by Gene Melton
You will have to look a long way to find something this deliberately stupid. The Jeep design monkeys placed a hard splice in the middle of the wiring flex between the door and the frame of my Cherokee.
The splice is two wires in the door to one wire in the main door wiring harness. They even went so far as to use extra heavy heat shrink sleeve with sealant to cover their mischief. Had they placed the splice 3-4 inches either direction it would have avoided the flexing where the wire met the shrink sleeve.
You might think this to be an isolated case. Nope. After repairing the stereo wiring on my Cherokee several months ago I had the misfortune of being rear ended a few weeks back while
stopped at a traffic light. Car totaled. I bought another Cherokee manufactured the same year and I was not surprised to find the front speakers did not work. Having an inkling of the problem’s cause, trouble shooting was fast. It again proved to be broken wires just forward of the splice on both sides. Since both vehicles had identical problems, it is clear that Detroit has a monkey masquerading as an automotive electrical engineer - unless it was deliberate to create more maintenance fees down the road.
I'm familiar with this issue--it gets even more expensive when an airplane is envolved. I'm an officer in a Chicago-area flying club--we do our own oil changes and other maintenace that pilots are allowed to do, as opposed to FAA-certified mechanics/technicians.
The problen is that the white tail position light (running light) is mounted on the rudder--the moving part not the stational tail fin. With age and lots of flexing (it is a major control surface!) the wire breaks. Pilots are allow to change the light bulb but not trouble shoot and repair the wiring. We trouble shoot, but a certified technician is required to solder the wire, and now you have a hard splice, just like the car stereo. It's about a half-hour job, and we have one or two Airframe & Powerplant licensed mechanics in the club so it was easy to make the airplane legal at night.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
6 
