Laws

Babyboomer

1.Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

2.Law of Gravity - Any tool,nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place in the universe.

212rowboat

Maybe not a law,.but a constant: engineers detest mechanics, and make the performance of their job a crucible where so many foul words are expressed that the direction of the mechanics soul is in constant question as well.. also, it should be noted: engineers rarely have real world experience with the application they engineer, and have zero intentions of ever working on it themselves... They'd rather pop corn and pop a top and watch mechanics swear their souls away..

andyd

Here's a few laws I've heard or experienced:
- Navigation lights work fine every time, but only in the daytime
- The cleaner the boat, the harder it sucks in bird poop
- Your boat depreciates much faster when your neighbor gets a new one
- There is never a boat at the fuel dock until you need fuel
- Bigger boats always have the right of way
- You can NEVER replicate a problem or strange noise in the presence of a mechanic

Andy

Black_Diamond

@ Drew: I'm throwing the foul flag on this.  

As a degreed mechanical engineer in the field for over 25 years in design & manufacturing and significant 'real world' experience, working with hundreds of fellow engineers in the field: you are way out of line on this one. Enough said!

212rowboat

ha!!! ive scarred knuckles and a waisted soul that disagrees... :-D 

but where would the fun be if one couldnt complain about the other? 

pepmyster

Being an automechanic tech for about 25 years, those two laws are dead on.......

LaRea

drewactual -- it's not true!  We engineers work our miracles to design beautiful marine engines that are efficient, durable and easy to maintain -- but then the Marketing Department gets involved.  They add a seawater pump bracket that requires the mechanic to have double-jointed elbows and titanium fingers just to change the impeller.  Why?  Because the Marketing guys like to watch brittle mechanics cuss and fume! 

Engineers *love* mechanics.  They hate cinnamon.  

Black_Diamond

lol love it. Blame marketing! j/k

212rowboat

in a somewhat serious turn in the conversation, the blame would be on inferior materials, in my humble opinion...

I have a friend who has rebuilt about every classic car you can imagine.. he started out with a 56 bel air, four door, his uncle bought him when he was 13.. by 16 it went to the paint shop for it's complete rebuild.. immaculate car to this day.. he had a 57 p/u.. he then delved into big blocks with a 67, two 68's, and a '69 Chevelle(s).. one of those was a 11 second street legal sleeper..

I had a lowly '87 cutlass at one time, and it blew out a wiper motor.. which turned into about a four hour job to replace.. I used his garage and brokered/primed that agreement with a case of beer.. as we were twirling wrenches and talking, I asked him how many times he's swapped out wiper motors on the previous technology vehicles he worked on- and he said never.. which spawned a long conversation about parts 'planned obsolescence' cycle, and the lack of quality aftermarket parts..

I've seen more and more parts and pieces move to inferior quality construction, and I can only guess it's done for two reasons- 1) planned obsolescence requiring replacement, 2) drastic cut in production costs that aren't passed to the consumer...

right now, I'm looking to purchase some new rocker arms for my $67k F250 6.4l PSD.. the flippin' OE guides are PLASTIC!!!   furthermore- the coolant passages that are located through the intake manifold are flippin' plastic.. I don't care how high a quality of plastic something is, after several hundred heating cycles, it becomes brittle- or at least too brittle for it's intended purpose.. radiator heads? okay.. use plastic if you must.. it's easy to get at.. on a part buried deep enough to require a cab-off condition repair? WHHHHhhhhhhhhhyyyyyYYYY???

/end rant...

 

Black_Diamond

In the automotive world, cost pressures are enourmous and you take the hit for shutting down a line or even having paying to re-source a part.  Pennies, even fractions of a cent matter.  Everything is looked at to reduce cost which also means designing for a defined life (past warranty basically).  Weight reductions mean everything too, so engineered plastic of iron/steel/Aluminum, etc.  Thus why your brake rotors are a cast iron composite that have to be replaced (with cast iron) than re-machined.

Then on top of it all, some far-east country will make it for less than the cost of the materials.  So you get what you pay for in that case.

raybo3

Boomer that is so true. If I have to work on my boat I will not drink coffee.....lol