New Rule!

[David88]

Those idiots designed it to be difficult to work on for a reason. They don't want normal people being able to fix it. If they designed it so it was easy to work on, dealerships would be out of a job.

It is a nice thought though.

 

[country0001]

^^^^^ exactly

 

[ChrisHelvey]

Well...why do we like Ford so much? Because it's American? My Subaru is a frigging dream to work on as a comparison. My '69 Beetle - MADE to get fixed - engine out in 15 minutes. 1953 Jeep/Ford M38-A1? Can change the main bearings from underneath the vehicle. Don't get me wrong, I actually love this truck. Just pointing out just how much of a throw away society we have become.

In all fairness, the Ford Cologne pushrod engine in here is pretty damn straightforward and strong. So, I'll give 'em a break.

 

[hank857]

Rant and rave but there are worse things in life to complain about. Yes the slave IN the trans is a bad idea, but once you get a good one then no problems. Bought an expensive one and installed and it was the worst one. Went out in less than 100K. put in one from autozone and it is better plus came with a lifetime replacement! The system can be bled without taking it all apart, but you have to get down on your knees to do it. I asked how to do it and it went from take it all out, to raise the front of the vehicle as high as you can etc. Easiest is to pull the piston out and let the air out once its installed. Now its not all the way out, just enough to let the air out. Told this to the folks that rebuilt my transmission and they loved it. You do need to bench bleed the slave however before install. This turns out to be piece of cake unless you are old and stiff like me and have a hard time trying to get under the dash to reach everything. Learned to do this the hard way, put the line in without the new O ring filled the system with air, scratched my head for a while till I figured out how to do it by playing with the old master 1st.

BTW most engineers are a box of rocks, no practical hands on before designing something. but actually the ranger is easy enough to work on, just lotsa junk sometime to be removed to do things. Really like the fan hub and its Right Hand nut and the need for the spanner and holder wrench! BTW it seems that the spanner is too soft of the nut is just too tight most times its worse than the Y pipe IMO.

 

[LearjetMinako]

wow, so much feelings toward the internal slave cylinder. Guess I'm the only one that doesn't mind it. And yes, I have changed two or three before and bled them without bench bleeding.

 

[ChrisHelvey]

"Really like the fan hub and its Right Hand nut and the need for the spanner and holder wrench!"

I totally forgot about that. Buried it deep out of painful emotional experience with that.

Again, in all fairness, this would not have been such a PITA if I had not allowed air to get in to the master. Gravity bleeding the slave is easy. So, all in all, maybe I was just needing to blow off some steam. (Although I still think engineers should be mechanics first.)

Just for fun ,what's the dumbest design you have ever seen?

 

[adsm08]

Just for fun ,what's the dumbest design you have ever seen?

Now are we going for the outright stupidest thing we have ever seen, or the most easily avoided PITA we have encountered?


I have seen a lot of really really stupid things. I am going to go with the dipstick location of the 6R80 transmission. It is a little 19 mm cap screwed into the case where a dipstick tube would otherwise go. So you get the truck up to temp (the cats are now at 400* or higher) and then you have to play around with the dipstick and it's cap which are placed about 5 inches away from the cat. I have entertained the idea of trying to file a law suit over the location of this dipstick and the safety issues it causes. IMO anytime you feel the need to start a general procedure page of the shop manual with big bold text that says "Caution, you are working extremely close to something extremely hot that can cause extreme personal injury/burns" then maybe you need to ditch the warning and come up with a better design.


The most easily avoided PITA I've found is on the 2010 F150 with foot-well air ducts. The wiring harness for the passenger seat goes under the floor duct and around a few other things and it is an ordeal to remove the dash because of this section of the harness. First you have to take the seat out, then pull up the floor duct (and ruin the unavailable push pins that hold it down). A $30 connector near the dash center support would avoid all that hassle. The seat could even stay in.

 

[DRanger024]

My '95 Dakota is a dream to work on (yes, I'm always working on it... It's a dodge!). You just have to think outside the box with Ford vehicles. Whichever way you think you should go about fixing something, it's probably completely opposite.

 

[ChrisHelvey]

One of my first cars, a 1970 Triumph Spitfire had no fuse for the headlights. Yes, they designed it that way. Mine ALMOST caught fire. Those silly Brits...

 

[Mark_88]

Although the old Ford Tempo heater core is not as inconveniently located as a 3rd gen Ranger, it is a rather challenging item to remove if the motor is in the vehicle. I went to a junk yard and pulled one out of one with no motor...piece of cake...when I went to take mine out and put in the replacement I found that without a hoist getting those hoses and clamps off and on the inside of the firewall was an extreme PITA...

The space between the engine and the firewall is about a flat hand width and, surprise, surprise...the clamps were easy to loosen...but try to get something up in there to pull the hose off...and you can't simply pull the heater core backwards with enough force to peel the hoses off...without some sort of wheel puller assembly that would probably take out the inside case in the process...

It took me ten minutes in the yard...4 hours of contortions to get the replacement into the vehicle...and to think...if that core had been wonky I would have had to do it all again with a new core...lol

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

My '69 Beetle - MADE to get fixed - engine out in 15 minutes.

No, they are made to be worked on... a lot.

 

[ChrisHelvey]

It took me ten minutes in the yard...4 hours of contortions to get the replacement into the vehicle...and to think...if that core had been wonky I would have had to do it all again with a new core...lol

Oh, the memories! Those painful memories of heater cores and blower motors. They are the oft overlooked ugly stepchild of automotive engineering. An afterthought. It's only heat..

 

[ChrisHelvey]

No, they are made to be worked on... a lot.

You have a point there. But it's easy work. It's not even work, it's fun. OK, I exaggerate. If I had to depend on this car alone for transportation, it might be work...and I'd be very cold in the winter here in Taos, NM.

 

[robertc1024]

BTW most engineers are a box of rocks.

Easy now big feller. I happen to be one who has designed several different products. The problem is that most don't have a clue about making an elegant design. They can design something (like the clutch slave) that work, but there was a better way of doing it.

I think it's more the engineering management than the engineers. One of our mechanical engineers who used to work for me made some very good, simple to build designs of instruments - but only with me chewing on his ass to do it that way. The last one he did - without me in charge - is a freaking nightmare to assemble. He has the capacity to do it, just not the guidance.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

'91 with 270K on it and original '91 clutch and brake master cylinders. Did replace the slave cylinder when I changed the clutch. Could not get it to bleed out. Took the advise of the Midas shop manager I was talking to on the phone (truck was going to Midas for a warranty muffler as soon as I finished the clutch job). He said use the Coke a Cola method of bleeding. I asked what that was. "fill it with fluid, walk off and get a can of coke and drink it, when you are done, come back, it will be bled" he was right.

Charles