Flow the Vehicle Maker Can Help the Operator
Page 25
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
VOLUMINOU S, complicated, " parts " books are distributed by some manufacturers to every purchaser of their vehicles. The intentions are excellent, but most of this potentially useful literature often finds its waY to the office waste-paper. basket, or the workshop litter pile. Sometimes these "parts " books are stowed away on some office shelf, are seldom referred to, and are soon forgotten.
The shop foreman, ordering spares from the local stockist, usually falls back on the old—and, possibly, safest— standby: ` Please supply new part to pattern." If he has not yet dismantled the " pattern " he has a foreboding that his effort at ordering the correct part is not going to be very successful. No matter how carefully he may think that he has described the part and the vehicle model, he feels like a man trying a "lucky dip" in the sawdust barrel at the local fete. Past experience has taught him that to make use of the usual manufacturers' parts lists would require the skill and experience of a factory-trained parts interpreter.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, and to avoid delay as far as possible, he compromises: he sends along his skilled mechanic, who may waste one or two hours travelling to and from the spares depot and waiting his turn at the counter.
Much the same story applies to the vehicle repairer. Unfortunately fat the operator, the final result is the same in both instances—he must foot the bill for the cost of the skilled man's time doing an errand-boy's work • Multiplicity of Types Causes Confusion We must bear in mind the manufacturers' problems, which are many. In one " parts " book a dozen different types of a single year's production series may have to be covered. Numerous alterations and deletions, improvements and obsolescences, may have occurred shortly after the model went into production. One new part may replace two, or more, of the original parts, and vice versa. Unless all the old parts be immediately called in from the stockists, and scrapped, then the new parts must be given a separate identity.
Accepting some of these difficulties, however, the user is still unable to condone the bewildering and apparently disorganized jumble of four, five, and six-figure parts-numbers that bear little or no relation to the adjacent partsnumbers, or .even to the major asserts blies, such as engine, gearbox, rear axle, etc.
In this allocation of specific groups
of numerals to assemblies of related parts, there is one manufacturer in the low-priced volume field, the "parts" books of which are a model of ingenious simplicity. Groups of numbers, not exceeding four digits, are allotted to each of the main chassis and engine assemblies.
These basic four-figure numbers are never changed—a piston for a 15-yearold model has the same four-figure basic part-number as that of the latest model, but the prefix letter, indicating the model, serves as the sole means for differentiating. If both pistons be the same oversize, then the suffix letter, denoting that particular oversize (A for .005 in., B for .010 in., etc.), is the same in both instances.
Basle Parts-numbers Help Stores Clerks Not only can the stores clerk quickly grasp the principle of this system, but he can readily memorize the actual parts-numbers almost automatically If in doubt as to the correct prefix 'that should be used to denote the model, he can still quote the basic partnumber, preceding it with a brief description of the model, such as 1938 S.W.B. tipper. "
Parts" books are valueless without some sensible, easily understood method of indexing the parts names. It is here, particularly, that the stores clerk and workshop foreman run into difficulties, owing to the hopeless diversity of parts names amongst the various manufacturers. A piston pin, for example, may be listed as a gudgeon pin, a wrist pin (U.S.), or a small-end pin; a core plug may be a welch plug, or a blanking disc. A pitman arm may be listed as a drop arm, a. track-rod as tie-rod, a steering connection-arm or rod as a drag-link, .a steering king-pin as a swivel-pin, a steering pin, a spindle pin, a front-axle pin, or a steering-knuckle pin.
The hardy annual, probably, is the oft-repeated story of a ring gear being ordered, and a flywheel starter-ring-gear being shipped, whereas the part actually wanted was a rear-axle crown wheel.
With the birth of new models and new designs, and the entry of new manufacturers into the field, this ambiguity of parts nomenclature is bound to increase. It cannot be condoned on the grounds of preserving the manufacturer's individuality, for, to the vehicle operator and repairer, the resulting confusion is time-wasting and annoying. .
The remedy would appear to lie in the standardizing, by the . industry, of parts nomenclature according to 'a pattern outlined by the S.M.M. and T. Illustrations in fine-screen half-tone or, better still, in clear-cut line blocks, showing " exploded " views of composite assemblies, each major part tagged with its corresponding part number, could take the place of a partsname index. It is here that the bask perpetual parts numbering system, previously referred to, has its greatest value; it dispenses altogether with the need for a parts-name index.
As all the parts-numbers of all cornponents in a certain assembly carry the same four-figure group of numerals, then the corresponding page in the "parts" book can be found instantly. Illustrations need not be altered for minor manufacturing changes; they would still serve their purpose of indexing the basic part-number until the entire assembly had been totally redesigned.
In any event, the advantage of good and plentiful illustrations canot be over-emphasized. As previously men• tioned, line blocks are clearer and more easily understood than are even fine. screen half-tones. Either, of course, is immeasurably better than the archaic method, still followed by some mants• facturers, of stringing a miscellaneous collection of parts against a white sheet, photographing the lot and then tagging the parts with identification numbers. The resultant half-tone block is then inserted haphazardly somewhere near the related parts-number in the "parts" book.
"Exploded" Illustrations a Time Saver Ghost-view illustrations, although ingenious and interesting, are not as helpful as the " exploded7rtype illustration. The latter is a source of joy to the stores clerk and equally, welcomed. by both the shop foreman and mechanic. The resultant saving in time and mental energy is considerable.
Mention of the battery should not be omitted from the parts book. Sometimes it is obscurely catalogued under "accessories," and at others with the electrical parts. Rarely, however, is mention made of the correct type of battery that should be specified when a replacement is ordered. It is often forgotten that only the vehicle manufacturer is competent to specify the number of plates, amp.-hr. capacity, etc.
Such information may be available in the vehicle instruction book, but that may not be readily accessible to the stores clerk.
So the field is. wide open (or the not-so-particular battery merchant, who, perhaps. has some surplus batteries of one particular type that he wishes t)• unload, to specify something just as good as the original.
The battery is an important integral
part of every vehicle and should,accordingly, be catalogued and identified with one of the vehicle manufacturer's parts-numbers.
1 here should be two distinctly different types of instruction book: (I) for the workshop mechanic and shop foreman, and (2) solely for driver education-; ropaganda . purposes. The first is by far the most .important. The second, whilst -valuable, is not immediately essential, but the dual-purpose type of instruction book, which is intended to reach both the driver and mechanic, is valueless. A handbook that endeavours to make the dual appeal is too detailed and too technical for the driver, and too general for the mechanic. If the manufacturer should • decide to issue only one booklet, then
that should Le written for the mechanic.
It should be divided into sections— one to each major assembly, such as front axle, steering, eneine, carburetter and fuel system, ignitio4 1 electrical details, chassis frame and springs, brakes, etc. Each section should be preceded by a summary page. showing clearly and distinctly all the relevant data, such as dimensions, wear tolerances, fits, -ie.
For example, preceding the fuel section, the data page would give fuel' pump pressures, carburetter-float level, choke and jet sizes, etc. Cr.:ceding the spring sect:. n. details would be. given of . loads per ineh deflection, free camber. spring length, number of plates, width..and thickness, reaming size for • spring-eye bt.iShings, etc: Conversion Tables Should
Not Be Necessary For the rear-axle and gearbox sections, details should be given of . capacities and grade and type of lubricant (E.P., or ordinary gear oil), etc. Dimensions should be shown—particular; in the enoir.f. section—to four places of decimals. There is a number of manufacturers to-day which still shows bore ani journal sizes in fractions of an inch, or even in millimetres. However accessible conversion tables may be to the shop foreman and mechanic, it is surely an unnecessary waste of time and effort constantly to have to make reference to them.
Emphasis is again directed towards the heed for really good illustrations, and plenty of then], There should be one or more to each page, with a minimum of written matter. Preferably, every intricate operation of adjustment should be illustrated, step by step. if a special tool be necessary, then it should be shown actually -doing the job for which it was designed.
Illustrations are immediately understood and they catch and focus the mechanic's attention. Still more important, they are remembered. Printed .matter, however skilfully worded, will never achieve such results, although a certain amount of script will still be required. This should be concise and simple in the choice of words and phrases; sentences should be brief, and all but the most easily Understood technicalities avoided.
In the case of the driver's instruction book we should, again, "say it with. pictures!' If we want 'to teach drivers .24 that it is wrong to leave their engines to warm hp on the choke while they snatch a cup of coffee in the canteen, we can best do so by way of thoughtprovoking illustrations, tied to a simple, but directly worded, script.
The now almost-world-famous booklet "For B.F.s only," issued by Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., to drivers of its vehicles in the Forces, is an outstanding example of effective "instructionwithout-tears." I have never met a driver who, presented with this booklet, did not peruse it thoroughly from start to finish. From th.-: same type of driver, the conventional form of instruction book could be retrieved after a month and there would not be a finger mark on any rage.
All but the mildest technicality should be omitted from the driver's handbook. This is definitely a case where a "little learning is a dangerous thing,'' for even a minor adjustment, wrongly made, although with the best intentions in the world, may " kill " instead of cure. But here again, I.want to' emphasize that these remarks do not apply to the large body of intelligent, adaptable owner-drivers: they would, in any event, be in a position to make ltle fullest use of the mechanic's-type handbook.
The Average Driver
is Not Technical
The average lorry driver is not a car owner-driver. This may seem obvious, but many manufacturers' service departments write up their commercial-vehicle instruction booklets in more or less the same vein as that used for the car driver. The average car owner is probably unique—the majority apparently prefers an instruction book that is positively encyclopedic in scope, with innumerable graphs, curves, tables, etc., showing h.p./r.p.m., pints per la.h.p.-hr., r.p.m. per m.p.h.. etc. But the average lorry driver earns his livelihood with his vehicle: he is, and should be, more interested in what his vehicle does than how it does it.
Not all manufacturers appreciate what assistance repair labour schedules can be both to the fleet operator and the vehicle repairer. They are equally helpful to the owner-driver, who knows the approximate cost of the repair beforehand; and the approximate time the job should take once the mechanics get started.
These schedules help the vehiele repairer because, with the time per job and, possibly, the suggested charges properly authenticated by the vehicle manufacturer, he has a friendly basis on which to discuss any queries in connection with the make-up of his account. For years, the low-priced volume manufacturers have provided their users with practical, carefully worked-out schedules showing average times per operation; some of them _give the actual labour cost of the repair, basing the charges on approximately 100-150 per cent, of the mechanic's net hourly cost. A diplomatic foreword points out that these charges are "suggested."
Labour Schedules Are a Considerable Help
Labour schedules may cover only those frequently performed operations, such as engine, clutch, or gearbox removal and replacement, re-ringing, top overhaul, brake refacing, spring replacement, etc. Or, more extensively, times may also be given for the not-socommon operations of big-end renewa, piston and valve replacement, renewal of rear-axle oil seals, bearings, etc.
In either case there is no single job that could not be timed accurately in the maker's service garage, using similar tool equipment to that employed by the repairer, and handled by mechanics of average calibre, working on vehicles that had been fully "weathered."
The vehicle-repair specialist welcomes labour repair schedules compiled on a common-sense, practical basis. Knowing that the times are reasonable, he can aim to improve the efficiency of his shop by setting a target that will beat them At the same time, the not-soefficient repairer cannot fail to ignore the possibility that there may be some quicker method of doing the job than he had, hitherto, thought.
In the export field, where speedy contact with a manufacturer's service department is impossible, repair labour schedules would prove a real boon, as would brighter and more informative instruction books. Both will help to sell vehicles and keep them sold.