
-Greg
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