Dez' 'fleet' thread. Another bl00dy transit!

I had a pretty heated discussion with the guys who ran our course at Hallam 20 years ago. I was one of 2 or 3 out of a year of 60 or so students who had any form of practical skill, on an automotive engineering degree.
They were always pushing us to use autocad/solidworks to design, prototype, test and build stupidly simple things. They said it was to instil a level of process in us that we would need in industry. I pointed out they were teaching us to be idiots, because any rational engineer would go ‘this is too simple a task to need this’ and just knock one up in the workshop, test fit, and sign off the design in 1/4 of the time. But no, we had to do it the stupid hard way, and that’s why nobody in the industry is capable of simple tasks anymore.

The critical thinking to apply the correct, application appropriate procedure should have more emphasis placed on it.

I agree and disagree with this in equal measures.

I also studied automotive engineering and was extremely disappointed to find that most of the class didn't know a spanner from a socket, let alone how to make anything. I can only imagine this was a shortcoming from school/home. Not knowing how stuff goes together and comes apart doesn't equip you with the skills to design stuff.

However, almost all commercial engineering is designed on CAD, then converted to drawings and manufactured by someone other than the designer.
Even if you made something by hand, you would have to create a CAD model so it's included in the electronic design history. Unless you're making one-off stuff...

Also, there are a large proportion of engineers who DO know how to make stuff, test fit, modify and assemble. And, as a specific example, I have a young woman working for me who joined us as a grad without a jot of hands on experience and got fully stuck in asking for opportunities to get her hands dirty.

So all hope is not lost

So after the weather went batshit-


That was 9am, by midday it was all gone, and warm and sunny. But that’s the British weather for you.

I carried on.
I did the bit posted above to the EGR to allow for the boost reference vac line to connect, then I knocked up an EGR blank and fitted that. I reassembled all that lot, then I ran a temporary wire in for the fuel shutoff solenoid, and after a lot of f-king about (and two flat batteries) getting the damn thing to bleed up- transits are notorious for this- I eventually got it running. It would idle ok but it wasnt getting enough fuel and would cut out as soon as it boosted. I removed and cleaned the shutoff solenoid and blew all the lines through, and that sorted it. Some messing with the pump settings to get it idling nicely, and here we go.



Not many transits start like that I can assure you!

Sounds like they were trying to teach how to CAD etc, but without thinking about also teaching suitable application. That could actually have been a very valid teaching point to ensure that their students learnt that ability to know when to use CAD & when to just work hands on, before then creating the CAD data etc for further production, should it be needed or simply future reference.

CAD etc has its place, but it is not a subsitute to a hands-on approach too. Whilst it is true that much of industry now does everything via computer simulations, not everywhere does, and the over reliance on CAD and also CAM means that the ability to design for manufacture has also suffered.

I do all the CAD work for a friend whenever he needs complex castings done, as his main pattern maker prefers a 3D CAD model, and this has ncluded several cylinder heads & other associated engine castings.  CAD can be a massive timesaver - I used it at home the other year to design a massive wall unit, since then all my cutting etc was purely making a kit of parts, rather than lots of test fitting, modifying & wasted materials. There are plenty of occasions though when messing around surveying everything & then going via CAD would take far longer than just getting stuck in & letting things fall into place.

Fulltime, I'm a DT teacher, and whilst we do teach 3D CAD, and have 3D printers & a laser cutter (acrylic / thin ply or mdf only - sadly!), much of what the students make for GCSE & A Level coursework projects is very much hands on, and includes physical modelling too, to help them get a better spatial awareness of what they are designing & building. It can often be very difficult to understand the scale of an item when simply on a screen, whereas a physical item is much more useful. In that respect, 3D printing can be helpful sometimes, but not always...  It is easy to fall into the trap of creating an impressive CAD model, when the reality is that it becomes very difficult to produce.  It's certainly something that really winds up my brother, who is a mechanical engineer.

One of my engineering lecturers at uni (I'm originally an industrial designer, rather than an engineer) would lament that very few of us students were fixing cars ourselves, or going down the breakers, which he reckoned explained why so many didn't have the practical understanding of how cars are designed & what happens under the skin (my course was car styling), and it's always something that has stuck in my mind. I was one of the few who was fixing & repairing my own car (many had small hatchbacks on finance), so had a healthy respect for the need for a design to work, which no doubt explained why he & I got on well!

sounds like that Pump has given it the old MK5 clatter ! are the injector pressures between the Banana and the TDDI close enough?

I'm a product designer in an engineering school currently [don't worry i had real jobs before, Boeing, Princess Yachts, etc] and the engineers insist on drawings, sign off etc before any prototypes, whereas i'm just straight in on the tools. I teach Solidworks and we have all the kit, but sometimes a quick lash up is the answer, then do a Rolls Royce job once you have worked out the basics

Paul H we have probably talked before but where di you study ID?

Great job as ever. Any news on the Scimitar?

It makes a nice garden ornament 😬

Nothing yet, got a few other things on before I get round to it.

wont be a smart alternator on an old Di, that's Euro 5 stuff so after 2012 or so.